Application Process for General Ethics and Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellowships

Applications for the 2025-26 cohort are now closed. Check back in fall 2025 for the next round of applications. 

For 2025-26, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford seeks to appoint up to four postdoctoral fellows across the two programs described below. The two types of fellows have some distinct training opportunities and responsibilities, but they form a common community at the Center and participate together in the Center’s intellectual life. All applicants will be considered for both types of fellowships and do not need to tailor their application for one or the other fellowship.

Applicants for these positions must have normative training and hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy or Political Science. Scholars with a Ph.D. in Law will also be considered so long as their work focuses on ethical dimensions of public policy or law.

General Ethics Fellowship

This postdoctoral program is open to candidates with substantial normative research in any area within Philosophy or Political Science. We are particularly interested in candidates whose work bears on serious problems affecting people's lives now. General Ethics Fellows participate in the intellectual life of the Center (attend weekly workshops, Center events, and professional training opportunities), teach one class per year, interact with undergraduates in the Ethics in Society Program, and contribute to an interdisciplinary ethics community across the campus.

Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellowship

Addressing many pressing social problems involves knowledge of the work of the social sciences, law, engineering, and the life sciences. The premise of this program is that the normative scholarship of our fellows will be enhanced by engagement with empirically oriented scholars. To that end, each fellow in the program will be matched with a partner center at Stanford that is dedicated to interdisciplinary work. For 2025-26, we are especially interested in candidates with research interests in environmental ethics, global justice, biomedical ethics, philosophy of technology, ethics of artificial intelligence, and those working on empircally-grounded philosophical approaches to other urgent contemporary problems. Applicants need not name a possible partner center on campus or tailor their materials for this type of fellowship. The Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellows and partner centers will be selected based on the match between their work. Fellows will regularly participate in the intellectual life of the partner center and the Ethics Center (e.g., attend weekly workshops, Center events, and professional training opportunities), teach one class per year, interact with undergraduates in the Ethics in Society Program, and contribute to an interdisciplinary ethics community across the campus.

For information about the application process for the Embedded Ethics Fellowship, click here.

Eligibility and Application Requirements

Candidates for both types of fellowships must have normative training and hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy or Political Science. Scholars with a Ph.D. in Law will also be considered so long as their work focuses on ethical dimensions of public policy or law. Applicants must complete all requirements for their Ph.D. no later than June 30, 2025. Candidates must also be no more than three years from the awarding of their degree at the start of the fellowship (i.e., September 2022). The term of the fellowship is September 1, 2025 - August 31, 2026 and is renewable for a second year. We welcome applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. The expected salary is $78,000. Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, a writing sample (no more than 25 pages double-spaced), three letters of recommendation, a one-page research statement (single-spaced), and a list of classes that they have taught and/or are prepared to teach.

Applications for the 2025-26 cohort are now closed.

For questions not answered on the FAQ page, please email ethics_submissions [at] stanford.edu (ethics_submissions[at]stanford[dot]edu).