Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein and Provost-designate John L. Jackson, Jr. invite nominations and expressions of interest from standing faculty members to be the next faculty director of the SNF Paideia Program. The faculty director is a senior member of the standing faculty who provides intellectual and programmatic leadership and vision for the SNF Paideia Program, identifying and communicating the program’s mission and priorities to the campus and external communities, including the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Penn administration, and faculty, staff, and student leaders. The faculty director guides the work of the program’s executive director and five-person staff and ideally teaches Paideia-designated courses.

Funded by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the SNF Paideia Program aims to provide Penn undergraduates with the skills, knowledge, ethics, and experiences to facilitate robust, informed, and respectful dialogue on the many contentious issues facing the nation and the globe, across the ideological, cultural, and demographic divides that too often keep us from effectively addressing these issues. The underlying logic of the program is to “educate the whole person” by integrating the development of students’ civic identities into their personal and professional ones – i.e., to help them understand how their individual well-being is inseparable from the well-being of the communities to which they belong. Now in its fourth year and with a yearly budget of approximately $2.5 million, the program is built around four core components: an undergraduate fellowship program, a set of SNF Paideia-designated courses, public events, and cross-campus collaborations.

Inquiries and nominations can be sent to Associate Provost Lynne Hunter at lynneh@upenn.edu by May 15, 2023.