Congratulations to Evelyn Behling, a doctoral candidate in the department of Political Science, upon her being named the 2025 Michael Novak and Karen Laub-Novak Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy. Ms. Behling brings ancient perspective to bear on social challenges in liberal democracies, with a particular interest in the American case. Her dissertation, "Aristotle's Realist Aims: On Faction, Reciprocal Equality, and the Common Advantage in Aristotle's Politics," considers the value and challenge of diversity in political life through study of Aristotle's approach to the problem of faction. In approaching this topic, she is interested in many "Maritainian" questions concerning the reconciliation of democratic governance and virtue. She argues that Aristotle, like Maritain who followed him, seeks to retain a link between political order and higher-minded justice while also recognizing the inherent limits of the perfectibility of political action that follow from the potential for conflict among the differing groups needed for a self-sufficient city.
In addition to being a Laub-Novak Fellow of the Jacques Maritain Center, Ms. Behling is currently a David Solomon Fellow of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture and a Graduate Fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, both at the University of Notre Dame. She has also been a GAANN Fellow of the United States Department of Education through the ND Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. For her work with undergraduates, she won Notre Dame Political Science's Spring 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award. Ms. Behling earned her M.A. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame in 2023 and her B.A. with Distinction in Humanities from Yale University in 2017.
The Michael Novak and Karen Laub-Novak Fellowships awarded by the Jacques Maritain Center provide support to Notre Dame graduate students who show evidence of a vocation to pursue Catholic intellectual life in regard to public policy questions, national and international. Fellows remain affiliated with the Jacques Maritain Center for the duration of their graduate studies at Notre Dame, providing access to special programming, as well as support for research and event organizing. Previous Laub-Novak Fellows include Catherine Lemos (Theology) and Tyler Castle (Political Science).
Originally published by at maritain.nd.edu on May 15, 2025.