Fellowship Program

One of the Center’s cornerstone programs is the Resident Fellowship.  This unique and multidisciplinary fellowship brings together civilian academics and military professionals to study a timely topic relevant to military operations.  The fellows participate in a weekly research seminar, conduct independent and joint research, serve as guest instructors to the Midshipmen, travel to meet with other experts in the field, publish their analyses in journals and books, produce instructional materials for the Academy curriculum, and make presentations at the Academy and other national and international forums.

The Center advertises widely each year for Resident Fellowship candidates, and the Center’s Dean of Research and Director of the Office of Research and Scholarship in Ethics review all submitted applications.  The Center selects three to four Resident Fellows each year.

The Stockdale Center Resident Fellowship has helped launch academic careers for several of its newly-minted Ph.D. fellows, including: Dr. Alycia LaGuardia-LoBianco (Grand Valley State University), Dr. Adam Betts (Bloomsburg University), Dr. Doyle Hodges (Texas National Security Review), Dr. Andrew Bell (Indiana University), Dr. Michael Robillard (University of Notre Dame), Dr. Ashleen Bagnulo (Texas State University), Dr. Jesse Kirkpatrick (George Mason University), Dr. Bradley Strawser (Naval Postgraduate School) and Dr. Valerie Morkevicius (Colgate University).

 Apply to the Fellowship Program

Academic Year 2026-27 Research Effort

The 2027 McCain Conference focus topic: Celebrating America's 250th Anniversary:                        The Moral Foundations of the U.S. Founding.

In addition to this year's fellows, the following Stockdale staff are participating in this year’s work:

• Dr. Ed Barrett, Director of Strategy and Research, Stockdale Center, U.S. Naval Academy
• Dr. Michael Robillard, Special Ethics Instructor, Stockdale Center, U.S. Naval Academy
• Mr. Mitt Regan, Senior Research Fellow, Stockdale Center, U.S. Naval Academy    

Current Fellows

Generously funded by USNA Classes of 1958 1962, 1973 and by a 10 year gift of support from Donald and Beverly Freeman. 

Dr. Audrey Anton, Class of 1964 Fellow

is Professor of Philosophy at Western Kentucky
University. Her research focuses on ethics,
especially virtue ethics and moral responsibility;
moral psychology; Aristotle; and philosophical
gerontology. She is particularly interested in vice,
moral failure, blameworthiness, and moral
improvement. Her books include Moral
Responsibility and Desert of Praise and Blame
(2015) and the forthcoming Aristotle’s Vice
(Cambridge University Press). She is also the
author of numerous scholarly articles and book
chapters and has received fellowships and grants
from several major humanities institutions.

Dr. Harry Gould, 1973 Fred Minier Fellow

is Associate Professor of Politics and International
Relations at Florida International University. He earned
his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in international
relations and political theory. His research focuses on
international law, political theory, and moral and
political thought. He is author of The Legacy of
Punishment in International Law (Palgrave) and the
forthcoming Prudence: Moral Virtue as Political
Practice (Oxford), as well as editor of The Art of
World-Making and co-editor of Tactical
Constructivism.

Dr. Nathan Pippenger, Class of 1962 Fellow

is Associate Professor of Political Science at the
United States Naval Academy. A political theorist, his
research focuses on democracy, citizenship, and the
politics of peoplehood, particularly in the United
States. His work has appeared in the American Journal
of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Perspectives
on Politics, and other leading journals. He is author of
A Common Country: Solidarity and the Making of
American Democracy (Oxford, 2025) and a
Community Fellow with Georgetown University’s
Initiative on AI and Democratic Citizenship.

Dr. Charles Zug, Donald & Beverly Freeman Fellow

is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the
University of Missouri’s Truman School of Government
and Public Affairs. He is the author of Demagogues in
American Politics (Oxford, 2022) and Dwight D.
Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act (Kansas,
2024), with The Mythology of American Federalism
forthcoming from Oxford. He is also co-editor of
Beyond Checks and Balances (Penn, 2026). His
scholarship has appeared in leading political science
journals and received coverage in The New York Times,
The Free Press, and other national outlets.