Profile with Meghan Sullivan
Meghan Sullivan (Virginia & Balliol 2005) is the Wilsey Family Collegiate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Hailing originally from North Carolina, she holds a BA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Virginia, a BPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Philosophy from Rutgers University.
Rhodes Project: Where do you call home?
Meghan Sullivan: South Bend (Indiana) now feels like home. I’ve lived here for ten years. It actually reminds me a lot of Greensboro, North Carolina and the area where my family lived before I went away for school. Greensboro is a bigger city than South Bend, but Midwestern and Southern culture are very similar. People are very friendly; you spend a lot of time in friends’ homes, and there is a strong sense of neighborhood and community life.
Rhodes Project: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Meghan Sullivan: I think if you had told me in high school that I would end up being a philosophy professor I would have been horrified. I wanted to be a lawyer for a long time, at least when I was a teenager. It took a little bit of talking myself out of that idea when I was in college. Once I realized I really liked philosophy, it still took a year or two for me to build up the courage to want to do the PhD route rather than go to professional school.
Rhodes Project: What is your favorite part about academia?
Meghan Sullivan: I get to wear multiple hats at ND – I write books and give research talks, work with a big team to run an interdisciplinary institute, and I have the chance to mentor some fantastic PhD students and early-career scholars. I love pretty much every part of it. But favorite part? Teaching, hands down. I still get butterflies in my stomach every first day of school. With a team of colleagues, I often teach a version of our big introductory philosophy course, called God and the Good Life. This past fall we had a huge Socrates-inspired banner made that says CORRUPT THE YOUTH. Before each lecture I hang up the banner, and then have the chance to jump into debate about the really big questions – why are we here, what are we aiming at, how do we know? I never get tired of the debates, and without fail every year I get close to that group of students. They unsettle some of my own beliefs with their arguments and ideas. And we get to dream together about what the answers might be.
Rhodes Project: What did you find strangest about Oxford?
Meghan Sullivan: I go back every few years inevitably for work, and so I’m starting to have nostalgia. I think I’ve crossed over into that. Looking back -- I don’t know if it was because it was the first time I spent in graduate school, or if its peculiar to the Oxford system, but Oxford was the first time I spent a lot of time alone with my thoughts. During the grueling 3 month long BPhil exams especially… I spent all day during the week studying, or reading, or writing from early in the morning to the evening. I also took a lot of walks to think about puzzles, especially through University Parks and Port Meadow. That was definitely strange coming from an undergraduate situation where you have class every day and you have a lot of interaction with people. It was a big adjustment at the time. It was good preparation for the rest of graduate school though. I came back to the U.S. for the rest of my PhD. I had coursework for another year, but then it was time to get cracking on the dissertation, and by then I had no problem hunkering down and writing philosophy all day. Now there pretty much isn’t a day when I don’t spend time (usually early in the morning) quietly writing and thinking. (Wearing sub fusc was also pretty strange…)
Rhodes Project: Knowing what you know now, if you weren’t in academia what would you want to be doing instead?
Meghan Sullivan: Philosophers think about this a lot, especially in graduate school, because the academic job market is so volatile. I think I probably would have liked to go into business, either consulting or the legal side of business. I certainly love being a philosopher, but I also really love the challenges of working in teams and taking apart big practical problems. I think that’s part of the reason I love working with the institute – I get to shuttle between the different worlds of teaching, writing, and team sports.
Rhodes Project: If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
Meghan Sullivan: I’m writing this in month nine of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I’m tempted to say *anywhere outside of South Bend* (I haven’t left my region since the crisis started). I’m desperately longing to see my family down South. Thinking a bit more ambitiously, I’ve wanted for ages to get over to Japan for a vacation. I’ve travelled through other parts of Asia and have spent tons of time in airports in Tokyo, but have never had the chance to get outside.
Rhodes Project: Can you describe a meal you’ve had recently that stands out?
Meghan Sullivan: A friend made me the MilkBar Birthday Cake recently. It was incredible. Does half a pound of sugar count as a meal?
Rhodes Project: What brings you the most joy in life?
Meghan Sullivan: Day-to-day? Just about every day – unless the snow is really bad – I take a long walk, pray, think about philosophy, think about the folks I love. In the summer, I go early in the morning. Those walks bring me a lot of joy. In the grand scheme of things? I always have a few big projects cooking. I love the feeling of being right in the middle of a big, adventurous project, ideally with some friends along with me.
Rhodes Project: If you could have one super-power, what would it be and why?
Meghan Sullivan: I’m a big Star Wars aficionado, so clearly The Force.
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