Committed to Liberty and Lifelong Teaching

Doctoral Candidates Awarded Prestigious Weaver Fellowship

Date published: June 2, 2017

Two University of Dallas doctoral candidates in the Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts Institute of Philosophic Studies (IPS), Leta Sundet, MA ’16, and Pavlos Papadopoulos, MA ’14, were recently awarded the prestigious Richard M. Weaver Fellowship from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

One of four fellowships available through the ISI’s Graduate Fellowship Program, the Weaver Fellowship awards up to $15,000 annually to students intending to use their advanced degrees to teach. Each year, newly awarded graduate fellows are required to attend one weekend colloquium in partnership with the Liberty Fund Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana. Sundet and Papadopoulos join more than 500 distinguished ISI alumni fellows, including Associate Professor and History Department Chairwoman Susan Hanssen.

“My professors and fellow graduate students at the University of Dallas are who I model myself after — careful scholars, full of humility, curiosity and affection for their disciplines and their students,” said Sundet. “This award gives me the opportunity to focus the next year on teaching and writing, for which I’m particularly grateful.”

An IPS literature candidate, Sundet instructs and mentors students in the University of Dallas English Department and hopes to continue teaching college-level literature. She received her Master of Arts in Theology and Letters and her bachelor's in liberal arts from New Saint Andrews College. Her current research interests include Jane Austen and Isak Dinesen.

Papadopoulos, an IPS political philosophy candidate, is eager to engage with fellows who share his same devotion to liberal teaching and education.

“I am looking forward to participating in the graduate colloquium for Weaver fellows, which will be an excellent opportunity to deepen my knowledge of the Western tradition in a stimulating community of liberal learning," said Papadopoulos. “I am honored and grateful for the opportunity the Weaver Fellowship will afford me in the coming year.”

Papadopoulos serves as an adjunct instructor of philosophy at the University of Dallas and has taught courses in the departments of history, politics and philosophy. He received his Master of Arts in politics from the University of Dallas and his bachelor's from St. John’s College and intends to complete his doctoral dissertation, “The Philosopher as Author: Plato, Cicero, and Hobbes on Writing and Political Philosophy,” by 2018. In January, he was awarded the Braniff Graduate Student Association Service Award.

ISI’s Graduate Fellowship Program is characterized by Richard M. Weaver’s observation that “a liberal education specifically prepares for the achievement of freedom.” The Weaver Fellowship seeks to uphold the idea of academic excellence and the role of education in producing persons capable of making reasoned choices in favor of liberty.

Discover more about the University of Dallas Institute of Philosophic Studies.