James Wilson, the de Nicola Center’s 2025–26 postdoctoral fellow, has long held a fascination with Southern writer William Faulkner. The author became the subject of Wilson’s dissertation at the University of Cambridge, which Wilson is currently working to develop into a book.
Angela Knobel is no stranger to South Bend. The de Nicola Center’s 2025–26 Myser Visiting Fellow received her doctorate in philosophy from Notre Dame and considers the University a second home. “I’ve always loved Notre Dame,” she says. “From the moment I set foot on campus as a prospective graduate student a million years ago, Notre Dame has felt like home to me. I remember walking around campus all those years ago thinking, ‘I can be happy here.’” Now an accomplished professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas, Knobel is spending this year as the de Nicola Center’s Myser Fellow researching and reflecting on the theme of motherhood in preparation for a new book, Other Selves: Motherhood and the Moral Life.
