Concerns for a Distinguished Center for Medieval Philosophy

The Philosophy Department at the University of St. Thomas (Houston) seems to be at some risk of “reorganization and/or elimination.” See details at the Daily Nous. Would the school really have the nerve to eliminate the Philosophy Department and continue calling itself the University of Saint Thomas? Perhaps it might better, at that point, sell off the naming rights to the school to some more suitable benefactor.

Update as of May 19, 2017: The latest word is that the Department’s PhD program will be eliminated. This, which is of course bad enough in its own right, will have the further consequence of “allow[ing] the administration to change the terms of our contracts and increase course loads and remove tenure.” This from John Hittinger, department chair. See the detailed update at the Daily Nous.

Late Spring News

This will probably be my last post until August. First, some information about upcoming events:

• The Collège de France is holding a two-day international colloquium, Philosopher au XIIe siècle, at the end of May (Paris, May 29-30, 2017).
• There’s a conference on Knowledge as Assimilation, ranging over ancient and medieval material, co-sponsored by the Rationality in Perception group in Helsinki and the Representation and Reality group in Gothenberg (Helsinki, June 9-11, 2017).
• The University of Bonn is holding a conference this summer, on “Time and Modality. Medieval and Contemporary Perspectives” (July 20-22, 2017). Immediately before the conference (July 17-19), they’re running a summer school in conjunction with themes from the conference. The application deadline for the summer school is May 31. Details on the summer school here.
• The Thomas-Institut has sent out its call for papers for the 2018 Cologne Mediaevistentagung. The topic is The Library: Spaces of Thought and Knowledge Systems. The submission deadline is August 15, 2017. See details here.

Next, some information about people:

• Nate Bulthius, a recent Cornell PhD, is interviewed at the APA blog, where he discusses in some detail his perspective on studying medieval philosophy.
• Thomas Ward, currently at Loyola Marymount, is moving to Baylor University, starting this coming fall. With John Haldane already there, as well as Francis Beckwith, and with Tim O’Connor joining the department as well, this makes Baylor quite a prominent option for graduate study in medieval philosophy.

And then some links, both, as it happens, pertaining to Scotus:

• Tobias Hoffmann’s very useful Scotus bibliography is now available here, where it continues to be updated.
• Thomas Williams has just come out with an extensive collection of English translations of Scotus’s ethical work (OUP 2017). In addition to the book, there is a website, here. On the website, there are additional translations, links to some of Thomas’s papers, and a remarkable unpublished essay that makes the case for why the Vatican edition of Ordinatio III.26-40 is “so frequently bad that no responsible scholar can rely on it.”

Finally, jobs:

• There’s a three-year postdoc position at the above-mentioned Helsinki project, Rationality in Perception: Transformations of Mind and Cognition 1250-1550. The application deadline is May 29, 2017. Details here.
• There’s a two-year postdoc advertised in Munich, connected to the project Natur in politischen Ordnungsentwürfen: Antike, Mittelalter, Neuzeit. Quoting from the ad, “The central concern of the project is the medieval reaction to the ancient idea that God’s rulership to the universe is comparable to that between a political ruler and the state that s/he governs.” The application deadline is June 1, 2017. Details here.