November News

The Catholic University of America is advertising two open-rank positions in philosophy. Yes, that’s right, two positions, both open rank, and they are “particularly interested in applicants who work in medieval philosophy or Thomistic ethics.” The soft application deadline is December 17, 2021. Details here.

Colorado State University, just up the road from me in Fort Collins, is once again advertising a senior position in “Catholic Philosophy or Theology.” (This search had been previously advertised two years ago, but suspended due to the pandemic.) The position, an endowed chair, is rostered in the philosophy department, and so ought to be a good opportunity for medievalists. The application deadline is December 1, 2021.

The University of Fribourg is also advertising a senior position, in medieval philosophy. Note that the languages of instruction there are both French and German, and, no, they do not mean one or the other. The application deadline is November 30, 2021. Details here (scroll down, unless you are also interested in their senior position in ancient philosophy).

The University of Milan is advertising a postdoc in “The History of Medieval or Early Modern Philosophy with expertise on Platonism or History of Cosmology.” The application deadline is November 22, 2021. Details here, although, unless your Italian is better than mine, from there you will have to click on various random further links until you hit upon useful information.

The journal Philósophos, published by the Universidade Federal de Goiás (Brazil), is publishing a special issue on medieval philosophy. The cfp deadline is December 20th, 2021. Details here.

This coming week, there is a two-day conference in Paris on Radulphus Brito. (November 18-19, 2021). Details here. (This is perhaps a good moment to celebrate that the Pariscope médiévale newsletter is back up and running.)

The indefatigable Nicola Polloni (Leuven), in collaboration with Shixiang Jin (Beijing), has organized a workshop on theories of matter in the European and Chinese premodern traditions. It’s on Zoom, December 10-11, 2021. Details here, on Nicola’s blog. (This is perhaps a good moment, also, to thank Nicola for the abundant information he makes available every month on the Iberica Philosophica Mediaevalia newsletter, some of which I am transmitting here.)

The aforementioned University of Fribourg is planning a two-day conference, next spring, on the supernatural: “Entre anges et démons : les êtres surnaturels au Moyen-âge et aux premiers temps modernes.” The goal is to recruit an interdisciplinary group of scholars, and the conference will be bilingual, French and German (March 7-8, 2022). Cfp deadline is December 1, 2021.

The SIEPM has rescheduled a previously postponed conference on dialectic in the Middle Ages. It will run April 4-6, 2022, at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Details here. The cfp deadline is December 20, 2021.

Spring Conferences

There’s a conference at Ave Maria University this coming February on St. Thomas Aquinas as Spiritual Teacher (Florida, February 10-12, 2022).

This coming March, the University of Illinois at Chicago is hosting a conference in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy (March 7-8, 2022). I fear the cfp deadline was last week, but perhaps it’s not too late to get a submission in. There is some funding available for participants.

In April, there’s a hybrid conference on Hylomorphism into Pieces: Elements, Atoms, and Corpuscles in the Late Middle Ages (1400-1600). (Stockholm and Leuven and Zoom, April 7-8, 2022). The cfp deadline is October 30, 2021.

The Robert Grosseteste Study Centre, in collaboration with Bishop Grosseteste University, is organizing an inaugural interdisciplinary event, The International Medieval Mind Conference (Lincoln UK, June 30-July 2, 2022). The cfp deadline is December 17, 2021.

Already begun this fall is a series of lectures on medieval philosophy organized by Danya Maslov (Moscow State) and Graziana Ciola (Radboud). There’s a talk scheduled for each of the first three Wednesdays of November, with more to be scheduled.

Next month, there’s an intriguing online interdisciplinary conference organized by the Max Planck Institute, on Scientific Questions Then and Now, featuring Peter Adamson and other luminaries (November 3, 2021, on Zoom).

UC Louvain is advertising a PhD position focused on studying nominalism in the 17th century, under the supervision of Jacob Schmutz. The dissertation can be written in English. The application deadline is October 31, 2021. Details here.

There’s a special issue on ‘Superstitio’ from Ancient to Early Modern being put together by Lexicon Philosophicum: International Journal for the History of Texts and Ideas. The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2021.

In the category of “just missed it” falls a two-day conference in Paris on Le statut ontologique des couleurs en philosophie ancienne et médiévale (October 21-22, 2022).

I don’t ordinarily post information about jobs that are listed at philjobs.org, but since John Inglis asked me to call attention to the junior position being advertised at the University of Dayton, I’m happy to do it!

I’m also happy to report that Georgetown University has reopened its search to fill the Martin Chair in medieval philosophy. Applications should be made here. For full consideration, applications should be received by November 30, 2021.

Fall 2021 News

The deadline for applying for the SIEPM One-to-One Stipend is September 30th, 2021. This stipend of 1,500 EUR supports junior researchers to visit and work with a senior researcher. See details here.

Monika Michałowska (Łódź) has organized a conference on The Oxford Calculators and Their Milieu on Ethics. It will be held online, March 10–11, 2022. The cfp deadline is October 30th, 2021. 

In addition to the big SMRP conference in early October, Notre Dame is hosting a conference next May 20-22, 2022 on medieval philosophy and theology. One way to get onto the program is to submit an abstract to the SMRP, before the end of November, 2021. Contact Fr. Philip-Neri Reese.

The SMRP awarded the 2021 Founder’s Prize for best paper by a younger scholar to André Martin (McGill University) for his paper “The Activity of the Soul and the Causality of its Object: Gonsalvus of Spain and the Influence of Peter John Olivi.”  Honorable mention went to Hashem Morvarid (University of Illinois at Chicago) for his paper “The Muʿtazila’s Arguments against Divine Command Theory.”

Peter Adamson has recently published an essay in the New Statesman, “Are Islamic Philosophers Critical of Authority?”

Copenhagen, Leuven, Budapest, etc.

The University of Copenhagen has announced two 2-year postdoc positions, both focused on twelfth-century logic. Applications are due October 15, 2021. Details here.

KU Leuven–more specifically, Christophe Geudens and Nicola Polloni–have organized a two-day seminar on Knowability and the Limits of Knowledge. It will be partly medieval in focus, and partly a general discussion of epistemology. It’s on Zoom, this Thursday and Friday (September 2-3, 2021), starting at 4pm in Leuven.

The energetic folk at Leuven have also organized a series of medieval colloquia, running through the fall and spring, and especially highlighting junior scholars. The format is hybrid, in person and on zoom.

Still more, there’s a large conference, which I don’t seem to have previously announced, on Aristotle’s De sensu in the Latin Tradition 1150-1650. It’s also a hybrid event, live and on Zoom, running from Pavia to Leuven. (September 13-14, 2021, in Pavia; September 17-18 in Leuven)

There are two major conferences on the Eucharist getting underway, in September, in Budapest. First there’s a philosophical conference, on the Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist, which starts tomorrow! (September 1-4, 2021). It’s another hybrid event, with the schedule available here. Then there’s the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress (September 5-12, 2021), which is aimed at a much wider audience.

The American Cusanus Society is holding their biennial conference in a month, on the theme of Mystical Theology and Renaissance Platonism in the Time of Cusanus (September 24-26, Gettysburg and Zoom). Information is on Twitter!

There’s a special issue in the works, for History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis, on Revisionary Metaphysics in the Middle Ages. The guest editors are Stephan Schmid (Hamburg) and Sonja Schierbaum (Wuerzburg), and they’ve put out a call for proposals. (The deadline is April 23, 2022.)

August 2021 News

The draft schedule is now available for the first of what will hopefully be a regular series of SMRP conferences (Notre Dame, October 3-6, 2021). It’s going to be a huge event; the largest medieval philosophy conference in North America since I’ve been in the field. Information available here.

The American Catholic Philosophical Association is inviting submissions from junior scholars for its annual essay contest. Details here.

The Franciscan Institute is sponsoring a conference on Roger Bacon’s Moralis Philosophia, in celebration of a new English translation of this text by Jeremiah Hackett and Thomas Maloney (July 21-24, 2022, St. Bonaventure, NY). Cfp deadline is October 4, 2021. Details here.

There’s a webinar series running this summer on the history and theology of encounters between Catholic and Muslims. It’s sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society. Details here.

The 43rd Cologne Mediaevistentagung (Sept. 5-9, 2022) has extended its Cfp deadline until August 31, 2021. The topic, a rather timely one for our field, is “Consensus.”

Katja Kraus’s research group at the Max Planck Institute is advertising a position for a scholar of the premodern science of soul and body, with expertise in Syriac, Persian, or Hebrew. The application deadline is August 31, 2021. Details here.

The Institute for Research in the Humanities (Wisconsin-Madison) is again advertising the Solmsen Fellowship, a year-long fellow which “sponsors scholars working in the humanities on European history, literature, philosophy, politics, religion, art and culture in the classical, medieval, and/or early modern periods before 1700.” Applications due October 28, 2021.

Congratulations to Tobias Hoffmann, who has been named Professor of Medieval Philosophy at Sorbonne Université. (That’s the position at Paris IV that has been vacant since Pasquale Porro returned to Italy several years ago.)

Happenings in July

I’ve been very negligent in posting about a two-year postdoc in Prague, in medieval philosophy. The deadline is TOMORROW, July 15, 2021. Information here, at #4. The position starts in January 2022.

The deadline for submissions for the Res Philosophica Essay Prize has been extended until August 1, 2021. The topic is “Theological Dogma and Philosophical Innovation in Medieval Philosophy.” There’s fame and money to be won.

Claude Panaccio may have retired, but you can see him on YouTube, speaking about “Ockham on Substance” at a Brazilian conference in honor of Carlos Arthur Ribeiro do Nascimento.

There’s an international conference this fall on Arnau of Villanova, organized at Barcelona, but online, on October 4-8, 2021. Details here.

Bloomington, Dublin, Rio

The Richard Rufus Project is looking for a research associate. It’s a one-year position, with a possible extension. A PhD and training in medieval manuscripts are essential. Applications should be received by June 20, 2021. Details here.

The SMRP is organizing a session for the Renaissance Society of America’s annual meeting, on the theme of “Identity and Agency in Renaissance and Medieval Thought.” The meeting is scheduled for March 30th to April 2, 2022, in Dublin. The cfp deadline is July 16th, 2021. (Details here. The dates currently on the SMRP website, March 3-April 2, are doubtless wishful thinking brought on by a bad case of COVID-fever.)

The 6th Rio Colloquium on Logic and Metaphysics in the Later Middle Ages will take place on July 1st, July 8th and July 22nd. The theme of the meeting will be When Things Go Wrong. Failure and Error in the Later Middle Ages. Alas, it is entirely online.

Summer Happenings

Nicola Polloni (Leuven) has organized a complex online initiative, The Elusive Substrate, which over the next year will study prime matter and hylomorphism “from ancient Rome to early Qing China” (via the Middle Ages). The first event–“Roman Preludes”–is this Friday (May 14, 2021) and activities will run, roughly every month, into summer 2022.

Monika Michałowska (Łódź) and Riccardo Fedriga (Milan) are organizing an international conference on The Will and Its Acts in Late Medieval Ethics and Theology (online, June 17-18, 2021). The format of the conference is interesting: the talks will be prerecorded and prewatched, and the conference itself will be devoted to discussion.

The program for this summer’s Women on Medieval Philosophy conference has been finalized. The online event runs July 8-10, 2021. All are welcomed to attend.

Graziana Ciola (Nijmegen) and Paul Bakker (Nijmegen) are organizing a conference for next spring on Marsilius of Inghen and His Legacy (March 3-5, 2022, in Nijmegen). Cfp deadline June 1, 2021.

The University of Geneva is advertising an “assistant” position in medieval philosophy. This is what, in the American context, would be called a “teaching assistant” position: it’s open to students who have their MA and wish to pursue a PhD. The ability to teach in French is required. The application deadline is the end of this week, May 15, 2021.

There’s an International Conference on Philosophical Anthropology in Ibn Sina scheduled for this coming December in Tehran (December 26-28, 2021). Cfp deadline July 22, 2021.

Stephen Ogden (Catholic University of America) is moving to a position at the University of Notre Dame, which he will begin next fall.

Preview of coming attractions: my next blog post is going to depart from my usual narrow focus on medieval philosophy, and look at the dominance of Oxford University Press in the field of philosophy.

(The Post Previously without a Title)

Deadlines are approaching for various SIEPM initiatives:

• The application for one-to-one stipends is the end of this week (May 1, 2021). These are stipends for junior scholars to work directly with senior individual scholars.
• Submissions for the annual SIEPM junior scholar award are due June 1, 2021.
• You also have until June 1 to nominate your favorite senior scholar for an SIEPM Lifetime Achievement Award.

All this and more can be found at the SIEPM website.

Juhana Toivanen is advertising a three-year postdoc position at the University of Jyväskylä. The project concerns the social and political dimension of moral vices from medieval to early modern philosophy.

The SMRP is advertising its annual Founder’s Prize, aimed at younger scholars. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2021. There doesn’t yet seem to be up-to-date information on the web, but I am told the deadline is June 1, 2021.

A conference next month in Stockholm, on the history of final causation, has succumbed to the inevitable and is going online. But that means anyone can listen! May 20-22, 2021, details here.

Olivier Boulnois (Paris) will be giving the Stanton lectures, virtually, at Cambridge University, throughout May 2021. His topic will be Paul and Philosophy.

The Journal of the History of Ideas is searching for a new co-executive editor to join the current editorial team. Applications should be received by June 1, 2021.

The 23rd European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics has been postponed: it will now be meeting in June 2022, still in Warsaw.

The 43rd Kölner Mediaevistentagung will take place September 5-9, 2022. The topic will be consensus. Proposals, with a brief abstract, are due July 31, 2021.

Congratulations to Khaled El-Rouayheb (Harvard), whose won the 2020 best-article prize at the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, for a paper on “The Liar Paradox in Fifteenth-Century Shiraz.”

Although I don’t generally announce new publications individually, I cannot refrain from calling to your attention the beautiful new two-volume tribute to Irène Rosier-Catach, published this spring by Aracne. By my count, it contains chapters from 87 different scholars!

More Spring Announcements

Res Philosophica is sponsoring an essay prize on the topic Theological Dogma and Philosophical Innovation in Medieval Philosophy. There’s a cash prize to be won, and of course publication in the journal. Papers must be received by July 1, 2021.

The long-awaited third meeting of the Avicenna Study Group, originally scheduled for last June, has now been reorganized by Andreas Lammer (Trier) as a weekly series, beginning June 1, 2021. Details here.

The Roger Bacon Research Society has scheduled a series of online talks over the next 12 months, each on a different aspect of Bacon’s scientific theory. Next up (March 19, 2021) is Alexander Fidora (Barcelona) on “The Division of Science.”

The Graduate Student Chapter of the Aquinas and the Arabs International Working Group is meeting on March 19-20, 2021. Details here.

The Medieval Philosophy in the UK Network is holding its next meeting online, on March 26, 2021. Details here.

The University of Würzburg has rescheduled, for the coming summer, last year’s summer school on Affective Intentionality in Medieval Philosophy and Phenomenology (July 26-30, 2021). Application deadline is March 31, 2021.

Trinity College Dublin is sponsoring an online course in Byzantine Greek: both a beginners and a more advanced class. The price is quite reasonable, with further financial support available. Details here.

Doctor Virtualis is planning a special 20th-anniversary issue on Analogy and the Middle Ages. Deadline for submissions is April 30, 2021.

There’s a conference in honor of Miguel Cruz Hernández scheduled for September: Pensamiento del Islam: fundamentos, instituciones y sociedades (Alcalá la Real, September 24-25, 2021).

Congratulations to Jari Kaukua (Jyväskylä), who won the Journal of the History of Philosophy‘s prize for best article, for his paper on “Avicenna’s Outsourced Rationalism.”