The goal of this section is to highlight the work of promising early-career researchers who engage with the history of philosophy (broadly speaking), with special emphasis on the premodern period.
By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
It is time to bid farewell to 2025. This year, we had the chance to meet an impressive list of early-career scholars. And, to tell you the ‘truth’, this makes us very much look forward to the next one! With this in mind, we are happy to introduce you this month to Pasquale Viola, whose research focuses precisely on this notion.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
As the end of 2025 is almost upon us, the IPM team has begun considering how to be better next year. Thus, it is only appropriate that this month’s small portrait features the work of Yu Wang, who is a specialist in ancient ethics and moral psychology!
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
Autumn has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, with leaves adopting the most diverse and colourful shades. A similar diversity, albeit with an underlying common thread, can be appreciated in the work of Karim Shoaib, whom we are glad to feature in this month’s Small Portraits.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
Another summer has passed, and we are thrilled to be back. We have many promising scholars in our field for you to know in this new academic year, beginning with Lucy Stothard!
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
Summer 2025 – Summer is finally here, and before going for a short break, we are happy to introduce you to Zahra Nayebi! Zahra’s research interests include ancient and medieval philosophy, particularly as developed in the Islamic world. She holds a BA (2012) in Sociology from the University of Tehran (Iran) and an MA (2016) in the same discipline from Allame Tabatabaie University (Iran). During the latter, she analysed the relationship between language and society in al-Fārābi’s thought, which inspired her to pursue a career in philosophy.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
June 2025 – As the old saying goes, ‘All roads lead to Rome’, so, with that spirit, we are happy to visit ‘the eternal city’ with Marco Picciafuochi in this month’s small portraits.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
May 2025 – This year’s Eurovision took place in stunning Switzerland, giving us the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Dario Affronti! Dario holds a BA (2017) and an MA (2019) in Philosophy from the University of Italian Switzerland (Switzerland).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
April 2025 – In Japan, April marks the beginning of a new academic year, accompanied by the stunning – and worldwide famous – cherry blossom season. Inspired by this beautiful image, this month, we are happy to introduce you to Yasuatsu Toyoda.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
March 2025 – Did you know William of Ockham was buried at the Franciscan convent in Munich? While his burial site is now lost, his works continue to keep his legacy alive within his order (and beyond). This is the case with Pierre Ramírez, a Franciscan priest from Colombia who lives in Munich. We are delighted to highlight his work this month!
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
February 2025 – It has been quite a bit since we featured Arabic philosophy, so we are thrilled to bring it back with Hakan Genc! Hakan’s research interests focus on ancient Greek and medieval Arabic Aristotelian traditions, including logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. He holds undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy (2010) from the Middle East Technical University (Turkey).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
January 2025 – We are excited to welcome 2025 together with Jorge Eduardo Arbeláez Orejuela. Jorge holds a BA (2017) and MA (2020) in Philosophy from the Xaverian Pontifical University (Colombia). He is currently a doctoral student at the same institution in cotutelle with the University of Navarra (Spain), where he works under the supervision of María Jesús Soto-Bruna.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
December 2024 – Tatiana began her academic career at the University of Warsaw (Poland), where she obtained a BA in French Studies (2021), a BA in Philosophy (2021), and an MA in Philosophy (2023). During the last year of her MA, Tatiana was a Research Associate at the Ian Ramsey Centre, Oxford (UK), and a Recognised Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (US).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
November 2024 – For November, we are happy to take you to the ‘Land of Tulips’ to introduce you to César Reigosa Soler. César is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), where he recently completed his PhD (2024) with a dissertation titled ‘Future Truth, Foreknowledge, Prophecy and Glossolalia: Some Puzzles Concerning Future Contingents in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy’ – supervised by Tamer Nawar and Emar Maier.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
October 2024 – Continuing with our Latin American tour, we are happy to introduce you to Clemente Huneeus from Chile this month. Clemente holds a BA in Law (2016) and Philosophy (2018), awarded by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He then moved to the University of the Andes (Chile), where he got his MA in Philosophy (2021) and is currently enrolled in their PhD programme.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
September 2024 – This month, we move from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere with Jean Christian Egoavil! Jean is a Lecturer in Philosophy and History at several Peruvian universities, such as the University of the Pacific, the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, and the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University (UARM). His work focuses on medieval thought, especially on the logic and epistemology of John Duns Scotus and its posterior influence.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
Summer 2024 – Before going to the summer holidays, we want to introduce you to Luka Kuchukhidze! Luka is a PhD candidate, Assistant Researcher and Lecturer at the ‘Savle Tsereteli Institute of Philosophy’, Ilia State University (Georgia).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
With temperatures getting warmer, we travel to the French coast with Joachim Haddad this month. Joachim holds a BA (2013) and an MA (2016) from the Sorbonne University (France), where he specialised in ancient philosophy guided by Laurent Lavaud. After spending some time teaching in high school, in 2019, Joachim joined the doctoral program in Philosophy at Aix Marseille University (France) under the supervision of Isabelle Koch.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
May 2024 – For May, we cross the Atlantic all the way to America to introduce you to Abigail Whalen. Abigail got her BA in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame (US) in 2019, where she received the John A. Oesterle Award in Philosophy upon graduation. She then obtained a B.Phil. from the University of Oxford (UK) in 2021 as a Barry Scholar. Currently, Abigail is finishing her first year as a PhD student at Notre Dame, thanks to a Presidential Fellowship. Prior to her return to South Bend, she spent a year working in higher education in London.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
April 2024 – This month, we are happy to introduce you to Benjamin Wilck. Since October 2022, Benjamin has been a postdoctoral scholar at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), more specifically within the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences. He is broadly interested in the interrelations between ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and science, as well as in contemporary philosophy of mathematics. Benjamin mainly focuses on how definitions are established, revised, and used in scientific theories.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
March 2024 – This month’s entry is devoted to Bichen Yan on the occasion of the Chinese New Year. Bichen received his PhD in the history of science and technology from the Department of History of Science of Tsinghua University (China) in 2024. Presently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Tsinghua’s Philosophy Department, his research focuses on medieval and early modern theories of minerals and matter. For this, he adopts a comparative approach concerning the ontological foundations of natural philosophy in Europe and China.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
February 2024 – Our guest for this month’s issue is Johannes Wagner. Johannes comes from an interdisciplinary background. He holds a BSc and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Graz (Austria) and a BA in Philosophy from the same institution. He then received an MA in Philosophy from King’s College London (UK) and has recently submitted his PhD thesis in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge (UK).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
January 2024 – We are returning from the holidays and looking forward to meeting many excellent emerging scholars. To start 2024 on the right foot, this month, we want to showcase the work of Jordan Lavender. Jordan holds a BA from the University of Georgia (US) and received his PhD in Philosophy in 2022 from the University of Notre Dame (US). Currently, he is the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Medieval Philosophy at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
December 2023 – This 2023, we showcased the work of many excellent young scholars. Continuing with this tradition, here is Claire Murphy. Claire graduated from Thomas Aquinas College (US) in 2020 with a BA in Liberal Arts. Currently, she is a PhD student in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame. Her dissertation will focus on scientific representation, engaging with the contemporary philosophy of science literature while drawing on historical case studies.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
November 2023 – This month, our small portrait is dedicated to Seth Kreeger. Seth is a PhD Candidate at Marquette University (US) and KU Leuven (Belgium), supervised by Professors Richard Taylor and Andrea Robiglio. He works on the Arabic and Neoplatonic background to the metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas and William of Auvergne.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
October 2023 – This month we want to highlight the work of Kamil Majcherek. Since 2022, Kamil is a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge (UK), a position he took after completing his PhD in Philosophy (Collaborative Specialization in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) at the University of Toronto (Canada). During his PhD, Kamil was a Recognised Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, supervised by Cecilia Trifogli. He also holds an MPhil in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, where he first conceived the idea of his doctoral dissertation, mentored by John Marenbon. Before coming to Cambridge, Kamil also completed a BA and MA in Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University (Poland).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
September 2023 – We are back from our summer break introducing you to Samuel Pell! Sam is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a BA in Chemistry and Classics from Cornell University (2013) and an MA in Philosophy from Purdue University (2022). He is hoping to write a dissertation under Therese Cory on ‘confused cognition’ in Aquinas. A case of confused cognition, for instance, is that by which we define man to be a teachable animal that can laugh. Sam thinks Aquinas’ account of confused cognitions sheds light on his metaphysics of cognition more generally.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
Summer 2023 – Ruizhi Ma (马睿智) is a research assistant and doctoral candidate in the Department of Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin). Before joining the Research Training Group “Philosophy, Science, and the Sciences” at HU Berlin in 2019, he received his master’s degree in the Department of History of Science at Tsinghua University (2019) and his BA at Peking University (2017).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
June 2023 – This month we highlight the work of Suf Amichay. Suf is now finishing her PhD in Medieval Philosophy at the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge (UK), supervised by Prof. John Marenbon. Her research focuses on big metaphysical systems in the Middle Ages, especially looking at the compatibility of Aristotle with Abrahamic religions. To examine this, Suf traces the development of concepts of modality and their place in medieval thought. Further, Suf approaches medieval natural philosophy as a history of science, using the tools and methodology often reserved for early modern science to examine earlier periods. She hopes her work can present medieval science in a new, more charitable way, and help redefine its place in the history of science.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
May 2023 – This May we go back to Switzerland to introduce you to Davide Falessi! Davide is a PhD student in a joint programme at the University of Lucerne and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris (France). He was awarded both a BA (2019) and an MA (2021) in Philosophy by the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (Italy). His main interests lie in the relationship between logic and metaphysics in medieval Latin philosophy, with a special focus on the 14th century. In this sense, Davide began his research by considering both realist and nominalist theories of continuity and their use of modal logic to account for the ontological status of indivisibles and continuous quantities.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
April 2023 – For Spring break, I am happy to present the work of Paolo Gigli. Paolo is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and is currently a recognised student in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford (UK). He is writing a dissertation titled ‘Plato on Change’ under the supervision of Paolo Crivelli whose object is the metaphysics of change in Plato’s dialogues, especially the Theaetetus, the Sophist, and the Parmenides. In his work, he ponders questions such as: does everything change according to Plato? Does Plato’s Forms change too? And if so, how? Which kinds of change does Plato admit in the dialogues? And ultimately: What is change for Plato?
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
March 2023 – For March, let me introduce you to yet another promising Italian scholar working abroad! Matilde Berti is a PhD Student in Classics at Durham University (UK), with Prof. Phillip Horky and Prof. Anna Marmodoro as supervisors. She has been awarded an AHRC studentship via the Northern Bridge Consortium (NBCDTP) in October 2021. Matilde currently works on Early Greek philosophy and Plato within the framework of her doctoral project ‘The Relation of Parts and Wholes in Plato’. Her dissertation traces the roots of Plato’s account of a variety of relations between constituent parts and resulting entities, contained within previous Greek philosophy (i.e., cosmology, physics, medicine, and metaphysics). She aims to determine the Presocratic building blocks that shape the Platonic notions of ‘Part’. ‘All’, and ‘Whole’, thus enhancing the understanding of both Platonic and Presocratic Metaphysics.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
February 2023 – Leonardo Chiocchetti is a PhD student at the Munich School of Ancient Philosophy, LMU-Munich (Germany). He is currently working under the supervision of Professor Christof Rapp. His thesis deals with the philosophical roots of ancient Greek grammar, focusing on the work of Apollonius Dyscolus and the Scholia to the Grammatical Handbook. Leonardo aims to show that ancient grammar was influenced not only by Stoic ontology and philosophy of language but also by other Hellenistic schools. In Apollonius’ case, many of his epistemological, semantical, and logical tenets seem to stem from a Peripatetic framework rather than a Stoic one. With this syncretistic background in mind, several grammatical texts which are philosophically dense become easier to interpret.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
January 2023 – To inaugurate 2023, let’s go to China with Zhenyu Cai! Zhenyu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Peking University. Zhenyu’s main research interest is Islamic philosophy. He primarily focuses on Avicenna’s philosophy of mind and metaphysics, with a specific interest in the reception and criticisms of Avicenna’s philosophy in the post-Avicennian tradition.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
December 2022 – For our small portrait #7 – and before 2022 ends – meet Giuseppe Colonna! Giuseppe is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oxford. He works on a thesis about Being in Time in Simplicius, under the direction of Cecilia Trifogli (All Souls College, Oxford). Simplicius, one of the greatest Neoplatonic commentators of Aristotle, tries to solve some problems within the Aristotelian account of being in time. Aristotle gives some criteria to distinguish things in time (concrete things) and things not in time (heavens and souls). However, he does not precise the essential feature that distinguishes the former from the latter, in other words, what the real significance of being in time is. Giuseppe’s research aims to explore Simplicius’ solutions to this problem and to assess how this contributes to the understanding of the nature of time within metaphysics.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
November 2022 – The small portrait #6 features the work of Laura Busetto. Laura is a PhD Student at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris (France) and, simultaneously, at the Fondazione San Carlo in Modena (Italy). She did her undergraduate studies at the Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy), where her interest in the medieval world began. Initially, she worked on medieval female thought – a topic that remains one of her primary interests.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
October 2022 – For this month, our section goes all the way to the US to highlight the work of Taylor Pincin. Taylor is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Texas Austin, where she is working on her dissertation Being One and Being Prior in Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Her project has two main goals: first, to develop and defend a novel interpretation of Aristotle’s priority in being. Taylor argues that in order to understand priority in being, we need to appreciate, and further develop, the link that Aristotle and his predecessors saw between Being and Oneness.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
September 2022 – The Small Portrait #4 is devoted to Francesca Galli. Francesca is currently a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in Medieval literature and philology at Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano). She is particularly interested in the overlaps between Medieval sciences and literature, in Mendicant preaching and also in the text-image relationship. In September 2022, thanks to the generous support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, she will start at the University of Zurich a four-year project on the ‘hybrid’ uses of optics in the XIII century.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
July 2022 – The Small Portrait #3 highlights the work of Jonathan Greig. Jonathan is a postdoctoral research fellow based at KU Leuven (Belgium) – supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) – working on the influence of Neoplatonism and late antique Aristotelian commentators in Byzantium.
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
June 2022 – David is a PHD Candidate at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, where he works on his thesis “Plato as seen by Aristotle, as seen by Medieval Commentators on the Metaphysics between the 1230s and the 1350s” with the generous support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (doc.CH grant).
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By Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva
May 2022 – Lorenzo is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee (ILIESI) of the Italian Research Council (CNR). He earned his Ph.D. from the Tor Vergata University of Rome and Rome Tre University with a thesis titled “Eidos and Dynamis. The Intertwinement of Being and Logos in Plato’s Thought.”
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IPM Monthly 