Abigail Whalen

by Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva

Abigail Whalen

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.

Abigail’s main research interests are in Islamic and Scholastic metaphysics. She is especially interested in exploring medieval theories of individuation and prime matter, as well as tracing the various Neoplatonic metaphysical inheritances of philosophers from both traditions to their roots in Plotinus, Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and others. Additionally, Abigail maintains a secondary interest in the problem of universals in the medieval period and contemporary analytic debates. Alongside her studies, Abigail is a Fellow at the History of Philosophy Forum at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group, the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, and the Societé Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale. For more information about her current work, visit her personal page.