MOVING TO FRONT (FOR LAST TIME) FROM SEPTEMBER 14
I am pleased to report that I will be taking up an appointment as Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University for portions of the academic year 2011-12. This arrangement has been made with the aim of stimulaing interest in advanced research on Nietzsche among current and prospective Oxford graduate students.
I will be co-teaching an intensive research seminar on Nietzsche in Michaelmas Term 2011 with Peter Kail, the distinguished Hume scholar who has begun doing important work on Nietzsche in recent years, including the often striking similarities between naturalistic themes in Hume and Nietzsche. (I will not be in residence the entire term, so some of my teaching will be comrpessed.) In Trinity Term, we will organize a faculty-student conference on Nietzsche at Oxford as a follow-up to the autumn teaching.
The aim of this arrangement, as noted, is to encourage more work on Nietzsche at Oxford. Peter and I will commit to supervise post-graduates wanting to work on Nietzsche, and, if appropriate and desired, I will arrange for any students who work with us in 11-12 to spend time in a subsequent year at the University of Chicago as a "Visiting Scholar" at my Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values (with full library and other privileges, private study carrel, and so on). Students who come to Chicago can then participate in the Nietzsche reading group that Michael Forster and I have been running since 2008, as well as take advantage of other course offerings, workshops and events. (In 2008-09, the reading group worked through the Genealogy; in 2009-10, we made it through most of Beyond Good and Evil [we'll finish this fall]; in summer 2010, we have been working through recent secondary literature; in 2010-11, we will read either Twilight or The Gay Science. In Spring 2011, Forster and I will offer a seminar on Nietzsche.)
If there is sufficient interest, the expectation is that I will try to do another Visiting Professor stint at Oxford in a subsequent year (probably 2013-14). But even if not teaching at Oxford, I am committed to working with students who participate in the 2011-12 activities.
(For those not familiar with the Oxford system, let me note that research seminars are open to all members of the University, but are most suitable for those studying for the B.Phil. in Philosophy. The B.Phil. programme at Oxford is a taught philosophy graduate programme, which currently consists of three options, taught by individual supervision, often backed by classes, across three terms. These are then examined by take home examinations in the fourth term (i.e., beginning of the second year of the course), where the student has about 12 weeks to write two essays for each option that address the questions set in the examination. The student then writes a 30,000 word thesis. For more details, see here. The options are drawn from a set range of areas, but there is allowance to take 'special' options (subject to approval). In recent years, there has been a small, but growing, number of students taking a special paper in Nietzsche.)
This is, of course, a quite exciting time to be doing philosophical work on Nietzsche. The dramatic revolution in the scholarly and philosophical standards for work on Nietzsche that began, roughly, with Clark's 1990 book Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy has by now carried the day, and there is exciting and philosophically-informed work being done on a host of topics, including Nietzsche's moral psychology, metaethics, action theory, as well as Nietzsche's relation to other historical figures, including Hume, Spinoza, and the Skeptics. Although Peter and I have not set a precise topic, issues related to moral psychology are one likely candidate.
I should emphasize that I will also be teaching in the Winter and Spring quarters at University of Chicago during 2011-12, and am happy to continue working with students here, as I have been doing. Chicago and Oxford represent different philosophical environments for work on Nietzsche, to be sure; interested students should feel free to e-mail me (or Peter, regarding Oxford).
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