MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 17--UPDATED
A week from today, on Zoom, organized by philosopher Georgi Gardiner. Tragically, Professor De Cruz is now in hospice care with a terminal illness.
UPDATE: Professor Gardiner reports at the link, above, that Professor De Cruz died yesterday. Next week's Zoom event will thus serve as a memorial conference. Philosopher Eric Steinhart kindly shard this obituary for Professor De Cruz (below the fold)
Helen De Cruz 1978 – 2025
Prof. Helen De Cruz specialized in philosophy of religion and cognitive science. They were the author of Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think (2024) and Religious Disagreement (2018). Along with Johan De Smedt, they wrote A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion (2014). Prof. De Cruz worked hard to expand the boundaries of philosophy beyond its standard academic formats, extending philosophical thinking into art, literature, and music. They were a talented artist, making the illustrations for forty-two thought experiments in the popular book Philosophy Illustrated (2021). They wrote philosophical fiction, including The Artistry of Magic (2025), and many short stories. They produced a video summary of Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, for which they also produced the illustrations and music. De Cruz published many essays in popular media outlets, and was extremely active on social media. They showed how to express philosophical ideas in new ways to new audiences. They taught at Saint Louis University, Oxford Brookes University, and VU Amsterdam. They earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of Groningen, and a PhD in archeology from the Free University of Brussels. You can learn more about their work at their website <https://helendecruz.net/index.html>. An autobiographical interview can be found here <https://www.whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com/helen-de-cruz>.
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