News & Updates
Most of the other pages on this site will have their colours pinned to the mast for some time to come. This page will be a little more mobile, and I’ll be updating it every now and then with desultory news of various kinds, particularly about talks and events connected to my work. Hopefully I won’t be embarrassed one day to realise just how little I’m up to and be forced to quietly take it down.
Teaching
One of the best parts of joining the University of Birmingham in 2016 was the new range of opportunities to explore ideas through teaching. Among other things, I now run an undergraduate course on “The Ethics of Character.” It explores philosophical (and to a lesser extent theological) approaches to character, focusing on key questions such as: What is character? What makes a character trait a virtue? How is character formed and reformed? Are we responsible for our character? It’s been a challenge deciding what to include in the short life-span of a single course. But it’s also an incredible privilege being able to think out loud about things that matter.
This year I'm also introducing a course on Islamic ethics, which has been challenging and rewarding in different ways. At the same time I contribute to a number of other courses, including a new programme on Qur'anic and classical Arabic.
Writing
I currently have two books in progress, both connected to a project exploring the virtue of magnanimity or greatness of soul. One is an edited collection that showcases the variety of philosophical and theological approaches to the topic. Another is a book that focuses on the development of this virtue concept—or family of concepts—in the Arabic tradition. It's provisionally entitled Virtues of Greatness in the Arabic Tradition.
More long-term, I'm at work on a study of al-Ghazālī's ethics of virtue. I also have a few smaller irons in the fire, including a project on the moral significance of admiration and on Schopenhauer's understanding of the sublime.
Conference
Next April (April 26-27, 2019) I'm co-organising a conference on the relations between Sufism and philosophy with my colleague Richard Todd at the University of Birmingham. For further details, see here.
Talks & seminars
Otherwise, here is a scatter of talks I’m giving over the next few months in case anyone is in the neighbourhood and finds the topics interesting.
On February 24 I'll be giving a talk on "The Experience of Wonder" at Somerville College Chapel in Oxford.
On March 13 I'll be talking about Islamic attitudes to one key virtue-vice complex, humility and pride, at the University of Lancaster. If humility is a virtue, in the view of many Muslim moralists, is pride always a vice? Does an Islamic ethics of virtue make room for virtuous pride?
On May 2-3 I'll be giving a talk that tackles the question whether it is right or helpful to approach al-Ghazālī's ethical ideas as a species of virtue ethics, as philosophers usually understand this category ("Does al-Ghazālī Have a Theory of Virtue?"). This will be at the conference Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, to be held at the American University of Beirut.
On May 8-9 I'll be giving a talk exploring approaches to the virtues in the Islamic world, and the role of philosophical and scriptural influences in shaping them, at the workshop Perspectives on Virtue: From Qumran to the Qur’an and Beyond at the University of Helsinki.
On July 4-6 I'll be investigating another theme in al-Ghazālī's ethics at the conference "Casuistry, Contingency, and Ambiguity: New Approaches to the Study of Ethics in the Islamic Traditions" at the University of Cambridge. This time my focus will be on al-Ghazālī's medical conception of ethics and its implications for his understanding of virtue.
Miscellanies
As of 2018 I'm serving as an adviser for the "Wonderful Education Project" funded by the John Templeton Foundation. You can see more details on the project here.
In 2017 I served as a judge for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. One of the happiest outcomes of this intense but rewarding experience was my discovery of a little gem of a novel called Sabiliyat by the Kuwaiti author Ismail Fahd Ismail. The novel was shortlisted for the prize, and while it didn't win, the next best tribute I could pay it was to translate it. The translation is under contract with Interlink Books and will appear in 2019 under the title The Old Woman and the River.
In 2018 I'm serving as a judge for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. Its shortlist has already been announced; the winner will be announced on February 13, 2019.
Translator-in-residence
Last year I was a full-time fellow of the Library of Arabic Literature, working on my translation of the philosophical/literary anthology of questions and answers, Al-Hawāmil wa’l-shawāmil (English title The Philosopher Responds), by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and Miskawayh. The translation is currently been finalised and with any luck it should be out next year, so that the rest of the world can finally have the benefit of Miskawayh’s answers to such cosmic riddles as: Why do people sometimes succumb to irresistible laughter when they see others laughing? Why do people grow old instead of growing young? Why do people say one thing and do another? Coming soon to a bookstore near you...
Teaching
One of the best parts of joining the University of Birmingham in 2016 was the new range of opportunities to explore ideas through teaching. Among other things, I now run an undergraduate course on “The Ethics of Character.” It explores philosophical (and to a lesser extent theological) approaches to character, focusing on key questions such as: What is character? What makes a character trait a virtue? How is character formed and reformed? Are we responsible for our character? It’s been a challenge deciding what to include in the short life-span of a single course. But it’s also an incredible privilege being able to think out loud about things that matter.
This year I'm also introducing a course on Islamic ethics, which has been challenging and rewarding in different ways. At the same time I contribute to a number of other courses, including a new programme on Qur'anic and classical Arabic.
Writing
I currently have two books in progress, both connected to a project exploring the virtue of magnanimity or greatness of soul. One is an edited collection that showcases the variety of philosophical and theological approaches to the topic. Another is a book that focuses on the development of this virtue concept—or family of concepts—in the Arabic tradition. It's provisionally entitled Virtues of Greatness in the Arabic Tradition.
More long-term, I'm at work on a study of al-Ghazālī's ethics of virtue. I also have a few smaller irons in the fire, including a project on the moral significance of admiration and on Schopenhauer's understanding of the sublime.
Conference
Next April (April 26-27, 2019) I'm co-organising a conference on the relations between Sufism and philosophy with my colleague Richard Todd at the University of Birmingham. For further details, see here.
Talks & seminars
Otherwise, here is a scatter of talks I’m giving over the next few months in case anyone is in the neighbourhood and finds the topics interesting.
On February 24 I'll be giving a talk on "The Experience of Wonder" at Somerville College Chapel in Oxford.
On March 13 I'll be talking about Islamic attitudes to one key virtue-vice complex, humility and pride, at the University of Lancaster. If humility is a virtue, in the view of many Muslim moralists, is pride always a vice? Does an Islamic ethics of virtue make room for virtuous pride?
On May 2-3 I'll be giving a talk that tackles the question whether it is right or helpful to approach al-Ghazālī's ethical ideas as a species of virtue ethics, as philosophers usually understand this category ("Does al-Ghazālī Have a Theory of Virtue?"). This will be at the conference Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, to be held at the American University of Beirut.
On May 8-9 I'll be giving a talk exploring approaches to the virtues in the Islamic world, and the role of philosophical and scriptural influences in shaping them, at the workshop Perspectives on Virtue: From Qumran to the Qur’an and Beyond at the University of Helsinki.
On July 4-6 I'll be investigating another theme in al-Ghazālī's ethics at the conference "Casuistry, Contingency, and Ambiguity: New Approaches to the Study of Ethics in the Islamic Traditions" at the University of Cambridge. This time my focus will be on al-Ghazālī's medical conception of ethics and its implications for his understanding of virtue.
Miscellanies
As of 2018 I'm serving as an adviser for the "Wonderful Education Project" funded by the John Templeton Foundation. You can see more details on the project here.
In 2017 I served as a judge for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. One of the happiest outcomes of this intense but rewarding experience was my discovery of a little gem of a novel called Sabiliyat by the Kuwaiti author Ismail Fahd Ismail. The novel was shortlisted for the prize, and while it didn't win, the next best tribute I could pay it was to translate it. The translation is under contract with Interlink Books and will appear in 2019 under the title The Old Woman and the River.
In 2018 I'm serving as a judge for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. Its shortlist has already been announced; the winner will be announced on February 13, 2019.
Translator-in-residence
Last year I was a full-time fellow of the Library of Arabic Literature, working on my translation of the philosophical/literary anthology of questions and answers, Al-Hawāmil wa’l-shawāmil (English title The Philosopher Responds), by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and Miskawayh. The translation is currently been finalised and with any luck it should be out next year, so that the rest of the world can finally have the benefit of Miskawayh’s answers to such cosmic riddles as: Why do people sometimes succumb to irresistible laughter when they see others laughing? Why do people grow old instead of growing young? Why do people say one thing and do another? Coming soon to a bookstore near you...
