Rosabel Ansari - Curriculum Vitae
Department of Philosophy
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794
(631) 632-7570
Email: rosabel.ansari@stonybrook.edu
Professional
Stony Brook University, State University of New York
2023 – current Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
Education
2021 Ph.D., with distinction, Georgetown University
2012 B.A. (1st class degree), University of Cambridge
Education abroad:
- EDEP/ İSAR Institute, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015, 2016
- Ottoman and Turkish Summer School, Cunda, Turkey, 2015
- Maʿhad Abī Nūr and Maʿhad al-Fatḥ, Damascus, Syria, 2010-11
- British School of Archaeology, East Jerusalem, 2010
- Mār Mūsā Monastery, Nabak, Syria, 2009
Research interests
Areas of Specialization: Classical and post-classical Islamic philosophy (especially metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophical Sufism and the commentary tradition on Avicenna); Graeco-Arabic Studies
Areas of Competence: Ancient and Medieval philosophy; early modern philosophy; philosophy of religion
Publications
Books
2025 Language and Being in al-Fārābī: The Philosophy of Taškīk (Oxford University Press).
Journal Articles
2027 “A Fārābian account of the divine essence-existence identification,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 37 (accepted, forthcoming)
2024 Necessary Existent Theology,” Religious Studies 60.2: 204-218 (co-authored with Billy Dunaway and Jon McGinnis).
2023 “A discussion of Jawdath Jabbour, De la matière à l’intellect. L’âme et la substance de l’homme dans l’oeuvre d’al-Fārābī,” Les Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 69: 439-448.
2022 “One Way of Being Ambiguous: The Univocity of ‘Existence’ and the Theory of Tashkīk Predication in Rāzī and Ṭūsī,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 96.4: 545-570 (co-authored with Jon McGinnis).
2022 “Taftāzānī’s refutation of Akbarian metaphysics and the identification of absolute being with the Necessary Being,” Oriens 50.3-4: 207-243.
2018 “Ibn Kemal, Dawānī and the Avicennan lineage,” Les Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 67: 237-264.
Book chapters
Forthcoming “Avicenna and Later Islamic Sufism” in eds. J. McGinnis and M. Saleh Zarepour, The Blackwell Companion to Avicenna (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell).
2025 “La métaphysique éléatique et son explication psychologique dans la philosophie d’al-Fārābī” in eds M. Brinzei, I. Caiazzo, Ch. Grellard, A. Robert, Radical Thinking in Middle Ages. Acts of the XV International Congress of the SIEPM,
Paris, 21-26 August 2022 (Rencontres de Philosophie Médiévale) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2025), 187-200.
2023 “The Existential Threat of Climate Change: A Practical Application of Avicenna’s Theory of Evil” in ed. M. Faruque, Evil and Suffering and the Global Pandemic (London: Routledge), 14-28.
2023 “Greek Philosophy and Sufism in Mecdi’s Ottoman Turkish Gardens of Peonies” in ed. M. Rustom, Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation: Essays in Honor of William Chittick and Sachiko Murata (Leiden: Brill), 311-322.
Encyclopedia and sourcebook entries
Forthcoming “Šakk and taškīk” in ed. Chiara Rover, Encyclopedia of Scepticism and Jewish Tradition (Leiden: Brill).
2025 “Al-Fārābī, The Book of Letters” in ed. M. Rustom, A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy (Sheffield: Equinox, 2025), 149-155.
Book reviews
2024 The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam by Frank Griffel, Journal of the History of Philosophy 62.3: 502-504.
In progress
- Avicenna on the Self-Disclosure of God
- Edition and translation of Avicenna’s Treatise on Love
Grants and Fellowships
External
2024 University of Notre Dame
Summer Research Grant, History of Philosophy Forum
2019-20 John Templeton Foundation
“The Christian West and Islamic East: Theology, Science, and Knowledge” Project University of Missouri-St. Louis, Department of Philosophy
Dissertation fellowship
2015 Institute of Turkish Studies, Washington D.C.
Summer Study Grant
2015 U.S. Department of Education
FLAS Fellowship
Presentations
Invited Presentations and Comments
2026 Book talk: Language and Being in al-Fārābī: The Philosophy of Taškīk, Alwaleed Seminar Series, Harvard University, March 4, 2026
2026 Book talk: Language and Being in al-Fārābī: The Philosophy of Taškīk, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, February 18, 2026
2026 Book talk: Language and Being in al-Fārābī: The Philosophy of Taškīk, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, February 16, 2026
2025 “The Animal Faculties in Avicenna's Treatise on Love”, Islamic Philosophy Workshop, Fordham University, NY, October 11, 2025
2024 “Ancient Philosophy in the Islamic World: Illusion, Perception and Reality in al-Fārābī's refutation of Parmenides of Elea”, Sacramento State University, December 4, 2024
2024 “Al-Fārābī and the Philosophy of Naming: Gaza and Genocide”, University of California-Davis, December 3, 2024
2024 “Avicenna's Treatise on Love and the Foundations of Philosophical Sufism”, Avicenna, Avicennism(s), and the Later Philosophical Traditions workshop, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich, November 15-17, 2024
2024 Commentator for Cristina Cerami, “Al-Farabi and the kalam on the divine attributes”, Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy, University of Toronto, September 20-21, 2024
2024 “An Essentialist Paradigm of Arabic Metaphysics: Fārābī at the origin of Avicenna's divine essence-existence identification”, Philosophical Paradigms in Greco-Arabic Philosophy workshop, Georgetown University, April 12, 2024
2023 “Avicenna and the Foundations of Philosophical Sufism”, Post-Classical Islamic Philosophy: New Directions conference, Princeton University, May 18, 2023
2023 Faculty Discussant at the Early Career Workshop in Islamic Philosophy, Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion, Princeton University, May 17, 2023
2023 “Tashkīk and the refutation of monism in post-classical Islamic philosophy”, Arabic Philosophy workshop, Department of Religion, Yale University, April 7, 2023
2023 “The Existential Threat of Climate Change: Islamic Philosophical Problems”, Contemporary Islamic Philosophy Workshop, Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, March 27, 2023
2022 Discussant for Kara Richardson, “The Principle of Sufficient Reason in Medieval Philosophy”, Principle of Sufficient Reason and its History Conference, Department of Philosophy, Yale University, June 24-26, 2022
2021 “Multiplexity in Islamic metaphysics”, İbn Haldun Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey, September 12th, 2021
2019 “An Islamic refutation of monism”, Department of Religion, Florida International University, March 25th, 2019
2018 “The ambiguity of being in Arabic metaphysics” Marquette University Philosophy Department, The Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, March 1st, 2018
2015 “Ibn Kemal, Dawānī and the Avicennan lineage,” Inaugural Workshop of the International Associated Laboratory (LIA): "The Reception of Arabic Philosophy in the Ottoman World" (CNRS-IFEA-Yıldız Technical University - Istanbul, 2-4 November 2015)
Conference presentations and comments
2025 “The psychology of Eleatic monism according to al-Fārābī”, invited panel at the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, February 20, 2025
2024 “Al-Fārābī on the Presocratic Eleatics: instilling doubt and the misuse of epistemic authority”, Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, University of Notre Dame, March 14-16, 2024
2023 Commentator for Ferhat Taşkin, “A Problem for Avicenna’s Account of Divine Simplicity and Freedom: Omnirationality”, American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Denver, CO, February 22-25, 2023
2022 “Can human language represent reality? A discussion of ‘doubt-inducing terms’ (asmāʾ mushakkikah) in al-Fārābī and Maimonides”, Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy Conference, University of Illinois at Chicago, November 13th-15th, 2022
2022 “The psychology of popular Eleatic monism according to al-Fārābī”, The XVth International Congress of the SIEPM (La Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Mediévale), Paris, August 22nd-26th, 2022
2021 “Esoteric Intersections: Avicennan Philosophy, Ismaili Shiʾism, and Theoretical Sufism”, panel respondent, Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November 19th-22nd, 2021
2021 “Tashkīk as an epistemological problem”, Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group International Meeting, “Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Structures of Being, World and Ming”, May 26th, 2021 [online]
2020 “Tashkīk and sophistry in Fārābī’s philosophy of language”, American Philosophical Association Central Meeting, Chicago, February 26th-29th, 2020
2019 “The Abbasids: society and culture”, panel discussant and chair, Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, November 14th-17th 2019
2019 “Al-Fārābī’s refutation of Parmenides,” Workshop on Classical Philosophy in the Lands of Islam and its Influence sponsored by the Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group at the 54th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 9th-12th, 2019
2019 “Al-Fārābī’s refutation of monism,” Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 15th-18th 2019
2018 “Ṭūsī, Qūnawī and tashkīk al-wujūd,” Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, November 15th-18th 2018
2017 “Greek into Ottoman via Arabic: Greek scientific and philosophical vocabulary in Mecdi’s Hadaiku’s-Sekaik” Thirteenth Graduate Student Conference in Turkish and Turkic Studies, held in Washington, D.C., on November 18th, 2017.
2017 “Conversations between Avicennans, Ashʿarīs and Akbarians: To whom does the Avicennan legacy belong?” 7th annual McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Graduate Student Symposium at McGill University, April 26th-27th 2017.
2016 “Taftāzānī’s Refutation of waḥdat al-wujūd [the oneness of being]: A new perspective on intellectual history,” 31st Annual meeting of the Middle East History and Theory (MEHAT) Conference at the University of Chicago, May 6th-7th 2016
Teaching
Stony Brook University
- Moral Reasoning (PHI 104)
- Ancient Philosophy (PHI 200 / PHI 300)
- Philosophy of Religion (PHI 336)
- Medieval Philosophy PhD Seminar (PHI 601)
Loyola University Chicago (Spring 2019)
- Philosophy & Persons (PHIL 130)
Student Advising
- “The Complexion of Socratic Ethics: Reconsidering Socratic Intellectualism in the “Early” Platonic Dialogues”, PhD committee member, Spring 2025-present
- “Augustine and Plato's Form of the Good”, senior thesis, Spring 2025
- Science and religion directed readings, Spring 2025
- Avicenna graduate reading group, 2020-2025
- Graduate teaching practicum, Spring 2025
- Undergraduate teaching practicum, 2021-2023
- “The Search for Explanations: Platonic Replies to Aristotle’s Criticisms of Separation and Regress”, senior thesis, Spring 2022
- “The Mystical Philosophy of ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūniyya”, MA thesis, 2021-2022
- “Intentionality in Avicenna: Foundation and Structure”, PhD Interface paper • “Examining the Role of Religion in al-Fārābī’s Mabādiʾ [the Perfect State]: A New Approach”, MA thesis, Spring 2021
Service
Stony Brook University
Spring 2025 Advanced PhD dissertation workshop director
Fall 2024 German Idealism faculty search committee member Spring 2024-Present Graduate Program Committee member
Fall 2023-Present Colloquium Committee co-director, Philosophy Department 2021-2022 Religious Studies interim director
Service to the Field
2024-Present Editorial board member for the Islamic Thought and History book series, Brill 2021-Present New Members Committee, Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group 2021-Present External reviewer for:
- British Journal for the History of Philosophy
- Al-Qantara: Revista de Estudios Arabes published by the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
- Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society
- Religions
- American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
- Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale
- Continental Review
Languages
Native: English Near-native: French, Arabic Heritage: Maltese Advanced: Turkish, Spanish
Reading knowledge: German, Persian, Ancient Greek, Ottoman Turkish
Professional Affiliations
Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
La Société Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences et de la Philosophie Arabes et Islamiques La Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale
Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group
American Philosophical Association