24 September 2008

I Dream a Genius

Not a philosopher or classicist among the MacArthur 'genius' fellowships this year.  


(A point of method.  Shouldn't the very first genius fellowships be awarded to those who have a genius for recognizing genius, and then we can proceed from there?)

But I thought you might be interested in seeing all past recipients from those fields.  

Classics
Ann Ellis HansonHistorian
Leslie V. KurkeClassicist and Literary Scholar
Dirk ObbinkClassicist and Papyrologist
Thomas G. PalaimaClassicist
Gregory VlastosClassicist and Philosopher


Philosophy
Stanley CavellPhilosopher
Patricia Smith ChurchlandPhilosopher
Leszek KolakowskiHistorian of Philosophy and Religion
Richard RortyPhilosopher
Thomas M. ScanlonPhilosopher
Judith N. ShklarPolitical Philosophy

Now, if only genius were received as a gift, as much as the fellowship.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Michael, good to see you're back. My then colleague Anne Carson also won a MacArthur. Anne may be most famous as poet, but by professional training she's a classicist; she's published translations of lots of Greek poetry (Sappho, Euripides), and much of her poetry emerges from some kind of encounter with classical poetry.
Best wishes for the new academic year,
Stephen

Anonymous said...

Actually, depending on how broadly you define "classicist," you might also include the excellent Byzantinist Maria Mavroudi. While there are a fair number of people working on Greek-to-Arabic translation literature, Maria is one of very few working on Arabic-to-Greek translation literature. If the very idea of Arabic-to-Greek translation literature impresses people as paradoxical, that impression itself should be food for thought: look at the Teubner of the Oneirokritikon of Achmet, the subject of Maria's dissertation.

Anonymous said...

There must be a mistake, Richard Rorty isn't a philosopher :)

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Michael.

You forgot classicist Danielle Allen (2001).

Anonymous said...

...and if Anne Carson counts as a classicist, so does Jim Powell (1993).

JP said...

Glad to see Dissoi Blogoi's active again.

Monte Johnson said...

Also, my colleague Nancy Cartwright is a philosopher and former MacArthur "fellow" -- thus the UCSD philosophy department has had (and still has) two genii. --Monte

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you blogging again, Michael.

Susan Rotroff, my colleague in the Classics department here at WUSTL, won a MacArthur fellowship. (She's a classical archaeologist.)