November 15, 2005 |

Seeskin Named to John Evans Professorship

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Kenneth Seeskin, professor of philosophy, has been named the John Evans Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University.

Seeskin's research explores Jewish philosophy, ancient and medieval philosophy, and philosophy of religion. He teaches a broad range of material on classical and medieval philosophers and uses classic texts in the history of philosophy to explain problems of perennial interest.

Seeskin was awarded the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 1995, Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Teacher and the E. LeRoy Hall Prize for Teaching Excellence. He was the invited speaker for Northwestern's Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences commencement in 1990 and was awarded the Koldyke Outstanding Teaching Professorship from 2000-02.

The author of six scholarly books and two books for general audiences, Seeskin most recently served as editor of the "Cambridge Companion to Maimonides" (2005). Other books include “Maimonides on the Origin of the World,” "Autonomy in Jewish Philosophy," "Searching for a Distant God: The Legacy of Maimonides," "Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age," and Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed."

Seeskin has written numerous articles on Greek and Jewish philosophy and serves as editor of the State University of New York Press Series in Jewish Philosophy. His articles have been appeared in many places and have been anthologized in volumes put out by Oxford University Press, Routledge, and SUNY.

Former director of Northwestern's Jewish Studies Program and of the Center for Writing Arts, Seeskin joined Northwestern's faculty in 1992. Among the courses he has taught are philosophy of religion, modern philosophy and the history of philosophy. He has served as chair of the philosophy department for more than 16 years.