ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Ancient and Medieval Studies Alexander Fidora recently received the A. v. Humboldt – J. C. Mutis Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in recognition of his academic achievements.
Alexander Fidora is one of the world's leading experts in the study of interreligious dimensions of medieval Hipanic philosophy, particularly in cultural contacts between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which includes a cash prize of 60,000 euros, will allow Fidora to do 3 to 4-month research stays during the next two years at the Department of Philosophy of Goethe University Frankfurt and at the Center for the Study of Religious Dynamics of the universities of Frankfurt and Tel-Aviv. At these centres, he will study issues related to two ERC projects he directed at the UAB on intercultural and controversial interreligious relations in the Middle Ages. He will work specifically on the philosophical, and particularly the epistemological foundations of the dialogues and disputes among representatives of different religions in the Middle Ages.
Born in 1975 in Offenbach, Germany, Alexander Fidora studied philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and at the UAB, and obtained his PhD in 2003 from the Univeristy of Frankfurt. His research focuses on medieval philosophy and theology as well as on the intercultural and interreligious dimensions of the Middle Ages, on which he has published more than fifty books and over hundred and fifty articles. He has been a Visiting Professor at Saint Louis University, the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the University of Pennsylvania.
Among other projects, he has directed the ERC Starting grant "Latin into Hebrew" (2008-2012) and the ERC Consolidator project "The Latin Talmud" (2014-2019). Vice-president of the Société Internationale pour l'Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale and of the Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval. For his academic contributions he has been awarded the Premi Internacional Catalònia (2011) and the Premi Samuel Toledano (2012). He is member of the Academia Europaea.
