Professor of Philosophy
Felix Ó Murchadha
I am Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway. One of the great pleasures of my academic life is having had the experience of learning and teaching in different countries. This has afforded me the opportunity of being exposed to a variety of cultures and approaches to education and research. My early education took place in Ireland (University College Galway and University College Dublin). I began my Doctorate journey at McMaster University Hamilton, Canada and my PhD was awarded at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, where I completed a thesis on Heidegger under the supervision of Prof. Klaus Held. The 2010/2011 academic year was spent teaching and researching as a Fulbright Scholar at Fordham University in New York City.
My research and teaching is informed by Phenomenological Philosophy, but ranges over such areas as Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Anthropology, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of art and Metaphysics, as well as the History of Modern Philosophy. In addition to my work on Heidegger, I have published on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur, Levinas and Marion. 17 PhD students have completed theses under my supervision in Ireland and I have also taught undergraduates in Canada, Germany and the US.
Over the course of the last three decades, I have given talks in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Norway and Hong Kong. Currently, I am the President of the Irish Philosophical Society and am Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion at NUI, Galway.
Member: American Philosophical Association; British Society for Phenomenology; Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy; Deutsche Gesellschaft für phänomenologische Forschung; Irish Philosophical Society; Nordic Society for Phenomenology; Paris Institute for Critical Thinking; Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy; Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience.
Curriculum Vitae
- Education & Career
- Publications
- Presentations
- Book Reviews
- Teaching
- Administration
- External Appointments
- Referee
Education
1996
Dr. Phil. Bergische Universität Wuppertal (Germany)
1988
M.A. University College Galway (Ireland)
1986
B.A. (Hons.) University College Galway (Ireland)
Academic Career
2019-Present
Personal Professor, Philosophy, School of History and Philosophy, NUI, Galway
2016-2019
Head of School, School of Humanities, NUI, Galway
2015-2019
Personal Professor, Philosophy, School of Humanities, NUI, Galway
2013-2015
Deputy Head of School, School of Humanities, NUI, Galway
2010-2011
Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Fordham University, New York (USA)
2009-2015
Senior Lecturer, Philosophy, School of Humanities, NUI, Galway
2008-2009
Acting Head of Department, Department of Philosophy, NUI, Galway
2004-2009
Lecturer (above the Bar), Department of Philosophy, NUI, Galway
1999-2004
Junior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, NUI, Galway
1996-1999
Assistent Lecturer (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) Fachbereich Philosophie, Bergische Universität Wuppertal (Germany)
Publications
Visit my Publications page to view all my publications and download pdfs.
Papers Presented (since 2011)
“Enthusiasm, Superstition and Religious Violence”, In the Shadows of Religious Experience Hostility, Violence, & Revenge, Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience Conference, Online (October 2021)
“Language, Desire and Ruination: On the Irish Speaking an Other Tongue”, Irish Phenomenology Workshop, Online (June 2021)
“’Saying nothing!’” An Attempt at a Phenomenology of Irish Speech”, Panel on “Irish Contemporary Phenomenology”, Heidegger Circle at APA Eastern Division, Online (January 2021),
“Being a Self”, Irish Philosophical Society ‘Work in Progress’ Seminar Series, Online (July 2020)
“Gewalt und Gewohnheit [Violence and Habituation]”, Invited Lecture, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Phänomenologische Forschung Annual Conference, Vienna, Austria (September 2019)
“Time, Desire and Rhythm in Augustine”, panel presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music (SCSM), Toronto, Canada (February 2019)
“Violent Times, the Horror of the Unspeakable and the Temporality of Religious Experience”, Invited Paper, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (October 2018)
“The Rhythm of Things and the Cadence of Speech”, MESSP Conference (June 2018)
“World-Endings and the Temporality of Religious Violence” Phenomenology of Religious Violence Workshop, Vienna (March 2018)
“Music as a Phenomenological Reduction”, Art and Phenomenology Symposium, NUIG, (March 2018)
“Violent Times, the Horror of the Unspeakable and the Temporality of Religious Experience”, Invited Paper, University College London (February 2017)
“Prayer, Passion and the Phenomenology of Religion”, invited paper, Hong Kong (October 2017)
“The Musicality of Experience: Listening, Rhythm between Self and Other” Phenomenology, Empathy, Intersubjectivity: New Approaches, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (May 2017)
“Some Reflections on Ideas II §§ 55-56”, Invited Paper, Mary Immaculate College (March 2017)
“Speaking after the Phenomenon: Faith and the Passion of Being”, Keynote, British Society for Phenomenology Conference, Manchester, UK (September 2016)
“Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression”, A Workshop with Donald Landes, School of Philosophy, UCD (May, 2016)
“Gerald Manley Hopkins: Nature and Emotion”, Seminar on Poetry and Philosophy, Moore Institute, NUIG, (May 2016)
“Timely/Untimely: The Rhythm of Things and the Time of Life”, Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy, Montreal, Canada (October 2015)
“Timely/Untimely: The Rhythm of Things and the Time of Life”, Keynote, “Living in Time”, An International Graduate Research Conference, UCD & TCD (May 2015)
“Love Possibly: Desire and the Reasons of the Heart”, NUIG Philosophy Society, NUIG (February 2015)
“Primal Faith and Horizonality: Origins and Subjectivity in Merleau-Ponty and Husserl” at The Historicity of Human Existence and the ‘Flesh’ Conference, University of Bergen, Norway (February 2014)
“Die Bedingungen der Liebe: Leidenschaft und das philosophisch Asketische [Love’s Conditions: Passion and Philosopical Ascetics”, Philosophisches Fachbereich, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany (November 2013).
“Building and Boundaries”, Conflict Rights and Security Research Symposium, NUI, Galway, Ireland (April 2013)
“Space, Time and the Articulation of our Place in the World: the Philosophical Context”, One Day Workshop: “Spatiality and Symbolic Expression”, NUI, Galway, Ireland (November 2012)
“Heidegger on the Time of Revolution”, One Day Workshop: “Heidegger and the Political”, School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Ireland (November 2012)
“Gary Madison: an Introduction”, Gary Madison Scholars Session, Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy, Ottawa, Canada (October 2012)
“A Phenomenology of the Infinite: Faith, Reason and the Overcoming of Scepticism”, Nordic Society of Phenomenology, Annual Conference, Oslo, Norway (June 2012)
“Love as Faith: Will, Desire and the Sceptic”, Beyond Myth and Enlightenment: Phenomenological Reconsiderations of Religion, Experts Seminar Series, Trinity College, Dublin (April 2012)
“Love as Faith: The Heart without Place and Reason without Home”, Invited Lecture, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, (February 2012)
Response to Bruce Benson: “In the Beginning, There Was Improvisation: Responding to the Call”, Music and Transcendence Conference, Cambridge, England (November 2011)
“Descartes, Pelagianism and the Sceptical Life”, invited Lecture, Departmental Seminar Series, Department of Philosophy, NUI, Galway (October 2012)
“Ascetics, the Body and Flesh: A Phenomenology of the Christian Body”, invited paper, Embodiment Seminar, SUNY at Stonybrook, USA, (March 2011)
Book Reviews
(2021) Kevin Hart: Poetry and Revelation: For a Phenomenology of Religious Poetry (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion (2021) 90: 85–89
(2015) Hart, K.: Kingdoms of God, Indiana University Press, 2014, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (Electronic Journal), 3rd September 2015
(2014) Materson, P: Approaching God: Between Phenomenology and Theology Bloomsbury, 2013, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (Electronic Journal), 24th March.
(2013) Thomson, I.: Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity, Cambridge University Press, 2011 in Religion & Literature, Vol. 45, No. 3 (autumn 2013), pp. 281-283.
(2013) Desmond, W., The Intimate Strangeness of Being: Metaphysics after Dialectics, The Catholic University of America Press, 2012, in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, pp. 245-248.
(2012) Lampert, J. Simultaneity and Delay: A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time, Continuum, 2012 in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (Electronic Journal), 20th November 2012
(2012) Dahl, E., Phenomenology and the Holy: Religious Experience After Husserl. London: SCM Press, 2010 in Husserl Studies, September 2012, pp. 255-261.
(2005) De Boer, K.: Thinking in the Light of Time. Heidegger’s Encounter with Hegel & Sell, A.: Martin Heideggers Gang durch Hegels “Phänomenologie des Geistes”. Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain vols. 49/50, pp. 173-178.
(2005) Garrard, E. and Scarre, G.: Moral Philosophy and the Holocaust. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 8, pp. 481-484.
(2005) “Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger: Thinking Freedom and Philosophy”. Review article on Dudley, W.: Hegel, Nietzsche and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom; Martin Heidegger. The Essence of Human Freedom: An Introduction to Philosophy; Taylor Carman. Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse and Authenticity in Being and Time, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 361-373.
(2003) Moran, D.: An Introduction to Phenomenology in Phänomenologishe Forschungen, pp. 279-383.
(2003) Keller, Pierre: Husserl and Heidegger on Human Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999 in Husserl Studies, vol. 19, pp. 93-100.
Postgraduate Teaching
PhD. 17 successful completions;
M.A. 14 successful completions;
M.Litt. 2 successful completions;
Undergraduate Teaching
National University of Ireland, Galway
Lecture and Seminar Courses (BA, MA and PhD) on Phenomenology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Violence, Philosophy of Emotion, Philosophy of Love, Political Philosophy, Ancient and Modern Philosophy
Fordham University, New York (USA)
Lecture courses in Ethics and in Philosophy of Religion.
Bergische Universität Wuppertal (Germany)
Seminar-Courses in Late Classical, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy
Administration
2021-Present
Member of School of History and Philosophy Executive Committee
2016-2019
Head of School of Humanities
2016-2017
Member of College of Arts Review Committee
2015-2016
Coordinator of School of Humanities IRRP Submission
2013-2015
Deputy Head of School of Humanities
2013-Present
Member of School of Humanities Executive Committee
2013-2015
Chair of School of Humanities Research Committee
2008-2009
Acting Head, Philosophy.
2007-2008
Member of College of Arts Fellowship Assessment Committee
2006-2007
Head of First Year, Philosophy Department
2004-2006
Member of the Arts Faculty Lady Gregory Fellowship Committee
2003-2004
Member Arts Faculty Self-Assessment Committee
2001-2005
Director Departmental Speakers Series
2001-2002
Academic Director Certificate in General Studies, NUIG
2000-2010
Member Faculty of Arts, NUIG, Research Committee
2000-2010
Director of Postgraduate Studies, Department of Philosophy, NUI,G
2000-2006
Head of Second Year, Philosophy Department
External Appointments
2021-Present
President, Irish Philosophical Society
2020
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, Dublin City University (Ireland)
2019
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, Kingston University, London (UK)
2018
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Ireland)
2016
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, University of New South Wales (Australia)
2014
External Examiner Doctoral Defence, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK
2013
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, University College Cork (Ireland)
2013
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, Bergen (Norway)
2013-2016
External Examiner, Mater Dei College, Dublin (Ireland)
2011-2016
Committee Member – Comparative Literature Association of Ireland
2011-2015
Committee Member of Irish Phenomenology Circle
2011-2016
Series Editor (Violence Studies) Peter Lang
2010-2013
Committee Member, Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy
2008
External Examiner, Doctoral Defence, Carlow College (Ireland)
2005-2008
External Examiner, Carlow College (Ireland)
2004-2009
Secretary, Royal Irish Academy Philosophy Committee
2003-2009
Referee, NUI Travelling Studentship Philosophy Applications
2001-2009
Member, Royal Irish Academy Philosophy Committee
Referee
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (US)
British Journal of the History of Philosophy (UK)
Bloomsbury Press (UK)
Cambridge University Press (UK)
International Journal of Philosophical Studies (Ireland)
Irish Feminist Review (Ireland)
Irish Research Council
Irish Theological Quarterly (Ireland)
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology (UK)
National University of Ireland (Ireland)
Northwestern University Press (USA)
Open Theology
Peter Lang (USA)
Phaenex (Canada)
Phenomenology and Cognitive Science
Research Founation – Flanders (Belgium)
Routledge Press (UK)
Rowman and Littlefield (UK)
SUNY Press (USA)
Symposium (Canada)Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (Ireland)
2019-Present
Personal Professor, Philosophy, School of History and Philosophy, NUI, Galway
2016-2019
Head of School, School of Humanities, NUI, Galway