Nektarios (Nick) Nikolaos Trakakis
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Senior Lecturer
School of Philosophy
Australian Cathollic University
250 Victoria Parade
Fitzroy Victoria 3065
Australia
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Education
PhD in Philosophy, Monash University
Dissertation Topic: The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe’s Evidential Arguments from Evil
Principal advisor: Professor Graham Oppy
Graduate Certificate of Higher Education, 2009 – present, Deakin University
Certificate IV in Financial Services (General Insurance), 2001 Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance
Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Philosophy), First Class Honours, University of Melbourne
Honours Thesis: Alvin Plantinga’s Thesis of Theistic Belief as Properly Basic
Advisor: Dr Bruce Langtry
Bachelor of Theology degree, 1996, major fields of study: Systematic Theology, Church History; St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, member of the Sydney College of Divinity
Bachelor of Arts degree, 1996, major fields of study: Philosophy, Modern Greek; University of New England
Specialisation
Competence
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History of philosophy and theology
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Meta-philosophy
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Aesthetics
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Philosophy and literature
Employment
Senior Lecturer (Level C) and Research Fellow in Philosophy, Australian Catholic University: January 2010 – present (continuing position).
Lecturer (Level B) in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Deakin University:
January 2009 – December 2010.
Lecturer (Level B) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Monash University: January 2005 – December 2010.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA): August2006 – August 2007.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Philosophy, Monash University: 2002 – 2004.
Teaching, Examining and Advising
Monash University
July – November 2002: PHL 2670/3670: Philosophy of Religion (2nd & 3rd year undergraduate subject), Teaching Assistant
July – November 2003: PHL 2670/3670: Philosophy of Religion, Teaching Assistant
February – June 2004: PHL 1010: Introduction to Philosophy A (1st year undergraduate subject), Teaching Assistant
July – November 2004: PHL 2670/3670: Philosophy of Religion, Teaching Assistant
July – November 2005: PHL 2670/3670: Philosophy of Religion, Teaching Assistant
February – June 2008: PHL 2670/3670: Philosophy of Religion, Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator
November 2009 – February 2010: PHL 2040/3040: Philosophical Explorations of World Religions, Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator
Deakin University
February – June 2009, 2010: ASP 205/305: World Religions, Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator
Other
July – November 2009: In charge of one of the seminars in the Honours course (co-ordinated by Dr. Jack Reynolds) on Analytic/Continental Philosophy.
May 2011: Delivered two lectures on the history and doctrines of Christianity, for The Open University.
Honours Supervision
Regular supervision of Honours (4th-year) students in philosophy, and act as examiner for philosophy Honours theses.
PhD Supervision
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Jennifer Jones (Australian Catholic University): “The Philosophical Thought of Edith Stein” (primary supervisor).
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Petra Brown (Deakin University): “The Teleological Suspension of the Ethical” (primary supervisor).
Supervisor Accreditation
Publications
Sole-authored Books
The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil, with a Foreword by William L. Rowe (Dordrecht: Springer Publishing, 2007; released in paperback in November 2010).
“This fine book consists of meticulous scholarship in the history of nearly thirty years’ work on God and evil, accompanied by acute, original criticism… This book is detailed, insightful, and clearly written. It will be useful to many philosophers working on the problem of evil.” – Bruce Langtry, review in Religious Studies (vol. 44, 2008)
The End of Philosophy of Religion (London: Continuum Books, 2008; to be released in paperback in March 2012).
“Trakakis offers an important and bracing account of Philosophy of Religion and its End, and calls for us to think and imagine it anew. This new broadened wisdom is supple enough to conceive religion and God in different and powerful ways, attentive to the incredible suffering of the world and the stakes of what it would mean to instantiate love in it. Philosophers of religion of all sorts should be grateful to Trakakis for his work of love." – Clayton Crockett (University of Central Arkansas), review in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2010 issue
“This is an insightful, sensitive and judicious book, full of careful distinctions, and it avoids tirades or over the top criticisms of either side. The book will be of interest to students and faculty working in the areas of analytic and Continental philosophy of religion. There is a niche for this because there is very little sensible material out there, discussions of real worth, on the analytic/Continental divide.” – John D. Caputo, Syracuse Universit
“Analytic philosophers tend to think of Continental philosophy as loose and literary, while Continental philosophers usually see analytic philosophy as narrow, pseudo-scientific, and abstracted from history. The best place for a conversation between them to begin is the philosophy of religion, and in his bold new work Nick Trakakis does just that. The result: a meta-philosophy of religion, one that will perhaps retire some old debates and rejuvenate the field by redirecting many of its concerns about substance and style." – Kevin J. Hart, University of Virginia
Also reviewed by Roger Pouivet (University of Nancy, France) in Philosophy in Review 30 (2010): 151-54; Jacob Holsinger Sherman (University of Cambridge), in Religious Studies 46 (2010): 415-20; Clayton Crockett (University of Central Arkansas) in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2010 issue; and Anthony Paul Smith (University of Nottingham) at the “An und für sich” website (http://itself.wordpress.com/), published on May 3, 2010.
Deus Loci: The God of Place and the Place of God in Philosophy and Theology, under contract with Continuum.
Translations
Tasos Leivaditis, The Blind Man with the Lamp, originally published in Greek by Kedros (Athens) in 1983, translation in progress.
Edited books
William L. Rowe on Philosophy of Religion: Selected Writings, sole editor (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007).
Reviewed by R.W. Fischer (University of Illinois, Chicago), Theological Book Review vol. 20, no. 2, 2008, pp.8-9; Nicholas Everitt (University of East Anglia), Ars Disputandi vol. 9, 2009, pp.103-105; and Jeff Jordan (University of Delaware), Sophia, vol. 48, 2009, pp.495-96.
Essays on Free Will and Moral Responsibility, co-edited with Daniel Cohen (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
Contributors include Robert Kane, John Martin Fischer, Derk Pereboom, J.J.C. Smart, Ishtayique Haji, and Saul Smilansky.
“This is a valuable collection that advances the philosophical debate over free will and moral responsibility. Researchers in the field will want to add it to their libraries.” – Christian Perring, Metapsychology Online Reviews
Guest editor (with Morgan Luck and Sarah Bachelard) of a special issue of the journal Sophia (vol. 48, issue 2, 2009), consisting of papers presented at the inaugural (2008) conference of the Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association (APRA). Also contributed short introduction to this issue (pp.103-104).
Guest editor of a special issue of the journal Sophia (vol. 48, issue 4, 2009), consisting of the two keynote addresses presented at the 2009 conference of the Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association (APRA). Also contributed short introduction to this issue (pp.347-48).
History of Western Philosophy of Religion, volumes 1-5, co-edited with Graham Oppy (London: Acumen, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). Reviewed by Michael Skinner in Theological Librarianship: An Online Journal of the American Theological Library Association, vol. 3, no. 2, December 2010.
A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, editor-in-chief with Graham Oppy(Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2010). Book reviewed by Adrian Walsh in Australian Book Review December 2010 – January 2011 issue, pp.59-60; and by Ian Robinson in Australian Rationalist no. 88, 2011.
Southern Sun, Aegean Light: Poetry of Second-Generation Greek-Australians (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011).
Book reviewed by Elliot Giakalis in Neos Kosmos English Edition, 30 April 2011, p.19; by Dean Kalimniou in Neos Kosmos English Edition, 21 May 2011, p.24; and by Dimitris Troaditis in Neos Kosmos, 21 May 2011, p.13 (in Greek).
The Antipodean Philosopher, vol. 1: Public Lectures on Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, co-edited with Graham Oppy(Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011).
The Antipodean Philosopher, vol. 2: Interviews with Contemporary Australian and New Zealand Philosophers, co-edited with Graham Oppy (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, due to be published in 2011).
A History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, vols 1 & 2, co-edited with Graham Oppy (Dordrecht: Springer Publishing, due to be published in 2012).
Philosophies of Religions: Multi-Faith Dialogues, co-edited with Graham Oppy (under contract with Acumen).
Christian Philosophies of Religions: Intra-Faith Dialogues, co-edited with Graham Oppy (under contract with Acumen).
Book Chapters
Religious Language Games (With Graham Oppy) , in Andrew Moore and Michael Scott (eds), Realism and Religion: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), pp.103-30.
Late Twentieth-Century Atheism (With Graham Oppy) , in Oppy and Trakakis (eds), History of Western Philosophy of Religion, vol. 5, pp.301-12.
The Sense and Reference of the Essence and Energies, in Constantinos Athanasopoulos and Christoph Schneider (eds), The Presence of God in Eastern Orthodoxy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
Postmodern Approaches to Religion, in Graham Oppy (ed.), Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (Acumen, forthcoming).
The Eastern Orthodox Conception of Divinity, in Oppy and Trakakis (eds), Christian Philosophies of Religions: Intra-Faith Dialogues, co-edited with Graham Oppy (Acumen, forthcoming).
Refereed Journal Papers
The Absolutist Theory of Omnipotence, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophical Theology, vol. 36, no. 2, September-October 1997, pp.55-78.
The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church, Mary/Martha, vol. 6, Spring/Summer 1998, pp.39-40.
On the Alleged Failure of Free Will Theodicies: A Reply to Tierno, Sophia:
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 42, no.2, October 2003, pp.99-106.
God, Gratuitous Evil, and van Inwagen’s Attempt to Reconcile the Two, Ars Disputandi: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion [http://www.ArsDisputandi.org], vol. 3, 2003.
Evil and the Complexity of History: A Response to Durston, Religious Studies, vol.39, no.4, December 2003, pp.451-458.
What No Eye Has Seen: The Skeptical Theist Response to Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil, Philo: The Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers, vol.6, no.2, Fall-Winter 2003, pp.250-66.
Salvation in Heaven? (with Graham Oppy and Yujin Nagasawa), Philosophical Papers, vol.33, no.1, March 2004, pp.95-117.
Reprinted in Graham Oppy, Arguing About Gods(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp.314-29.
Second Thoughts on the Alleged Failure of Free Will Theodicies, Sophia:
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol.43, no.2, October 2004, pp.87-93.
The Infallibility of the Church: An Unorthodox Perspective, Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol.2, no.1, Fall 2004.
Skeptical Theism and Moral Skepticism: A Reply to Almeida and Oppy (with
Yujin Nagasawa), Ars Disputandi: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion[http://www.ArsDisputandi.org], vol.4, 2004.
What was the Iconoclast Controversy About? Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol.2, no.2, Winter 2004/2005.
Evil as Evidence Against the Existence of God, Australian Rationalist, no. 69, Summer 2005, pp.13-20.
The Evidential Problem of Evil 15,000-word entry for The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden, available at < http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/evil-evi.htm>, published April 2005.
Piety and Pietism, Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian
Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol. 2, no. 3, Spring 2005.
Is Theism Capable of Accounting for Any Natural Evil at All? International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, vol. 57, no. 1, 2005, pp.35-66.
Gregory Palamas on the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology, Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol. 3, no. 1, Fall 2005.
An Interview with the Very Rev. Dr. Themistocles Adamopoulo, Apostle to the Poor and Oppressed, Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol. 3, no. 2, Winter 2005/2006. Translated into Greek by Vivian Morris in Neos Kosmos [Melbourne newspaper], 13 September 2007, p.7; reprinted in part in Neos Kosmos English Weekly [Melbourne newspaper], 18 September 2007, pp.8-9.
WhyThere Is Reason to Remain Sceptical of Durston’s Scepticism, Religious Studies, vol. 42, 2006, pp.101-109.
Nietzsche’s Perspectivism and Problems of Self-Refutation, International Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 1, March 2006, pp.91-110.
Becoming Children: The Hidden Meaning of the Incarnation, Theandros: An Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy[www.theandros.com], vol. 3, no. 3, Spring/Summer 2006.
Rowe’s New Evidential Argument from Evil: Problems and Prospects, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 45, no. 1, May 2006, pp.57-77.
Does Hard Determinism Render the Problem of Evil even Harder?, Ars Disputandi: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion [http://www.ArsDisputandi.org], vol. 6, 2006.
Confronting the Horror of Natural Evil: An Exchange Between Peter Coghlan (Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University) and Nick Trakakis, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 45, no. 2, October 2006, pp.5-26.
A Third (Meta-)Critique, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 45, no. 2, October 2006, pp.139-42.
An Epistemically Distant God? A Critique of John Hick’s Response to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness, The Heythrop Journal48 (2007): 214-26.
The Desert, Philotheos: International Journal for Philosophy and Theology, vol. 7, 2007, pp.491-95.
Karma and the Problem of Evil: A Response to Kaufman, (With Monima Chadha) Philosophy East & West, vol. 57, no. 4, October 2007, pp.533-56.
Meta-Philosophy of Religion: The Analytic-Continental Divide in Philosophy of Religion, Ars Disputandi: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion [http://www.ArsDisputandi.org], vol. 7, 2007.
Whither Morality in a Hard Determinist World?, Sorites, vol. 19, December 2007. Reprinted in Nick Trakakis and Daniel Cohen (eds), Essays on Free Will and Moral Responsibility, pp.34-70.
Introduction” to Essays on Free Will and Moral Responsibility, (With Daniel Cohen) pp.ix-xxii.
Kazantzakis’ Poor Man of God: Philosophy without Philosophy, Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique [www.colloquy.monash.edu.au], issue 15, June 2008.
Theodicy: The Solution to the Problem of Evil, or Part of the Problem?, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 47, no. 2, July 2008, pp.161-91.
Articles on “Georges Bataille” and (with Michael Fagenblat) “Emmanuel Levinas” in John Mullarkey and Beth Lord (eds), Continuum Companion to Continental Philosophy (London: Continuum, 2009), pp.283-84, 311-13.
Against Theodicy: A Response to Peter Forrest, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 49, no. 1, April 2010, pp.129-40.
Presence and Absence: The Paintings of Andrew Musgrave, Literature and Aesthetics: The Journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics, vol. 20, no. 2, December 2010, pp.92-105.
Does Univocity entail Idolatry? Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, vol. 49, 2010, pp.535-55.
Book Reviews
Hans-Johann Glock, The Rise of Analytic Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), in Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76 (1998): 515-16.
Daniel Howard-Snyder and Paul K. Moser (eds), Divine Hiddenness: New Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 54 (2003): 53-55.
María J. Frápolli and Esther Romero (eds), Meaning, Basic Self-Knowledge, and Mind: Essays on Tyler Burge (Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2003), inMetapsychology Online Book Reviews[http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=2279], published August 5, 2004.
Richard Taylor, Understanding Marriage: Making It Work, or Knowing When to Leave (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004),” in Metapsychology Online Book Reviews [http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=2389], published November 8, 2004.
Nicholas Rescher, On Leibniz (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003),” in The Leibniz Review14 (2004): 89-98.
Ruth Garrett Millikan, Varieties of Meaning: The 2002 Jean Nicod Lectures (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004),” in Metapsychology Online Book Reviews[http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=2516], published February 1, 2005.
John Hyman and Helen Steward (eds), Agency and Action, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 55 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), in Metapsychology Online Book Reviews[http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=2740], published July 24, 2005.
David Burrell, Faith and Freedom: An Interfaith Perspective (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), in The Philosophical Quarterly56 (2006): 632-34.
Clare O’Farrell, Michel Foucault (London: Sage, 2005),” in Metapsychology Online Book Reviews [http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=3635], published May 15, 2007.
Norman Wirzba and Bruce Ellis Benson (eds), Transforming Philosophy and Religion: Love’s Wisdom (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), in Faith and Philosophy, vol. 28, no. 1, January 2011, 115-21.
J. Aaron Simmons, God and the Other: Ethics and Politics after the Theological Turn (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), published online in August 2011 on the website of The Church and Postmodern Culture: http://churchandpomo.typepad.com/.
Tamsin Jones, A Genealogy of Marion’s Philosophy of Religion (IndianaUniversity Press, 2011), in Heythrop Journal, forthcoming.
Poetry Collections
Tears: 1993-2005 (Melbourne, 2005), 56pp.
Silent Transfigurations (Melbourne: Southwood Press, 2006), 80pp.
Via Dolorosa (Melbourne: Griffin Press, 2008), 187 pp.
Clearings (Melbourne: Griffin Press, 2011), 46pp: poetry chapbook, including a short essay, Towards a New Poetics.
Poems Published in Literary Journals
Inheritance, Poetry Monash 65, 2002, p.22.
Ordinary World, Poetry Monash 69, 2004, p.36.
Three untitled poems published in Antipodes (journal of the Greek-Australian Cultural League of Melbourne), vol. 54, 2008, pp.107-108.
In a time when words are wasted and We the forgotten ones, in Poetry Matters, issue 7, Autumn 2009, pp.8-9.
Do relationships ever die, and Morning Knowledge, in Studio: A Journal of Christians Writing, no. 114, 2009, pp.29-30.
Red Roses and 1 was the number of times, in Positive Words, October 2009, pp.11, 14.
I Saw You There, Antipodes (journal of the Greek-Australian Cultural League of Melbourne), vol. 55, 2009, p.87.
sun sight light, in Studio: A Journal of Christians Writing, no. 116, 2010, p.16.
So much for the sunshine, Antipodes(journal of the Greek-Australian Cultural League of Melbourne), vol. 56, 2010, p.129.
Ancora Imparo, Poetry Monash 81, 2010, p.36.
Miscellaneous Articles
Defending the Faith of Our Fathers, Hellenic Times, 4 January 1994, p.23.
Interview with William Rowe, Philosophy Now, issue 47, August-September 2004, pp.16-18.
Entry on William Rowe in John R. Shook (ed.), Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers(Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2005), pp.2087-89.
Article on the problem of evil for the “Faith” column in The Sunday Age [Melbourne newspaper], 9 January 2005, p.16.
Response to David Miller’s critique of my paper, “Evil as Evidence Evidence Against the Existence of God”, Australian Rationalist, no. 71, Spring 2005, pp.51-52.
Against Militancy, Australian Book Review, April 2006, p.4 (this is a reply to Tamas Pataki’s “Against Religion,” Australian Book Review, February 2006, pp.36-41); Tamas Pataki’s response is published on p.6 of the April 2006 issue.
Generational Change and the Poetry of Greek-Australians, Neos Kosmos English Edition [Melbourne newspaper], 6 April 2009, p.15.
Articles on The Problem of Evil and Philosophy of Religion, in Oppy and Trakakis (eds), A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand (Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2010), pp.167-71, 429-34.
Thinking Believers: Nick Trakakis ‘Cross’-Examines Mark Manolopoulos, published online in May 2010 on the website of The Church and Postmodern Culture (http://churchandpomo.typepad.com/conversation/).
(With Michelle Boulous Walker) Article on Slow Philosophy, in Slow Magazine, no. 4, Autumn 2010, pp.118-19.
Weekly columnist (from August 2010 to present) for Melbourne newspaper Neos Kosmos English Edition, with articles on the following subjects published thus far: Philosophy articles:Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Milesians, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, the Atomists, Pyrrho, Epicurus, the Stoics, Plotinus, Porphyry and Iamblichus, Proclus, Hypatia, Damascius, Byzantine philosophy, John of Damascus, Photius, Michael Psellus, John Italus.
Articles on modern Greek poets:Kazantzakis, Cavafy, Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, Sikelianos, Leivaditis.
Unpublished Work and Work in Progress
Doing Philosophy in Style: A New Look at the Analytic/Continental Divide
Truth, or the Futures of Philosophy of Religion
The New Phenomenology and Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Anti-Theodicy: Problems and Prospects
From Dusk to Dawn, collection of poetry and prose
Academic Conferences and Seminar Presentations
What No Eye Has Seen: The Skeptical Theist Response to Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil, 8th Australasian Philosophy Postgraduate Conference University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, September 21, 2002.
Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil and Moral Skepticism, Monash University Postgraduate Colloquium for Philosophy and Bioethics, October 18, 2002.
Is It True that If There is a God There Can’t Be Any Pointless Suffering?, Monash University Philosophy Postgraduate Seminar, July 29, 2003.
God and the Problem of Natural Evil,Pacific Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Biola University, La Mirada, California, USA, February 27, 2004.
The Leibnizian Problem of Evil and How It Can Be Resolved,Monash University Philosophy Postgraduate Seminar, April 7, 2004.
Rowe’s New Evidential Argument: Problems and Prospects,Australian National University Philosophy Society (Canberra, ACT), June 1, 2004.
Can Evil Be Reconciled with the Existence of a Loving God?, Sea of Faith Network of Australia, June 17, 2004.
God and the Problem of Natural Evil,Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference, South Molle Island, Queensland, July 9, 2004.
Is Disagreement Epistemically Significant?,Monash University Philosophy Postgraduate Seminar, August 25, 2004.
The Problem of Divine Hiddenness,Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture, Catholic Institute of Sydney, October 3, 2004.
Evil as Evidence Against the Existence of God,Atheist Society of Victoria, November 9, 2004.
Whither Morality in a Hard Determinist World?,Monash University Philosophy Postgraduate Seminar, May 23, 2005.
Whither Morality in a Hard Determinist World?,Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference, University of Sydney, July 6, 2005.
Does Determinism Render the Problem of Evil Insoluble?,Monash University Philosophy Postgraduate Seminar, October 17, 2005.
Does Determinism Render the Problem of Evil Insoluble?, Conference on Free Will and Moral Responsibility (of which I was the principal organiser), Monash University, November 3 & 4, 2005. Invited speakers: Derk Pereboom (University of Vermont), John Bishop (University of Auckland), J.J.C. Smart (Monash), Daniel Cohen (Australian National University), Neil Levy (University of Melbourne), Daniel Russell (Monash), and Trevor Pisciotta (University of Melbourne).
Non-Realism in Philosophy of Religion, Centre for Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre Dame (weekly discussion group), April 13, 20 and 27, 2007.
Reply to Peter Forrest’s ‘In Defence of Tough-Minded Theodicy’,” APRA Conference, 16 July 2009, University of Sydney.
Deus Loci: The God of Place and the Place of God in Philosophy and Theology, APRA Conference, 17 July 2009, University of Sydney.
Doing Philosophy in Style: A New Look at the Analytic/Continental Divide in Philosophy, presented at: Charles Sturt University (Wagga Wagga, New South Wales), October 7, 2009; Melbourne Phenomenology-Theology Group meeting, November 5, 2009; Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, 1 December 2009, Monash University.
The Sense and Reference of the Essence and Energies, Australian Catholic University philosophy seminar series, 15 March 2010.
Anthropomorphism, Univocity and Idolatry, Centenary Conference of the Melbourne College of Divinity, 6 July 2010.
Does Univocity entail Idolatry?, Third International Conference of the Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association, University of Melbourne, 17 July 2010 (also principal conference organiser for this event).
Truth, or the Futures of Philosophy of Religion, Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture, Catholic Institute of Sydney, 1 October 2010; also presented to the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 24 November 2010; the Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, 4 December 2010, University of Queensland; and The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion Conference, Syracuse University (USA), April 7-9 2011.
The New Phenomenology and Analytic Philosophy of Religion, presented at the Australian Catholic University philosophy seminar series, 9 May 2011; and at the La Trobe University philosophy seminar series, 1 June 2011.
Anti-Theodicy: Problems and Prospects, APRA Conference, University of Auckland, 17 July 2011.
Answering Evil: Theodicy or Anti-Theodicy?, workshop presentation for Anthropos in Australia project, Australian Catholic University, 22 July 2011.
Gregory of Nyssa and the Infinity of God, Patristics Symposium hosted by St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, 14 September 2011.
Non-Academic Presentations
Athanasius on the Incarnation, presented at Monash University Orthodox Study Group, 25 November 2009; and at St Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Fellowship (Moonee Ponds), 1 December 2009.
Poetry reading for the 40th anniversary of the Greek-Australian Cultural League of Victoria, Northcote Town Hall, 13 August 2010.
The Life and Work of Gregory of Nazianzus, presented at the monthly lecture program of the Victorian Youth Division of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia, 6 September 2010; and at the Monash University Orthodox Study Group, 15 September 2010.
The Life and Work of Maximus the Confessor, presented at the Monash University Orthodox Study Group, 23 March 2011; also presented at the Victorian Youth Division of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia, on 1 August 2011.
The Problem of Evil, presented at Living Learning Pakenham Centre, Melbourne, 29 April 2011.
Interviews
The Dark Side: Philosophical Explorations of Evil and Death, La Trobe University Philosophy Radio Program (Sub FM – 88 FM), guest speaker with Tim Oakley (Philosophy, La Trobe), 9 September 2005.
Interview on my work in philosophy of religion, with Luke Muehlhauser, 21 December 2009; available online at http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=5769.
Interviews for Southern Sun, Aegean Light, a poetry anthology I edited: 2MM Radio, Sydney, 10 May 2011 [in Greek]; SBS Radio, 11 May 2011 [in Greek]; 3ZZZ Radio, Melbourne, 16 May 2011 [in Greek].
Awards
1995: Rologas Prize for second-year Modern Greek, University of New England.
1996: Professor D.R. Grey Prize for third-year Philosophy.
2007: Special Commendation, Monash University Faculty of Arts Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher.
2010: Runner-Up, Monash University Faculty of Arts Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher, awarded AU$1000.
Grants
Monash University Graduate Research Scholarship, 2002-2004: annual non-taxable stipend of AU$18,484.
Monash University Postgraduate Travel Grant, October 2002: AU$313.50.
Monash University Postgraduate Travel Grant, February 2004: AU$1,590.
Monash University Philosophy Department Postgraduate Travel Grant, July 2004: AU$650.
Monash University Doctoral Thesis Printing and Binding Grant, January 2005: AU$604.04.
Helen McPherson Smith Trust, research grant, February 2005: AU$10,000 (for project on history of philosophy of religion).
Myer Foundation, research grant, October 2005: AU$12,000 (for project on philosophy in Australasia).
Monash University Faculty of Arts Research Grant, 2005: AU$1,000 (awarded for exceptional research output; to go towards research expenses).
Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 2006-2009: AU$485,000 (for project on philosophy in Australasia).
Monash University New Appointees Grant, 2006: AU$10,000 (to cover research expenses).
University of Notre Dame (USA) Conference Travel Grant, November 2006: US$250.
Monash University Faculty of Arts Research Grant, 2006: AU$3,000 (awarded for exceptional research output; to go towards research expenses).
William Angliss Charitable Trust, research grant, February 2008: AU$1,000 (for project on philosophy in Australasia).
Australasian Association of Philosophy grant, March 2009: AU$4,560 (for project on philosophy in Australasia).
Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 2010-2012: AU$173,000 (for project on models of divinity).
Monash University Europe Travel Grant, AU$6,021 (to undertake research at Cambridge University in November 2010).
Deakin University, seed funding for Research Cluster on “Beliefs, Ethics and Ideology” (of which I was a member): AU$25,000 (awarded April 2010).
Australian Catholic University travel grant: AU$610 (to present paper at Patristics Symposium in Sydney in September 2011).
Membership in Learned Societies
Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association (co-founder)
American Philosophical Association
Australasian Association of Philosophy
American Academy of Religion
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Australian Association for the Study of Religions
Modern Greek Studies Association (USA)
University Service
Member of the Research Standing Committee, Faculty of Philosophy and Theology, Australian Catholic University (January 2011 - Present)
Professional Service
President, Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association (APRA), 2011-12.
Convenor, Philosophy Discussion Group (held weekly, discussion of work-in-progress), Australian Catholic University (2011).
Convenor, Philosophy Reading Group (held monthly), Australian Catholic University (2011).
Convenor, Philosophy seminar series, Deakin University (2010).
Assistant Editor for Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion.
Referee of papers submitted to the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion.
Referee of book proposals (in philosophy of religion) for Palgrave Macmillan.
Member of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese committee for the translation of liturgical texts from Koine Greek to English: 1994-95.
Languages
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Koine/New Testament Greek (intermediate)
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