Prof Jeff Malpas
Professor Jeff Malpas
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Jeff Malpas is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. He is also Honorary Professor at Latrobe University and at the University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and Vice-President of the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows. During his time at the University of Tasmania, where he held the Chair of Philosophy from 1999-2018 and was Distinguished Professor (across both the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science and Engineering), from 2012-2018, he held positions as Head of School, founding Director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Ethics (later the Inglis Clark Centre), Director of University Collections, Director, University Theme Area, ‘Community, Place and Change’, Director, Buddhist Studies in India Exchange Program, and was also Professor of Philosophy in Architecture. Previously he held Humboldt Research Fellowships at the University of Heidelberg, Munich University, and University of Freiburg; and was also Associate Professor at Murdoch University, in Perth. During his time at Murdoch, he was Head of the Politics, Philosophy, and Sociology Section, and founding Head of the Philosophy Programme Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee, Research Manager and Chair of the School of Humanities Research Committee, and jointly coordinated the Murdoch/U.W.A. Joint Ethics Consultancy.He has held visiting positions at universities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong, and China.
Jeff as been the holder of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Professorial Fellowship (2007-2012), Chief Investigator for 5 Discovery Grants, 1 Large Grant, and 2 Linkage Grants, as well as leading a successful bid, while at Murdoch University, for an Infrastructure B Grant involving Mudoch and UWA.
Jeff has served an Australian Research Council Expert Advisor on both the Discovery and Future fellowship panels as well as serving on the European Research Council for both the Consolidator and Advanced Grants and the Synergy Scheme. He provides assessment advice to agencies and foundations in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Norway, Poland, Czech Republic, and Spain.
Jeff is the author or editor of some thirty books, and over 150 scholarly articles and book chapters. Most of his philosophical work has focused around five main areas – German post-Kantian philosophy (esp. Heidegger and Gadamer); 20thC American Philosophy (esp. Davidson and Rorty); hermeneutics and philosophy of language; philosophy of place and space (including philosophy of art and philosophy of architecture, among other areas); and the critique of modernity (including the critique of contemporary bureaucracy and management). Beyond philosophy, his work has been highly interdisciplinary, extending across a wide range of disciplines. He has been involved in collaborative research projects in architecture, archaeology, design (including digital design and digital media), the creative arts, history, sociology, and medical humanities.
The fifty or more doctoral students he has supervised to completion have included students in philosophy, but also in sociology, geography, anthropology, and environmental studies, architecture, design, and the creative arts. In 2006, he received the University of Tasmania’s inaugural postgraduate supervision award “in recognition of significant and sustained contribution to graduate research education and training at The University of Tasmania”. He has also supervised (and continues to supervise) postgraduate students at other Australian universities and overseas.
Jeff is co-editor (with Jessica Dubow), of the series Toposophia: Sustainability, Dwelling, Design published by Rowman and Littlefield and is also co-editor (with Claude Romano) of Contributions to Hermeneutics published by Springer Verlag. He has served as co-editor of the Journal of Philosophy of History and corresponding editor of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
Jeff has been engaged in consultancy and training work with private and public sector organizations over almost thirty years, beginning with the WA Ethics Consultancy (a partnership between Murdoch University and the University of WA) and continuing with the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Tasmania. He has been active as a public commentator in print, radio, and online media, and with Sir Max Bingham argued for the need to establish an Ethics Commission in Tasmania (leading to to the Tasmanian Integrity Commission – though the final model differed significantly from that recommended).
IMG: Randall Lindstrom - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0