Dr. Ginger Hegedus

Dr. Ginger Hegedus

(on sabbatical)

Dr. Ginger Hegedus

Associate Professor

Phone: 4525
Email: ghegedus@uwo.ca

Education

  • L.M.S. - Medieval Philosophy at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (Toronto)
  • PhD  - Philosophy - Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium)
  • MA  - Islamic Studies - University of Budapest

Teaching

  • RS 1023E
  • RS 2204G
  • PHIL 4675G

Research

Islamic Philosophy, Medieval Thought, Jewish Thought

My interest focuses on the different aspects of Medieval Islamic and Jewish Thought and on the various ways in which they are interrelated. On the one hand it is the field of dialectic theology (kalam), a technique of interreligious debates consisting of rational arguments existing both in Islamic and Jewish thought in order to justify the content of the faith. On the other hand, I am interested in comparative mysticism, i.e. techniques and experiences through which the divine can be experienced. Currently I am working on the edition of my monograph on Saadya Gaon, a revised form of my doctoral dissertation, in which I attempt to describe the various interactions between the two religious traditions in the 10th century Baghdad.      

Selected Publications

“The Double Path: The Two Layers of Thinking and the Twofold Nature of Knowledge in the Work of Saadya Gaon” in Vixens Disturbing Vineyards: Embarrassment and Embracement of Scriptures (Festschrift in Honor of Harry Fox) T. Yoreh, A. Glazer et al., (eds) (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010, 385-410. Revised and expanded publication of “The Double Path: The Two Layers of Thinking and the Twofold Nature of Knowledge in the Work of Saadya Gaon” in Reflecting Diversity: Historical and Thematic Perspectives in the Jewish and Christian Tradition, P. Losonczi and G. Xeravits (eds) Berlin and Vienna: LitVerlag, 2007, 43-61. 

“Where is Paradise? Eschatology in Early Medieval Judaic and Islamic Thought,” in Dionysius XXV, December 2007, Dalhousie University Press, 153-176.

“The Finitude of the World and the End of Human Knowledge: The Reformulation of the Philoponean Proofs in medieval Jewish thought,” in Migrating Texts, W. Sweet (ed.), Ottawa University Press.

The Book of Beliefs and Convictions of Saadya Gaon al-Fayyumi (Kitab al-amanat wa-‘1-I`tiqadat). Translation from Judeo-Arabic into Hungarian (Paris-Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2005), pp 288