Staff
Blackfriars brings together under one roof Dominicans and other scholars from the UK, Ireland, and America. Together they offer a wealth of academic and pastoral expertise in teaching and research. Blackfriars welcomes other distinguished scholars as associate lecturers
Richard Finn OP MA DPhil (Oxon) MA MPhil (Cantab)
Regent
Richard Finn is Head of House at Blackfriars Hall and Regent of Studies of the English Dominican Province. He is a member of the Theology Faculty and the Classics Faculty of Oxford University and lectures in Augustine and Church History. He is the author of Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire, published by Oxford University Press, and of 'Asceticism in the Greco-Roman World' published by Cambridge University Press.
Richard Conrad OP MA (Oxon) MA PhD (Cantab) STL STLic (Angelicum)
Vice Regent
Richard Conrad is Vice Regent at Blackfriars, Oxford, having moved at the start of Michaelmas term from Cambridge where he was Prior. Richard is also a part-time lecturer at the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, where he has special responsibility for MA programmes , and is a Studium lector at Blackfriars in dogmatic and sacramental theology. He is the author of The Catholic Faith.
Richard Ounsworth OP BA (Lond) MA MSt (Oxon)
Dr Richard Ounsworth OP is Hall Bursar and Lecturer in Scripture at the Blackfriars Studium. He is currently editing his doctoral thesis on the Letter to the Hebrews for publication.
Simon Gaine OP STL MA DPhil (Oxon)
Simon Gaine lectures in Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at Blackfriars Studium and is a tutor in Theology of the Hall. He is a member of the Theology Faculty of Oxford University. He is the author of Will There Be Free Will in Heaven? Fr Simon is currently assigned to the London Dominican Priory.
Prof. Peter Rona
Senior Research Fellow in Economics
Peter Rona was born in Hungary, moved with his family to America in 1956, and obtained an Honours degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania before further studies with first class honours at University College, Oxford, and a distinguished career in law and business in America where he became in 1986 President and Chief Executive Officer of J. Henry Schroder Bank & Trust Company. He more returned to Hungary in 1991 to serve as Deputy Chairman and CEO of The First Hungary Fund from which he retired in 2003. Between 2004 and 2010 he has taught economics and law at ELTE (Eotvos Lorand University) in Budapest, being named professor of the international law department of the law faculty in 2006. In December 2010 he was appointed to the Supervisory Board of the Central Bank of Hungary. Prof Rona has been in Oxford as a Visiting Fellow of Blackfriars for much of the current academic year, and has given a series of seminar papers on the philosophical foundations of economics. During Michaelmas term 2011 he will deliver a series of lectures on the moral component of complex adaptive system theory as applied to economics.
Roger Scruton
Prof Roger Scruton
Prof Scruton is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall, a Fellow of the British Academy, Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University, and Professorial Fellow in Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of more than 30 books that have been widely translated, including Art and Imagination (1974), The Aesthetics of Architecture (1979), Sexual Desire (1986), Modern Philosophy (1994) and The Aesthetics of Music (1997). His interests extend from philosophy to political and cultural commentary, criticism, and novels. Prof. Scruton chairs a regular seminar for Blackfriars doctoral students.
David Goodill OP MA (Cantab) MPhil (Mancun)
David Goodill was until recently the bursar of Blackfriars Hall and Studium. For a number of years he taught Philosophy at Blackfriars and at Oscott seminary in Birmingham. He is currently away on study-leave at the University of Leuven.
EmailProf David Robertson
Director of Studies in PPE
David Robertson is Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. He is Vice-Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford. The author of numerous books on British politics, with a particular interest in defense and security issues, his web page can be found here.
Michael Demkovich OP STL PhD (Leuven)
Mike Demkovich is the Gerald Vann Visiting Fellow of Catholic Life and Thought at Blackfriars. A friar of the St Albert the Great Province in the United States, he is the Emeritus and Founding Director of the Dominican Ecclesial Institute at Albuquerque. He is resident at Blackfriars until the end of 2011, and teaches courses in the History of Christian Spirituality and Catholic Doctrine. He is the author of 'Introducing Meister Eckhart' (2006) and 'A Soul-Centred Life' (2010). He is a Trustee of the Eckhart Society.
Ian Logan BA PhD (Leeds)
Ian Logan is a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall who teaches Medieval Philosophy. He is author of Reading Anselm’s Proslogion: The history of Anselm’s argument and its significance today (Ashgate 2009) and co-editor with Giles Gasper of Saint Anselm of Canterbury and his Legacy (PIMS forthcoming). His current research projects are ‘Karl Rahner’s philosophy of God’ and ‘Formal logical responses to Anselm’s Argument’. You can visit his Anselm blog at http://anselm2009.blogspot.com/
Stephen Priest MA (Cantab)
Stephen Priest is Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall, where he lectures in Hilary or Trinity Terms. He is a member of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Oxford and a member of Wolfson College, Oxford and Hughes Hall, Cambridge. He is the author of The British Empiricists (Penguin), Theories of the Mind (Penguin, Houghton Mifflin), Merleau-Ponty (Routledge) and The Subject in Question (Routledge). He is editor of Hegel's Critique of Kant (Oxford University Press), Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings (Routledge) and co-editor (with Antony Flew) of A Dictionary of Philosophy (Macmillan). He has authored a number of ebooks. Stephen Priest has lectured widely in universities in Britain, the United States and Europe and his writing has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Macedonian, Dutch, Japanese and Korean. To see his Faculty web page, go to http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/members/stephen_priest
Val Dodd JP MA BLitt (Oxon)
Val Dodd is tutor in English Literature at Blackfriars Hall as well as teaching for the Oxford University Dept. of External Studies and the Stanford University Oxford Programme. She is the author of George Eliot: An Intellectual History and has published articles in various journals including Church History, Studies in Bibliography and The Allen Review.
Peter Hunter OP MA (Cantab) BA (Oxon) PhD (London)
Peter Hunter is lecturer and tutor in Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall. His current interests include the relationship between science and religion.
Rev Prof. John Saward
John Saward is a Senior research Fellow of Blackfriars Hall. He was formerly Professor of the International Theological Institute at Gaming Austria and Aquinas Fellow at the Centre for Faith and Culture in Oxford. He is the author of numerous books and articles including The Mysteries of March, The Beauty of Holiness and Holiness of Beauty, and The Way of the Lamb. He is a consulting editor of Communio and La Nuova Europa.
William Carroll BA (Notre Dame) PhD (Michigan)
Thomas Aquinas Fellow
Dr William Carroll is Thomas Aquinas Fellow in Science and Religion at Blackfriars Hall and a member of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Oxford. He is author of La Creacion y las Ciencias Naturales: Actualidad de Santo Tomas de Aquino and co-author with Steven E. Baldner of Aquinas on Creation.
Benedikt Paul Gocke
Junior Research Fellow
Dr. Benedikt Paul Gocke is Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall and Assistant Professor at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster. He is the author of Alles in Gott? Die Aktualitat des Panentheismus Karl Christian Friedrich Krauses, (forthcoming), the editor of After Physicalism (The University of Notre Dame Press, Spring 2012), the editor of Pantheism and German Idealism (forthcoming) and co-editor of Idealismus und Naturliche Theologie (Verlag Karl Alber, Spring 2011). He has published articles in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and German Idealism in The Heythrop Journal, New Blackfriars, Ratio and The Philosophical Forum. At the moment he is working on the monographs Entailments of Panentheism and Existiert Gott?.
Juliette Day
Dr Juliette Day
Dr Juliette Day is Senior Research Fellow in Christian Liturgy at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. She researches and publishes on early baptismal liturgies ('The Baptismal Liturgy of Jerusalem: 4th and 5th Century Evidence in Jerusalem, Egypt and Syria' [2007]; 'Proclus on Initiation in Constantinople' [2005]); and on methodology in liturgical studies. She is editor of 'Anaphora', the journal of the Society for Liturgical Study; she is currently chair of the Society. Her current research investigates the potential of literary theory for the interpretation of liturgical texts.
Professor James Giordano
Professor Giordano is Samueli-Rockefeller Professor in the Department of Medicine and Neuro Sciences at Georgetown University, and Visiting Fellow of Blackfriars Hall. His research interests include the relationship between ethics and the Neurosciences with special reference to pain control.
Benjamin Earl OP MA MSc (Oxon) JCL (Angelicum)
Benjamin Earl is lector in Canon Law in the Blackfriars Studium. His principal academic interest is in the law of religious institutes. He is also the Provincial Bursar of the English Dominican Friars.
Martin Ganeri OP MA MPhil (Cantab) DPhil (Oxon)
MARTIN GANERI MA, M.Phil (Cantab), DPhil (Oxon) is Prior of Blackfriars, Cambridge. As well as Lector and Tutor in World Religions at Blackfriars Hall he is Lecturer in Theology at Heythrop College, University of London and Director of the Centre for Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue, Heythrop College. His main areas of teaching and research are Catholic approaches to other religions, world Christianity and Asian religions.
John Patrick Kenrick OP BA (Exon) MA (Oxon) PhD (Cantab)
John Patrick Kenrick is Novice Master of the English Dominican Province and a visiting Lecturer in Moral Theology for the Blackfriars Studium.
David Sanders OP BA (London) DipTheol (Oxon) STLic
David Sanders was for many years a member of the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University. He is a lecturer in the Blackfriars Studium in Scripture. His interests include adult education, liberation theology, and religious formation.