Jason Aleksander, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Department Chair

Email: aleksander@sxu.edu | CV (PDF)

Areas of Specialization

• History of Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Philosophy
• Philosophy of Religion

Academic Background

Jason Aleksander earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in May 2007, and he joined the faculty of SXU as an assistant professor in August of that year. He received promotion to associate professor in August 2011. Since June 2011, Aleksander has served as department chair of Philosophy.

Aleksander's immediate research focuses on Dante and Nicholas of Cusa. In 2009, Aleksander was an invited participant in an NEH Summer Seminar sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America in Prato, Italy, on "Dante's Divine Comedy and the Medieval World: Literature, History, Art."

Courses Offered at SXU

• HONORS 151: Honors Philosophy
• HONORS 250: Honors Humanities Seminar (co-taught with Dr. Shannon Ambrose of the Department of English and Foreign Languages in Fall 2012)
• PHIL 140 and PHIL150: The Examined Life
• PHIL 202: Special Topics: Dante's Divine Comedy
• PHIL 271: Philosophy and Literature
• PHIL 273: Philosophy of Religion
• PHIL 285: Philosophy of Human Nature
• PHIL 305: Medieval Philosophy
• PHIL 382: Studies in a Philosophical Text (under this designation, Dr. Aleksander has taught seminars on "Spinoza's Ethics" and "Plato's Timaeus and Medieval Neo-Platonism")

Selected Publications (for a full list of publications, see his CV):

• Aleksander, Jason. "Teaching the Divine Comedy's Understanding of Philosophy," Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Languages, Composition, and Culture 13, no. 1 (2013): 67-76.
• Aikin, Scott F. and Jason Aleksander. "Nicholas of Cusa's De pace fidei and the Meta-Exclusivism of Religious Pluralism." International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion. The online version of the article was published Sept. 1, 2012. The print version is forthcoming.
• Aleksander, Jason. "The Problem of Theophany in Paradiso 33," Essays in Medieval Studies 27 (2011): 61-78.
• Aleksander, Jason. "Dante's Understanding of the Two Ends of Human Desire and the Relationship between Philosophy and Theology." The Journal of Religion 91, no. 2 (April 2011): 158-187.
• Aleksander, Jason. "Modern Paradoxes of Aristotle's Logic." Epoché, vol. 9, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 79-99.

Selected Honors

• College of Arts and Sciences Teacher-Scholar Award, Saint Xavier University, 2012
• Saint Xavier University Excellence in Teaching Award, 2009; also nominated 2008 and 2012
• General Education Program Course Development Fellowship, connected with pilot courses on Dante's Divine Comedy for a new General Education Program Interdisciplinary Seminar Requirement, academic years 2009-2011
• Travel Grant, American Cusanus Society, associated with presentation at Renaissance Society of America Conference in Venice, Italy, April 2010
• With Arthur Morton (SXU Department of Philosophy), Title III Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Grant, Center for the Creation of Engaged Learning Environments, Saint Xavier University, 2010
• Participant in National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, "Dante's Divine Comedy and the Medieval World: Literature, History, Art," sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America, June 15 to July 11, 2009 at Monash University in Prato, Italy
• Scholarship Recognition Award, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Saint Xavier University, 2009
• Travel Grant, National Science Foundation, for travel to the annual meeting of the History of Science Society in November 2007
• Dissertation Enhancement Award, Graduate School, Vanderbilt University, Spring 2006
• Berry Award for Excellent Graduate Student Publication for "Modern Paradoxes of Aristotle's Logic," Department of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University, Academic Year 2004-2005