James Conant

Professor James Conant has spent the past two decades cultivating a partnership with the University of Leipzig that has brought together renowned philosophers of two different fields of thought: analytic philosophy and continental philosophy. The exchange of ideas connected German and American philosophy, overcoming the intellectual divide and transforming the field of philosophy.

Today the Humboldt Project is a multi-level, interdisciplinary cooperation that funds visiting fellowships and professorships for doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty from cooperating institutions, as well as international conferences and graduate student workshops. Since 2015, over 65 students have participated in the exchange by traveling to the partner institution, taking courses, strengthening their dissertation research and language skills, while networking with German scholars, taking specially designed intensive seminars, and presenting at academic conferences in Germany and Austria. At the same time, over 20 faculty members — ten from each partner institution — have participated in exchanges, teaching intensive seminars and participating at conferences. While UChicago’s Center for German Philosophy and the University of Leipzig’s FAGI (Forschungskolleg Analytic German Idealism) remain at the core of the cooperation, the partnership has expanded to include research centers in Greece, Israel and the United Kingdom.