Postdoctoral Fellows

The Thomas Jefferson Society of Postdoctoral Fellows allows young scholars the opportunity to teach in a collegial interdisciplinary setting while continuing their own research. Fellowships are awarded to scholars in all areas of the liberal arts who have in the past 7 years completed doctoral dissertations on one or more of the great books and have shown a commitment to the interdisciplinary study and teaching of the great books. The fellowships normally carry a teaching load of one course each semester and are renewable for a second year.

This fellowship continues the postdoctoral fellowship program begun by the Jefferson Center’s predecessor, the Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions.  In September 2008, that program brought to UT Austin its first four postdoctoral fellows, who have enriched the intellectual life of the college and taught courses in philosophy, political philosophy, and religion.

Application Information

We are not accepting applications at the present time.

Current Fellows

Patrick Gardner

Dr. Gardner joined the Jefferson Center in August 2010. He specializes in late medieval philosophy and theology, especially the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, but he is also an avid Dantist, and whenever possible studies medieval thought in relation to major themes in Dante's work. More generally, he loves reading and teaching Great Books. He received his B.A. in History and Literature at Harvard University, and his M.M.S. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, where he was advised by the late Ralph McInerny and wrote his dissertation on Dante's contribution to the Patristic and Scholastic problem of the suffering of the separated soul. He is presently completing studies of Dante's relationship to the Neoplatonic tradition, and of the doctrine of two ultimate ends in the Monarchia. If you have never read at least the Inferno, he will warmly recommend that you go to Hell.

Tom van Malssen

Born and raised in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, Tom van Malssen studied Law at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG), before turning to philosophy in an effort to understand the questions the law either answers or prohibits asking. In order for this effort to bear fruit, he turned to Professor Heinrich Meier, who teaches philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (LMU), and whose work on the theologico-political problem is without equal and beyond compare. In the summer of 2011 Van Malssen received his PhD in philosophy with the highest honors (“summa cum laude”). Running counter to certain current preconceptions, his dissertation attempts to show by the example of Francis Bacon that philosophers in modern times neither marched past unconquered fortresses, nor passed by un-abandoned hopes. Besides being interested in perennial works of art, Dr. Van Malssen studies philosophy’s encounter with politics, morality and religion.

Aaron Thurow

Aaron Thurow (PhD, University of Dallas) is a postdoctoral fellow at UT’s Jefferson Center for Core Texts and Ideas. His dissertation examines Shakespeare’s much-debated Sonnets in an effort to understand Shakespeare’s conception of love’s origin, nature, danger, and potential as defined or influenced by the philosophical, theological, and poetic tradition. He is currently working on preparing his dissertation for publication.  His most recent research involves exploring more fully the relationship between the ideas expressed in Shakespeare’s Sonnets and those found in his plays, as well as further exploring the theological complexities of Shakespeare’s examination of love and beauty.

He is a native Texan, having been born in Grapevine, TX.  As an undergraduate he attended Kenyon College in Ohio where he majored in English and Drama while minoring in Classics.  After college he joined the Army Reserves and received training at the JFK Special Warfare College in North Carolina.  His graduate studies at the University of Dallas were interrupted shortly after September 11th when he deployed overseas with the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces. Eventually returning to Dallas, he finished his PhD at the University of Dallas where he also taught core literature classes on authors ranging from Homer to Virgil, Dante, Milton, and Wordsworth before accepting a position at UT. in the Thomas Jefferson Center.