Lecturer, PhD
English Department, University of Bucharest
soranamihaela.corneanu@g.unibuc.ro, soranacorneanu@yahoo.com
PhD (2008), MA (1998), BA (1997) – University of Bucharest
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Early modern intellectual history (philosophy, theology and literature); philosophy and history of emotions; history of educational thought.
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS & RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANTS
July-Oct. 2012 Go8 European Fellowship, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Oct. 2011 Francis Bacon Fellowship, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Sept. 2010 Research travel grant, Paris, sponsored by the ERC starting grant MOM
Feb. 2010 Research travel grant, Oxford, sponsored by the ERC starting grant MOM
May 2008 Research travel grant, Oxford, sponsored by the University of Bucharest
April 2007 Research travel grant, London, sponsored by New Europe College
2006-2007 NEC Scholarship, New Europe College, Bucharest (doctoral research)
2005-2006 OSI/FCO Chevening Scholarship, Oxford, St. Hilda’s College (doctoral research)
MEMBERSHIP IN RESEARCH GRANTS
2009-2014 Member of European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 241125 MOM Medicine of the Mind and the Reconfiguration of Natural Philosophy: A New Interpretation of Francis Bacon (PI: Prof. Guido Giglioni)
2009-2011 Member of Romanian Research Council (CNCSIS) grant IDEI-PCE (2008) 2067: Science, Politics and Utopia in the Republic of Letters (director of grant: Prof. Vlad Alexandrescu)
Member of Romanian Research Council (CNCSIS) grant IDEI-PCE (2008) 1980: The Cultural Institution of Literature from Early to Late Modernity (director of grant: Prof. Mihaela Irimia)
2008 Member of University of Bucharest research grant IDEI-UB (In)Hospitable Translations (director of grant: Prof. Mădălina Nicolaescu)
2007-2008 Member of the Central European University (CEU) Course Development Centre (CDC) grant Shaping the Republic of Letters: Philosophy, Science and Religion in the Seventeenth Century (director of grant: Prof. Dana Jalobeanu)
AFFILIATIONS
Since 2010 Member of HOPOS (International Society for the History of the Philosophy of Science)
Since 2007 Member of ISIH (International Society for Intellectual History)
Since 2005 Member of CESIC (Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity), University of Bucharest
Since 2004 Member of SSOR (The Romanian Association for Eighteenth-Century Studies)
Since 2002 Member of FME (Foundations of European Modernity Research Centre), University of Bucharest
ACADEMIC EVENT ORGANISATION
May 2011 11th International Society for Intellectual History Conference, Bucharest (co-organised with D. Jalobeanu)
2005-2011 The annual Bucharest-Princeton International Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (member of organising team, with D. Garber, D. Jalobeanu, V. Alexandrescu, L. Petrescu, M. Dobre, S. Costreie)
March 2008 International Conference “Translation: Betrayal or Creative Statement”, funded by the research grant IDEI-UB (In)Hospitable translations, Bucharest (member of organising team, with M. Nicolaescu, O. Popescu, R. Visan, P. Naidut)
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Regimens of the Mind: Boyle, Locke, and the Early Modern Cultura Animi Tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011
Edited volumes
Francis Bacon and the Medicine of the Mind (working title), co-edited with Guido Giglioni and Dana Jalobeanu, special issue of Perspectives on Science, forthcoming 2012
Francis Bacon and Natural History (working title), co-edited with Guido Giglioni and Dana Jalobeanu, special issue of Early Science and Medicine, forthcoming 2012
(In)Hospitable Translations: Fidelities, Betrayals, Rewritings, co-edited with Madalina Nicolaescu, Bucuresti: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2010
Articles
“Idols of the Imagination: Francis Bacon on the Imagination and the Medicine of the Mind” (co-authored with Koen Vermeir), special issue of Perspectives on Science, forthcoming 2012
“Of Statues and Vines: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Question of Persuasion”, Studii de stiinta si cultura 4.23 (2010): 46-58
“Robert Boyle on ‘Right Reason’ and ‘Physical and Theological Experience’” in Vlad Alexandrescu and Robert Thais (eds.), Nature et Surnaturel: Philosophies de la nature et métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2010, 125-136
“Devout Affections: Theology, Medicine, and the Novel” in Mihaela Irimia and Dragos Ivana (eds.), Imitatio-Inventio: The Rise of ‘Literature’ from Early to Classic Modernity, Bucuresti: Editura Institutului Cultural Roman, 2010, 179-197
“Methods of Education”, “The Curriculum”, “Synopsis of Some Thoughts Concerning Education” in S.-J. Savonius-Wroth, P. Schuurman, and J.C. Walmsley (eds.), The Continuum Companion to Locke, London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2010
“Locke on the Study of Nature” in Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2009, 187-207
“To ‘Clear the Mind of All Perturbation’: The Discipline of Judgment in the Seventeenth Century”, New Europe College Yearbook 2006-2007, Bucharest: New Europe College, 2009, 57-94
“‘The Balance of the Mind’: Eighteenth-Century Reflections on Personal Identity across Disciplines” in M. Irimia and D. Ivana (eds.), Odisei (II): O cartografie identitara: Studii de caz, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2009, 247-270
“The Theatrical Self from the Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century: Investigations into the Transformations of a Cultural Topos” in M. Irimia and D. Ivana (eds.), Odisei (I): Trasee conceptuale, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2008, 17-32
“Self-consciousness, appropriation and the concern for happiness: Locke on personal identity” in A. Cornilescu, C. Lupu, A. Vlădescu (eds.), Études sur le XVIIIe siècle, Études canadiennes. Hommages offerts à Irina Bădescu, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2008, 22-45
“Connotations of ‘Self-Love’ in the Early Modern English Literature on the Passions”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, X.2 (2008): 105-112
“Defoe’s Mrs. Veal and the Rhetoric of Certainty”, Romanian Journal of English Studies 3 (2006): 307-318
“‘The Relish of Our Minds’: Locke on Educating the Self”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, VII.3 (2005): 117-122
“Arcana of Politeness: Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, VI.3 (2004): 106-113
“How Can a Trickster be My Friend? Or, The Unexpected Face of the Other”, Analele Universitatii Bucuresti. Limbi si Literaturi Straine, LIII (2004): 35-48
“Striking Images: Loci Memoriae Revisited”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, V.3 (2003): 26-34
“Prospero’s Time” in Vlad Alexandrescu et Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Esprits Modernes. Études sur les modèles de pensée alternatifs aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Arad: University of Bucharest Press and Vasile Goldis University Press, 2003, 193-211
Reviews
“Mathematics and the Cultivation of the Self” (review of Matthew L. Jones, The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution. Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the Cultivation of Virtue, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), Metascience 16 (2007): 509-513
“The Origins of Modern Mind: the Story of a Failure” (review of Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii: filosofie naturală, teologie şi ştiinţă în secolul al XVII-lea, Cluj-Napoca: Editura Napoca Star, 2006), Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion 1 (2007): 235-237
Translations
Stelian Tănase, At Home There’s Only Speaking in a Whisper, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2007
J.L. Austin, Cum să faci lucruri cu vorbe (How To Do Things With Words), Bucureşti: Paralela 45, 2003, 2nd ed. 2005
Pavel Câmpeanu, Ceauşescu: The Countdown, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2003
C.S. Lewis, Sfaturile unui diavol bătrîn către unul mai tînăr (The Screwtape Letters), Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2003
Anthony Burgess, Shakespeare, Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2002
Irina Nicolau, Come on, now! A personal journey through the world of the Aromanians, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2002
Sorin Mitu, National Identity of the Romanians in Transylvania, Budapest: CEU Press, 2001
PAPERS & SEMINARS
2011
“Francis Bacon and the Epistemology of the Imagination”, paper, International Conference “Literature and the Long Modernity”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, November 2011
“Patience: From Moral to Intellectual Virtue”, paper, 13th International Congress of the Enlightenment, Graz, Austria, July 2011
“The Magician’s Imagination in Francis Bacon”, paper (with Koen Vermeir), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, July 2011
“Francis Bacon and the Motions of the Mind”, paper, “Francis Bacon and the Materiality of the Appetites” Conference associated with the ERC starting grant MOM, The Warburg Institute, London, UK, June 2011
“External and Internal Conflict in Early Modern Thought”, paper, Annual Conference of the English Department “Tales of War”, University of Bucharest, June 2011
“Francis Bacon on the Authority of the Imagination”, paper, International Society for Intellectual History Conference “Passionate Minds”, Bucharest, May 2011
“John Locke, the Love of Truth, and Regulative Epistemology”, paper, International Conference “Learning to Feel”, Jerusalem, Israel, April 2011
“John Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding”, paper, Bucharest Graduate Conference in Early Modern Philosophy (invited speaker), Bucharest, Romania, March 2011
“‘The Good of the Mind’: Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Bacon’s Philosophy”, paper, “Francis Bacon and the Medicine of the Mind” Seminar associated with the ERC starting grant MOM, The Warburg Institute, London, UK, January 2011
2010
“The Two Cultures and the Good Life”, paper, International Conference “Authority and the Canon”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, December 2010
“Of Idols and Bonds: Francis Bacon on imagination, judgment and the emotions”, paper, International Seminar “Montaigne et Bacon”, Paris, France, September 2010
“Natural Philosophy, Natural History, and Magic: Bruno, Bacon and Della Porta”, seminar (with Koen Vermeir and Dana Jalobeanu), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, July 2010
“The Generic Context of Francis Bacon’s ‘New Logic’”, paper, History of the Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Conference, Budapest, Hungary, June 2010
“Francis Bacon on the ‘End of Knowledge’ and the Reconfiguration of Learning in the Late Renaissance”, paper, Workshop of the ERC Starting Grant MOM, Bucharest, Romania, May 2010
2009
“Bacon’s Moral Philosophy among the Arts of Tempering the Mind”, paper, Workshop of the ERC Starting Grant MOM, Bucharest, Romania, November 2009
“Rational Passions: Natural Philosophy, Medicine and the Novel”, paper, International Conference “The Rise of Literature, from Early to Classic Modernity”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, November 2009
“Early Modern Regimens of the Mind and the Virtues of Scepticism”, paper, 10th International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) Conference “Translatio Studiorum”, Verona, Italy, May 2009
“The Meanings of ‘Discipline’: Early Modern Educational Thought”, paper, British and American Studies (BAS) Conference, Timisoara, Romania, May 2009
“Knowledge and Self-Cultivation in the Seventeenth Century: New Perspectives”, paper (plenary), IX International Colloquium of the History of the Philosophy of Nature, Campinas State University, Brazil, April 2009
“Boyle on the Study of ‘God’s Works’: What Kind of Discipline?”, paper, International Conference “Beyond Kuhnian Paradigms: Was There a Scientific Revolution in the Seventeenth Century After All?”, Bucharest, Romania, March 2009
2008
“‘The Longest way about is the nearest Way Home’: Robert Boyle on Reading Scripture”, paper, International Conference “Homecoming” associated with the research grant ODISEI of CESIC, Sinaia, Romania, October 2008
“Early Modern Metaphors of the Mind: the Case of ‘Tincture’”, paper, Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Mălâncrav, Romania, August 2008
“The Tutor Figure in Some Early Modern Educational Treatises and Its Ancient Model”, paper, International Conference “Mapping Identity: Case Studies” associated with the research grant ODISEI of CESIC, Bucharest, Romania, May 2008
“Connotations of Self-Love in the Early Modern Literature on the Passions”, paper, Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, June 2008
“The Ethical Dimensions of Translation, via Ricoeur”, paper, Workshop associated with the research grant “In(hospitable) translations”, Bucharest, April 2008
“Robert Boyle on ‘Right Reason’ and ‘Physical and Theological Experience’”, paper, Conférence de l’Université de Luxembourg “Nature et surnaturel”, Université de Luxembourg, Luxemburg, February 2008
2007
“The Solitary Traveller in Cultural Translation: Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Robinson Crusoe and Early Modern Natural Theology”, paper, Workshop associated with the research grant ODISEI of CESIC, Bucharest, November 2007
“Assent and the Passions in the Seventeenth Century”, paper, Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, August 2007
“The Passions, Therapy and Modern Man: Robinson Crusoe meets the Christian Virtuoso”, paper, International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) Seminar, Montpellier, France, June 2007
“Reason and the Passions in the Seventeenth Century”, presentation, NEC Fellows’ Seminar, Bucharest, May 2007
“The Regulation of Assent and the Cultivation of the Self in Seventeenth-Century Thought”, paper, ISIH International Conference, London, UK, April 2007
2006
“The Therapy of the Mind in the Seventeenth Century”, presentation, NEC Fellows’ Seminar, Bucharest, October 2006
“A Regimen of the Mind: Locke on Study and the Interpretation of Scripture”, paper, The 6th EASR and IAHR Special Conference, Bucharest, Romania, September 2006
“Locke’s Inference to Providence”, paper, Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, August 2006
“Individuation in Early Modern Philosophy: Locke”, seminar (with Peter Anstey), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, August 2006
“The Warmth of Inquiry: Locke on Hypotheses, Passions, and the Study of Nature”, paper, British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) Conference, Canterbury, UK, May 2006
2005
“Defoe’s Mrs. Veal and the Rhetoric of Certainty”, paper, BAS Conference, Timisoara, September 2005
“Bacon’s Masques”, paper (with Dana Jalobeanu), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, August 2005
“’The Relish of Our Minds’: Locke on Educating the Self”, paper, Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, June 2005
“Dilettanti, virtuosi, specialists and inter-disciplinarians: reforms of knowledge and public culture from early to late modernity”, paper, Conference of the British Cultural Studies Centre, University of Bucharest, February 2005
2004
“Self to Itself Now: Locke’s Person, Self-conscious and Uneasy”, paper, FME Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Arad, Romania, July 2004
“Arcana of Politeness: Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son”, paper, Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, June 2004
“Descartes’ Ego: Between the Autobiographical and the Metaphysical”, paper, Conference of the British Cultural Studies Centre, University of Bucharest, March 2004
2003
“Descartes’ ego fabulator: from personal to philosophical self”, seminar (with Vlad Alexandrescu), FME International Summer School, Macea, Romania, July 2003
“Striking Images: Loci Memoriae Revisited”, paper, Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, June 2003
“The Winter’s Tale and the Rhetoric of Time”, paper, Conference of the British Cultural Studies Centre, University of Bucharest, March 2003
FME 