Miguel Tamen specializes in philosophy and literature and Portuguese literature. His interests include the philosophy of language, interpretation, and moral philosophy, as well as aesthetics. He is Professor of Literary Theory and Chair of the Program in Literary Theory at the University of Lisbon. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago since 2000. His first book won the Portuguese PEN Club Essay Award (1987). He is the author of six books, among which are Friends of Interpretable Objects (2001) and The Matter of the Facts (2000). Two more books are forthcoming. In 2010/11 Tamen is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Professor Tamen’ talk is sponsored by the Department of Literature and co-sponsored by the departments of History of Consciousness and History of Art and Visual Culture.