2026 Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy: A Celebration of Deborah Black

Please join us for the 2026 edition of the University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy.

Program

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18

Session I (3:30 – 6:00 pm)

Martin Pickavé (University of Toronto): Welcome
Stephen Dumont (University of Notre Dame): Deborah as a Scholar, Friend, and Colleague
Peter Adamson (LMU Munich): What’s Truth Got to Do with It? Logic as (Mere) Instrument in Philosophy of the Islamic World

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

Session II (9:30 am – 12:00 pm)

Ginger Hegedus (Western University): Kalamic Mutations in the Thought of al-Qirqisāni and Ashʿarī
Kara Richardson (Syracuse University): Avicenna on Nature as a Stable Efficient Cause

Session III (1:45 – 4:15 pm)

Luis Xavier López-Farjeat (Universidad Panamericana): Ibn Bājja on Imagination and Intellection: An Alternative Interpretation against Averroes’s Reconstruction
Taneli Kukkonen (NYU Abu Dhabi): Averroes on Past and Future Infinity

Session IV (4:30 – 6:15 pm)

Stephen Ogden (University of Notre Dame): Avicenna’s Emanationism and Aquinas’s Critique
Deborah Black: Closing Remarks

All sessions are free and open to the public and will be held in Room 100 of the Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street).

The colloquium is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, the Collaborative Specialization in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, and the University of St. Michael’s College.

Organizers: Reza Hadisi, Peter King, Jon McGinnis, and Martin Pickavé.