Projects

This page brings together the main projects that have accompanied my research over the years, from individual fellowships to collaborative initiatives and public-facing ventures. Although these projects differ in scale, context, and form, they all emerge from the same conviction: philosophy is never a solitary monologue. Even when it begins in the silence of reading, writing, and reflection, it grows through encounter, the patient testing of ideas, and the unexpected openings created by dialogue.

Ongoing projects

Global Scholasticism Academic Network | 2025-present
Research network led by Abel Aravena Zamora, Lu Jiang, and Nicola Polloni. Find out more

The Global Scholasticism Academic Network is devoted to fostering the exchange of ideas and interpretations concerning the global history of scholasticism across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A collaborative initiative between the University of Messina (Italy), the University of Playa Ancha (Chile), and Sun Yat-sen University (China), the network – coordinated by Abel Aravena Zamora, Lu Jiang, and Nicola Polloni – organises events, supports research, and promotes dialogue on the global circulation and transformation of scholastic philosophy. The network brings together researchers studying medieval and early modern scholastic traditions, as well as their receptions and reinterpretations in diverse intellectual cultures. Its activities are designed to encourage philosophical dialogue, facilitate the exchange of scholarship, and stimulate new research on the role of scholasticism in cross-cultural transmissions of knowledge.

Research Fellowships and Individual Projects

Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Fellowship | 2023-2024
Research project 101108936: Hylomorphism in a Globalizing World: Scholastic Debates on the Ontology of Nature Across Europe, China, and New Spain (HYLOGLOB). Implementation: Universidade do Porto (PT). Find out more

HYLOGLOB examines how late scholastic debates on matter, form, and the constitution of natural bodies acquired a global significance in the early modern world. Focusing on Europe, China, and New Spain, the project investigates how scholastic theories of nature became interpretative tools through which unfamiliar metaphysical and cosmological systems were approached, translated, and reconfigured. By reconstructing these debates and their wider reception, HYLOGLOB explores the role of scholastic philosophy in processes of cross-cultural encounter, philosophical accommodation, and the formation of early modern global thought.

FWO Senior Research Fellowship | 2020-2023
Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO), Research project 12ZT221N: The Shadow Within Nature: Epistemology and Ontology of Matter in the Late Middle Ages. Implementation: KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy. Find out more

This project explores one of the most elusive concepts in medieval philosophy: prime matter. Conceived as the underlying substratum of all bodily things, prime matter was held to be indispensable to the explanation of natural change, yet profoundly resistant to knowledge. Focusing on the period between roughly 1250 and 1430, the project reconstructs the late medieval debate on the ontological and epistemological status of matter, asking how something so indeterminate could nonetheless function as a principle of nature. In doing so, it offers a new perspective on hylomorphism and its wider philosophical consequences.

Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship | 2018-2020
Research project: Knowing the Shadow: Ontology and Epistemology of Matter in the 13th Century. Implementation: Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), Institut für Philosophie. Find out more

The project investigates the changing status of matter in thirteenth-century philosophy, with particular attention to the question of whether matter could in some sense be known. Within the Aristotelian tradition, matter was usually understood as that which underlies form and resists direct intelligibility. Yet medieval thinkers increasingly began to probe its determination, conceivability, and role within the explanation of nature. By tracing these developments, the project examines a crucial moment in the history of metaphysics and natural philosophy, and the gradual emergence of new ways of thinking about material reality.

IAS Junior Research Fellowship | 2016-2018
DIFeREns2 and EU’s 7^th Framework Programme (grant agreement no. 609412). Research project: The Metaphysics of Grosseteste and Bacon: Between Philosophy and Science. Implementation: Durham University (UK), Institute of Advanced Studies and Department of History. Find out more

This project focuses on the metaphysics of Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon, two major thinkers whose reflections on nature stood at the intersection of philosophy and science. It examines how both authors engaged with earlier Arabic and Jewish thought, especially Avicenna and Ibn Gabirol, in order to rethink questions concerning being, matter, form, and cosmological causation. By following these lines of transmission from medieval Iberia to Paris and Oxford, the project sheds light on the complex movement of ideas that shaped later medieval natural philosophy and transformed the conceptual foundations of scientific thought.

PAST Collaborative projects

This section gathers the main collaborative projects in which I have taken part over the years. These initiatives grew out of shared questions, common intellectual concerns, and the generous exchange of ideas across institutions, countries, and traditions. Each of them marked an important moment in my research path, opening new perspectives and creating conversations that have continued to shape my work well beyond the formal duration of the collaboration.

Recepción y evolución del concepto de anima mundi en el siglo XII | 2023-2025
Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas (grant no. PICT-2021-GRF-TII-00018), Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR), PI: Cecilia Rusconi.

“Certainty without doubt and truth without error”: The Mathematical Epistemology of Roger Bacon | 2021-2024
Tel Hai College (IL), Israel Science Foundation project (grant no. 2773/21), PI: Giora Hon and Yael Kedar.

Teoría finalistas en la Edad Media | 2021-2024
Universidad Católica de Argentina (AR), PI: Laura Corso Estrada.

Ex umbra in solem: Historia de la documentación de la enseñanza de la filosofía natural (Física) a partir de los manuscritos del Colegio Máximo San Miguel y del Convictorio Carolino, Chile (1698–1798) | 2020-2023
Universidad de Playa Ancha (CL), Proyecto Fondecyt Iniciación 11200279 (ANID-Chile), PI: Abel Aravena Zamora.

Greek-Arabic and Latin Biblical and Patristic Manuscripts | 2019-2021
Universidad de Córdoba (ES). Funding Entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, ref. IPGC2018-096807-B-I00, PI: Juan Pedro Montferrer-Sala.

Aristotelica Portugalensia: The Reception of Aristotle in Portugal until the 18th Century | 2018-2025
Instituto de Filosofia, Universidade do Porto (PT). PI: Paula Oliveira e Silva.

Reason, Politics and Society in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy | 2019-2025
Instituto de Filosofia, Universidade do Porto (PT). PI: José Meirinhos.

The Ordered Universe | 2016-2020
Durham University and University of Oxford (UK). Funding Entity: Arts and Humanities Research Council, PI: Giles Gasper.

Unity and Plurality of the Logos in the World | 2016-2018
Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (ES). Funding Entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, ref. FFI2015-63947-P, PI: María Jesús Soto-Bruna.

Editorial Projects and Series

Global Perspectives on the History of Natural Philosophy | 2022-present
Book series, Routledge. Editors: Yael Kedar, Cecilia Panti, and Nicola Polloni. Find out more

Fostering a new approach to the study of the history of natural philosophy this series aims to expand the discussion on natural philosophy cross-culturally and comparatively by focusing on the philosophical reasoning about nature developed particularly, but not exclusively, in three main cultural settings: Europe, the Middle East, and China. One of the main focal points of Global Perspectives on the History of Natural Philosophy is the interplay between philosophical and scientific concepts, stances, and problems arising from the premodern consideration of nature, broadly considered. Accordingly, the series provides a cutting-edge framework in which natural philosophy can be considered from new philosophically meaningful angles. Acknowledging the historical interweaving of philosophy and science of nature, the series publishes monographs and edited volumes dealing with the history of natural philosophy from three methodological perspectives: philosophical analysis, historical reconstruction, and comparative studies.

Piccola Biblioteca di Filosofia Naturale | 2024-present
Book series, Il Melangolo. Editors: Vincenzo Carlotta, Cecilia Panti, and Nicola Polloni.

La Piccola biblioteca di filosofia naturale è una collana di testi storici centrati sullo studio del mondo naturale, proposti per la prima volta al pubblico italiano in traduzione. Questa raccolta si fonda sull’ambizione di abbracciare la molteplicità delle prospettive attraverso cui la riflessione umana ha esplorato il tema della natura, offrendo un’ampia panoramica delle tradizioni filosofiche, scientifiche e letterarie, sia occidentali che orientali, privilegiando il periodo compreso tra l’antichità classica e il diciassettesimo secolo. L’obiettivo della collana è duplice. Da un lato, la Piccola biblioteca mira a far scoprire e apprezzare nella nostra lingua testi che hanno rappresentato momenti fondamentali della “filosofia della natura”. Dall’altro, la collana vuole portare all’attenzione dei lettori scritti oggi dimenticati e che tuttavia meritano di essere riscoperti insieme alle idee che essi propongono. In questa prospettiva, la Piccola biblioteca di filosofia naturale offre traduzioni accurate e accessibili di brevi opere e antologie tematiche su specifici aspetti della riflessione sulla natura.

Outreach Projects

The Black Cow: Global History of Philosophy in Conversation | 2026-present
Quarterly outreach magazine.

The Black Cow is an international open-access magazine dedicated to the global history of philosophy as a field of exchange, transmission, and encounter. With a special focus on premodern thought, it brings together scholarly research, public-facing writing, and methodological reflection in order to trace how philosophical traditions have developed through contact rather than isolation. The project seeks to widen the public presence of the history of philosophy, encourage dialogue across intellectual cultures, and create a space in which rigorous scholarship can speak clearly to broader contemporary concerns.

IPM Monthly: Medieval Philosophy Today | 2022-2025
Monthly digital outreach magazine, ISSN: 3051-6242. Find out more

IPM Monthly is a digital periodical dedicated to fostering dialogue, collaboration, and reflection in the field of medieval philosophy, broadly conceived and approached from a global perspective. The magazine provides a platform for sharing academic insights, reporting on developments in the field, and engaging with both scholarly and public audiences. Our aim is to support the growing international community of researchers, students, and interested readers by offering accessible, thoughtful, and diverse content that highlights the vitality and contemporary relevance of medieval philosophical inquiry.

The Extensions Project | 2019-present
Interdisciplinary outreach project. Find out more

Extensions is an interdisciplinary project that brings together philosophy, art, physics, and psychology to investigate the elusive nature of matter and the limits of perception. Taking as one of its starting points the medieval idea of prime matter, the project explores how absence, invisibility, and indeterminacy can nonetheless be approached through conceptual, visual, and scientific practices. Through collaboration across disciplines, Extensions examines how different forms of inquiry construct, test, and transform our understanding of reality, especially at the margins where what exists resists immediate apprehension.