Research Groups & Facilities

Achilles Project

  • The aim of this project is to bring together a group of scholars working on the history of the Achilles argument, on the interpretation of the work of proponents and opponents of that argument (like Bayle, Clarke, and Mendelssohn on the one hand and Locke, Hume and Kant on the other), and on current issues in the study of consciousness.

ArtLab Gallery

  • Located in John Labatt Visual Arts Centre at Western University, the Artlab Gallery is a vital part of the Department of Visual Arts. The Gallery is focused on projects that involve and respond to social and cultural issues, primarily supporting the research and practice of students and faculty. Each year approximately 14 projects and events are presented, exploring conceptual and experimental production that includes a wide range of mediums..

Bioethics Research Group

  • The Bioethics Research Group is a multi-disciplinary team of established researchers based in London, Ontario who collaborate on a variety of projects of an academic, pedagogical and public awareness nature. Members of the group come from a range of disciplines such as Philosophy, Law and Medicine. Many of the group's researchers have a special interest in ethical issues surrounding the reproductive health care sciences.

Centre for Sustainable Curating

  • The Centre for Sustainable Curating supports research, exhibitions, visual/digital production, and pedagogy focused on environmental and social justice. Located in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University, the CSC encourages research into waste, pollution, and climate crisis, and the development of exhibitions and artworks with low carbon footprints.

Comparative Romanticism Research Group (Romanticism @ Western)

  • To provide a forum for studies in the literature, culture, and theory of the Romantic Period (ca. 1770-1850) in an international and interdisciplinary context

Cultureplex

  • The CulturePlex does research on the several phases of cultural dynamics: creation, transmission, and representation. The different academic perspectives of our researchers —from philosophy to mathematics, computer science, economics, philology, and art history— provide us with a varied toolbox that we use to select, develop and tailor the most appropriate solution for the problem at hand. Doing research on cultural complexity means three things: analyzing the same phenomena at several scales (from the individual's to the network's), employing a multidisciplinary approach, and taking advantage of the available computing power.

Electronic Textuality Research Group

Feminist Philosophy Research Group

  • With eight philosophers in a variety of fields whose work can be classified in full or in part under the rubric “Feminist Philosophy”, Western is one of only 20 philosophy graduate programs in the English-speaking world recognized by the Philosophical Gourmet as having strength in this area. Recently the group was very active in the organization of the XIV IAPh Symposium 2010: Feminism, Science and Values held at The University of Western Ontario. The International Association of Women Philosophers met at The University of Western Ontario in June 2010. It was the organization’s first meeting in Canada and only its second meeting in North America.

Groupe d'Intervention sur la Circulation du Savoir

  • description to come.

G.R.E.L.C.E.F. / Research and Teaching Group on Francophone Literatures and Cultures

  • To study Canadian and international francophone literatures, cultures and languages in a broad sense.

Holocaust Literature Research Initiative

  • The Holocaust Literature Research Institute collects and analyzes published testimonies of Holocaust survivors. The collection is placed in a searchable website.

Kant Research Group

  • The Kant Research Group is a community of scholars based at the University of Western Ontario (in London ON, Canada) with primary research interests in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). The UWO KRG considers all aspects of Kant's philosophy, and issues pertaining to the historical context and reception of Kant's thought is an area of particular interest. In addition to holding regular meetings in which members present their latest research, the UWO KRG supports local conferences and workshops on Kantian topics. It also maintains an archive of digitized texts from the 18th century. VIEW WEBSITE

Language and Cognition Research Group

  • The group's aims are two-fold. First we will continue to draw on empirical work on language and cognition from cognitive science to address issues in philosophy of language and mind, and vice versa. Second, we will consider in depth methodological questions which arise at this interface of philosophy and cognitive science.

Medieval and Renaissance Seminar Research Group

  • The Seminar for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Western was started in the late sixties as a joint venture between History, French, and English (leading lights of the early days were Jack Lander and John Rowe of the Department of History), although it quickly expanded to include members from many other departments and from the affiliate colleges. For its first twenty years, the Seminar focused on very well-attended papers by major scholars in fields of medieval and Renaissance studies, and papers by members of the Seminar.

Performance Studies Research Group

  • The Performance Studies Research Group is an interdisciplinary body made up of more than twenty scholars - both faculty and graduate students - from across the university. We meet twice per term, organizing our gatherings around shared readings from current debates in performance-related disciplines, the presentation of research by members, and lectures by visiting or in-house speakers. While we do not adhere rigorously to the formal definition of "performance studies" emerging from the discipline's American school (developed by Richard Schechner et al, and maintained by such bodies as TDR and Performance Studies International), we come together in our common faith in what Diana Taylor calls performance's power to enact theory, and theory's power to perform "in the public sphere." Our definition of performance is as flexible as the scholars who number among us, and we always welcome new members.

Philosophy & Psychology Research Group

  • The purpose of this research group is to investigate the nature of concepts from philosophical and psychological perspectives. Aims are: 1. Promote interdisciplinary research and collaboration; 2. Obtain external grant money; 3. Read recent publications concerning concepts category learning; 4. Offer a setting for group members to present work in progress to obtain feedback in preparing for publication; 5. Establish UWO as a place to study cognitive science and philosophy of psychology.

Philosophy of Science Research Group

  • The aim is to further our understanding of scientific methodology through detailed examination of scientific theories.

Postcolonial and Globalization Interdisciplinary Research Group

  • To provide a forum for research collaboration at the point of intersection between postcolonial and globalization studies within interdisciplinary contexts.

Sexuality and Gender Research Group

  • Purpose is to serve as a forum for the members to present and discuss new research papers relating to the cultural study of genders and sexualities.

Transatlantic Studies Research Group

  • This research group is devoted to the study of relationships within the Spanish and Portuguese world well as the development of the Spanish language and culture in North America, and the subsequent realignment of the Spanish cultural world.

Upper Canada Society for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

  • The Upper Canada Society for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy is a research group made up of graduate students and faculty members interested in ancient and medieval philosophy. The aim is to offer graduate students and faculty alike a forum to present work-in-progress in a relaxed social setting where they can receive feedback from others working in the area.

Western Early Modern Society Research Group

  • The purpose of this research group is to provide a forum for the presentation of research "work-in-progress" and for the dissemination and exchange of new ideas, research projects, etc.

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy

  • We are scholars, researchers, faculty, and graduate students interested in early modern philosophy broadly conceived. We generally meet bi-weekly as a reading group, meet monthly to discuss new scholarship, and meet as needed to discuss drafts of papers and projects we are working.