Amador Vega
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
1115 E. 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Office: Wieboldt 217
Email: amador.vega@upf.edu
Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)
Amador Vega's research and teaching agendas are divided in two main subjects of study; on the one hand, the Christian mystical tradition of the Middle Ages, giving special importance to the Catalan philosopher, theologian, and poet Ramon Llull, as well as to the German mystic and philosopher Meister Eckhart; his second subject of study is the relations between Aesthetics and Religion. Concerning Ramon Llull, he wrote his PhD thesis at the "Raimundus-Lullus-Institut" (Arbeitsbereich: Quellenkunde der Theologie des Mittelalters), at the University of Freiburg, Germany (1992), and more recently published a book, translated to English as Ramon Llull and the Secret of Life (New York: Herder & Herder, 2003). About Eckhart he edited and translated to Spanish from German a selection of his Sermons and Treatises (Maestro Eckhart, El fruto de la nada, [The Fruit of Nothingness] Madrid: Siruela, 2006, 5th ed.). In the study of relations between Aesthetics and Religion, he began 10 years ago a research on the "apophatic aesthetics", in which he study the languages of negativity in the field of art, specifically Abstract Art, such as Mark Rothko's paintings. The main concern in this research is to see the reception of the mystical element on the modern arts. Regarding this last subject, he published two books: Zen, mistica y abstraction [Zen, Mysticism and Abstraction] (Madrid: Trotta, 2000) and Arte y Santidad. Cuatro lecciones de estetica apofatica [Art and Sanctity. Four Lectures in Apophatic Aesthetics] (Pamplona: Catedra J. Orteiza, 2005). His research is founded on his teaching activity at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra, and in other universities in Germany, France, Lebanon, etc. All of his teaching courses from the last thirteen years focus on the ground of this research, specially the post-graduate and PhD. courses.