About

 

This is a website devoted to things I paint and draw. I have studied drawing under Yu Kemin (于克敏) at Yunnan Arts Institute (云南艺术学院) and painting under Stephan Balleux at Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

I also write (poetry, fiction and academic prose). As a result, I have a few publications, most recently the book Lettere delle piante agli esseri umani (translated by Giovanni Agnoloni). I also have some academic degrees, most recently a PhD in philosophy from Hong Kong University. See  below for more details.

For commissions and questions, please email me at hello[at]sanjasarman.com.

(©, all rights reserved, for all work on this website.)

MEMBERSHIPS 

  • Svenska Konstnärsförbundet (Swedish Artists Association) 

ACADEMIC DEGREES AND QUALIFICATIONS 

  • PhD in Philosophy at Hong Kong University (2020). Title of Dissertation: Spinoza and the Inevitable Perfection of Being. This dissertation won the Li Ka Shing Prize for best PhD thesis.
  • Certificate of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Hong Kong University (2015).
  • Bachelor of Arts: Major in Literature, minor in ancient Greek, Uppsala University, top grade (2015). Title: Herdens tragiska bett: En undersökning av det tragiska ögonblicket i Nietzsches Så talade Zarathustra mot bakgrund av den tyska idealismens tanketradition.
  • Master of Arts in Theoretical Philosophy – Uppsala University, top grade (2014). Title: Actual Infinity in God and creatures – A Leibnizian Inquiry. 
  • Bachelor of Arts: Major in Philosophy, minor in Latin – Uppsala University, top grade (2010). Title: The Role of the Absolute in the Philosophical Systems of Hegel and Kant.
  • International Baccalaureate, IB South, Stockholm, 40/45 points (2006). 

AWARDS

  • Wenner-Gren postdoktorsstipendium (2022-2023, for working as a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University, Department of linguistics and philology).
  • Panentheism and Religious Life Fellowship, John Templeton Foundation (2021).
  • Li Ka Shing Prize for academic excellence: Best PhD thesis in Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences (2018-2019).
  • Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (2015-2019). 
  • (As part of a team) HKU Class of ’84 Social Inclusion Fund – Social Activities Grant for HKU United – Connecting Through Digital Storytelling (2016).
  • Örstöms Scholarship for studies in ancient Greek and Latin (2008-2009). 

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS 

  • Review of CARLISLE, Claire. Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2021 in Review of Metaphysics (2022).
  • Review of Demystifying Emotions – A Typology of Theories in Psychology and Philosophy. AGNES MOORS, 2022.Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. i–xviii + 382 pp, £95.00 (hb) in Journal of Applied Philosophy (2022).
  • “Spinoza’s Evanescent Self” in Journal of Modern Philosophy (2022).
  • “Spinoza’s Infinite Shortcut to the Contingent Appearances of Things” in Das Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (2021).
  • “Infinity in Spinoza’s Therapy of the Passions” in Infinity in Early Modernism, eds. Ohad Nachtomy and Reed Winegar: Springer (2018).
  • “Report on the 21st International Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, Nietzsche, Life, and The Art of Living” (2015: published in The Mole by the International Nietzsche Society).

PUBLISHED PROSE, POETRY AND LITERARY THEORY 

CONFERENCE PAPERS

  • “Spinoza’s Infinite Shortcut to Contingent Appearance” at Spinoza and Early Modern Philosophy: A Virtual Workshop from John Hopkins University (November 2022).
  • “Spinoza’s Negation Theory of Error and its Metaphysical Foundation” at Septième Séminaire de philosophie moderne à Bruxelles: “L’épistémologie de l’erreur à l’époque moderne”, Université Libre de Bruxelles (December 2019).
  • “Spinoza on Infinity and Contingency” at Department Seminar, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong (January 2019).
  • “Spinoza and Leibniz on the Advantages of Having an Infinitely Unfamiliar Mind” at Seminario del Centro Interdipartimentale di studi su Descartes e il Seicento in collaborazione con il Centre d’études cartésiennes Paris-Sorbonne, Università del Salento, Lecce (March 2018). 
  • “Spinoza’s Dual Concept of Perfection” at Spinozanum Collegianum II, University of Groningen, Groningen (July 2017).
  • “Spinoza’s Theology of the Infinite and its Role in the Love of Fate” at Infinity in Early Modern Philosophy – The NYC Workshop, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem (June 2016).