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 The University of Hong Kong. See  below for a selection.

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

UPDATE: I will be on leave for much of the academic year 2023-2024!

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

ACADEMIC DEGREES AND QUALIFICATIONS 

• PhD in Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong (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, the University of Hong Kong (2015).
• Bachelor of Arts: Major in Literature, minor in ancient Greek, Uppsala University (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 (2014). Title: Actual Infinity in God and Creatures – A Leibnizian Inquiry. 
• Bachelor of Arts: Major in Philosophy, minor in Latin – Uppsala University (2010). Title: The Role of the Absolute in the Philosophical Systems of Hegel and Kant.
• International Baccalaureate, IB South, Stockholm (2006). 

AWARDS

• Wenner-Gren postdoktorstipendium (2022-2024) for a position as a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University, Department of linguistics and philology.
• Panentheism and Religious Life Fellowship (2021).
• Li Ka Shing Best PhD Thesis Prize for academic excellence (2018-2019).
• Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (2015-2019).
• Örstöms Scholarship for studies in ancient Greek and Latin (2008-2009).

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS 

• “Essence, Existence and Being: An Inconsistency in Spinoza’s Metaphysics,” in The Review of Metaphysics (2023).
• 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).

SELECTED PROSE

• Lettere delle piante agli esseri umani, translated by Giovanni Agnoloni, Ortica Editrice, 2023.
• “Avsked från vägvisaren till underjorden – en kommentar till Dante,” in Nya Argus (2022).   
• “Emerald Eyes,” in The Cosmic Bulletin II, published by the Institute of the Cosmos (2021).
• “Letters from Plants to Humans,” in The Cosmic Bulletin, published by the Institute of the Cosmos in collaboration with The Riga International Biennal of Contemporary Art 2, RIBOCA2 ( 2020).

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).