Carlos Fraenkel (born March 21, 1971, in Münster, Germany) is a German-Brazilian scholar and writer currently living in Canada. He is James McGill Professor of Philosophy and Religion at McGill University in Montreal^[1] and was previously Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Oxford University.^[2]

Biography

Fraenkel's parents moved to Germany in 1970 as political refugees from the military dictatorship in Brazil. His paternal grandparents were German Jews who fled Nazi Germany and settled in São Paulo. His maternal grandfather is Joaquim Câmara Ferreira, a leader of Brazil's Communist Party, and, in the 1960s, of the armed resistance against Brazil's military dictatorship.^[3]

Work

Fraenkel wrote his Ph.D. (summa cum laude, 2000) at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.^[4] Fraenkel has held visiting professorships at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and the State Islamic University in Makassar, Indonesia ^[5]

Fraenkel's work spans ancient, medieval and early modern philosophy, Jewish and Islamic thought, and political philosophy.^[6] His research interests include Plato, Themistius, al-Fārābī, al-Ghazālī, Maimonides, and Spinoza,^[7] as well as conducting philosophical discussions in places of conflict, for example with Palestinian students, lapsed Hasidic Jews, and members of a Native American community. He has also contributed to the discussion of religious and cultural diversity.^[8]