{"id":3,"date":"2012-02-14T23:30:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T23:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/"},"modified":"2024-09-20T04:09:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T09:09:18","slug":"homepage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>William Franke is Professor of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy and Religions at the University of Macao (2013-16). He is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and has been Fulbright-University of Salzburg\u00a0Distinguished Chair\u00a0in Intercultural Theology and\u00a0Study of Religions. He is named among &#8220;arguably the three most distinguished scholars of comparative literature and religion in the world&#8221; by Stephen Morgan, <em>Sacred and the Everyday: Comparative Approaches to Literature, Religious and Secular<\/em> (Macao: Orientis Aura, 2021), 5. He became\u00a0<em>Profesore Honoris Causa<\/em>\u00a0of the <em>Agora Hermeneutica<\/em>, International Institute for Hermeneutics in 2021. <a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/13-14-2-franke-final-website-author-corrected\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3733\">Franke IIH Commencement Address<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Currently, Franke is the Francesco de Dombrowski Visiting Professor at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti) in Florence, Italy (2024)<\/p>\n<ul style=\"clear: both\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/cv-franke-2024\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4070\">CV Franke 2024<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"About My Books\" href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/books\/\">Books<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/books\/#books-by-willam\">Books by William Franke<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/books\/#broken_down\">Broken down by Subject Area<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/selected-critical-comments-on-frankes-works\/\">Selected Critical Comments on Franke&#8217;s Books<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/2018\/09\/books-by-others-about-william-frankes-books-general-review-essays\/\">Books by Others about William Franke&#8217;s Books + General Review Essays<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/books\/#serial_presentation\">Serial presentation in reverse order of appearance of William Franke&#8217;s books<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/publications-online\/\">Publications Available Online<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Lectures and Events\" href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/\">Lectures and Events<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#KEYNOTES\">KEYNOTES &#8211; For International Academic Associations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#SYMPOSIA\">SYMPOSIA &#8211; On William Franke&#8217;s Work<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#ACADEMIC_LECTURES\">ACADEMIC LECTURES &#8211; Named Lectures, Anniversary Lectures, Lecture <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#ACADEMIC_LECTURES\">Series<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#PUBLIC_TALKS\">PUBLIC TALKS AND SEMINARS<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/lectures-and-events\/#EVENTS_IN_SERIAL\">EVENTS IN SERIAL ORDER OF OCCURRENCE<\/a>\u00a0(THROUGH 2019)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/events-in-serial-order-of-occurrence\/\">EVENTS IN SERIAL ORDER OF OCCURRENCE (RECENT AND COMING ONLY) <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/william-franke-keynote-named-and-invited-lectures\/\">LECTURES LIST (2009-2020)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/2018\/08\/video-taped-lectures\/\">VIDEO-TAPED LECTURES<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Media Documents\" href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/media-documents\/\">Media Documents<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/current-courses\/\">Courses Taught<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/dissertations-directed\/\">Dissertations Directed<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/creative-responses-to-my-work\/\">Creative Responses to Franke&#8217;s <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/creative-responses-to-my-work\/\">Work<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/2018\/08\/video-taped-lectures\/\">Video-taped Lectures<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/podcasts\/\">Podcasts<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Brief Academic Biography<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/main-47.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-357\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/main-47-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>William Franke trained in philosophy and theology at Williams College (B.A. 1978) and Oxford University (M.A. 1980) and in comparative literature at UC\u00a0Berkeley (M.A. 1988) and at\u00a0Stanford (Ph.D. 1991). He has published philosophical and theological interpretations of epoch-making poets, ancient to modern,\u00a0including Virgil,\u00a0Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Yeats;\u00a0Leopardi, Manzoni, Montale; Racine, Baudelaire, Jab\u00e8s; H\u00f6lderlin, Rilke,\u00a0Celan; Dickinson, Eliot, and Stevens. He has also published theoretical essays in hermeneutics and dialectics, treating such subjects as figurative rhetoric, dialectical and deconstructive logic, negative theology, dialogue, and psychoanalysis as a hermeneutics of subjectivity.<\/p>\n<p>His books include, first, <em>Dante\u2019s Interpretive Journey,<\/em> published in 1996 in the Religion and Postmodernism series of the University of Chicago Press.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0elaborates an existential\u00a0theory of interpretation\u00a0that critiques modern hermeneutic theories, particularly\u00a0those of Heidegger and\u00a0Gadamer,\u00a0on the basis of the medieval theological vision of the <em>Divine Comedy<\/em>.\u00a0 It is followed-up by <em>Dante and the Sense of Transgression: &#8220;The Trespass of the Sign&#8221;<\/em> (Bloomsbury [Continuum], 2013), which considers deconstructive theories of language and literature in relation to the <em>Paradiso<\/em> and develops a critical negative theology of language and literature.\u00a0 Two further books extend Franke&#8217;s interpretation of poetry as theological revelation in oppositely oriented historical directions:\u00a0 <em>The Revelation of Imagination: From the Bible and Homer through Virgil and Augustine to Dante<\/em> (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2015) develops this mode of humanities knowing out of Dante&#8217;s own essential source texts in antiquity and the Middle Ages, while <em>Secular Scriptures: Modern Theological Poetics in the Wake of Dante <\/em>(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2016) traces the extension Dante&#8217;s theological vision into the modern era of secularized prophetic poetry and poetics<\/p>\n<p>Franke&#8217;s two-volume anthology-cum-history-and-theory, <em>On What Cannot Be Said<\/em> (Notre Dame University Press, 2007), proposes a synoptic view of the Western tradition of apophatic discourse from Plato to postmodernism.\u00a0 His own apophatic philosophy is developed more directly in <em>A Philosophy of the Unsayable <\/em>(University of Notre Dame Press, 2014).\u00a0 Another critical-philosphical monograph,\u00a0<em>Poetry and Apocalypse<\/em> (Stanford University Press, 2009), offers a theological reading of poetic language in the Christian epic tradition from the Bible and Dante to James Joyce.\u00a0\u00a0It grounds this critical\u00a0interpretation philosophically in\u00a0a negative theology of poetic language.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0openness to apocalypse\u00a0entailed by\u00a0this outlook\u00a0is shown\u00a0to be\u00a0key to genuine dialogue between cultures.\u00a0 Such intercultural dialogue is centrally the concern of the forthcoming monograph <em>Apophatic Paths from Europe to China: Regions Without Borders.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Spring 2020, he is visiting professor (Profesorado Internacional), at the University of Navarra in Spain (Philosophy Department). He has been Visiting Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong (Fall 2005) and\u00a0Fulbright Distinguished Chair\u00a0in Intercultural Theology and\u00a0Study of Religions at the University of Salzburg (Spring 2007).\u00a0 He is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (1994-95), a senior fellow of the International Institute for Hermeneutics (IIH), and has received international fellowships also from the Camargo Foundation (Fall 1999), and the Bogliasco Foundation (Spring 2006, Fellow in Philosophy).\u00a0 He has been Professor of French-in-residence at Vanderbilt-in-France in Aix-en-Provence (2008) and a member of the Dante Society Council by general election of the Dante Society of America.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=feTIpCg4f9U<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: x-large\">Intellectual Project<\/span><\/h2>\n<div>My early and continuing training in philosophy and theology forms the matrix for my work in the criticism and theory of literature.\u00a0 I concentrate on questions of how to read poetry as a disclosure of truth, a way of relating to the real, and even as \u201crevelation\u201d in a religious sense.\u00a0 Dante has been a key author for me ever since my doctoral dissertation, the fulcrum for readings of poetry as apocalypse in literature ranging from the Bible and Homer through German Romantics,\u00a0Emily Dickinson,\u00a0and French symbolists to James Joyce and contemporary poets like Paul Celan, Edmond Jab\u00e8s, Samuel Beckett, and Wallace Stevens.\u00a0 My readings of poets are at the same time attempts to develop philosophical theories of how language performs in the invention of worlds and realities, including\u00a0<em>other<\/em> worlds and\u00a0<em>sur<\/em>realities.\u00a0 Language can even go beyond the world,\u00a0or evoke a dimension that revokes the world altogether, and so become apocalyptic. \u00a0I focus on this penchant of poetic language in my monograph,\u00a0<em>Poetry and Apocalypse: Theological Disclosures of Poetic Language<\/em> (Stanford University Press, 2009).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My first book,\u00a0<em>Dante\u2019s Interpretive Journey <\/em>(University of Chicago Press, 1996) proposes a poetic and theological philosophy of interpretation.\u00a0\u00a0It places the theological hermeneutics of Dante\u2019s poem into dialogue with modern philosophical hermeneutics as developed particularly by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer.\u00a0 It is, in fact,\u00a0&#8220;A Hermeneutical Dialogue between the\u00a0<em>Comedy<\/em> and Modern Thought&#8221;\u2014as declared by\u00a0the original sub-title, which was lost in the process preceding publication.\u00a0\u00a0It thereby brings to focus the existential and theological structures of interpretation by which our lives in language are constructed in poetic ways that Dante&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Divine Comedy <\/em>eminently illustrates.\u00a0\u00a0Dante&#8217;s poem enacts a comprehensive interpretation of the world as poetically invented within a theological horizon and projected\u00a0upon the existence of its readers.\u00a0 Dante&#8217;s direct address to his readers summons them to repeat and poetically re-make his experience of conversion\u00a0in their own acts of\u00a0interpretation:\u00a0 the address thereby becomes the locus of an original event of truth and potentially divinity in readers&#8217; lives.\u00a0 The poem&#8217;s\u00a0enactment\u00a0through its reader of a disclosure of the world in its final, eschatological meaning effectively critiques modern theories of interpretation in their closure to poetic making as potentially an event of suprahistorical truth.\u00a0 Such reflection opens original insights into the nature of interpretation,\u00a0especially\u00a0 insights regarding\u00a0its existential grounding in\u00a0and openness to transcendence of the sort\u00a0realized in\u00a0incarnate religious revelation.\u00a0 In Dante, and through him in every reader or interpreter, the personal, passionate existence of the historical individual becomes intrinsic to theological\u00a0revelation&#8211;to an apocalyptic disclosure of the ultimate\u00a0significance of human life.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This initial\u00a0project, through fairly exhaustive exploration of its central concern, led me to the limits of the concept of\u00a0interpretation.\u00a0 Consequently, much of my subsequent work has been concerned with the question of what resists all efforts of interpretation and therefore\u00a0of saying\u2014or, in other words, with the &#8220;beyond&#8221; of language.\u00a0 This topic of &#8220;ineffability&#8221; becomes arguably Dante&#8217;s main preoccupation in his final work, the\u00a0<em>Paradiso<\/em>, and I realized that to complete my speculative engagement with the\u00a0<em>Divine Comedy,<\/em> I required another theoretical paradigm beyond hermeneutics, beyond philosophies of interpretation.\u00a0 To this end, I\u00a0undertook to investigate the problem of ineffability in ancient and medieval tradition but also in modern thought and culture generally, since we approach\u00a0our past always only in and through our present.<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>On this topic, I composed a\u00a0two-volume anthology-cum-history-and-theory entitled:\u00a0<em>On What Cannot Be Said: Apophatic Discourses in Philosophy, Religion, Literature and the Arts <\/em>(vol. 1:\u00a0<em>Classical Formulations<\/em>; vol. 2:\u00a0<em>Modern and Contemporary Transformations<\/em>).\u00a0 It\u00a0was published in 2007 by the University of Notre Dame Press.\u00a0 The prefaces present a theoretical framework defining apophasis as a genre (Volume 1) and as a mode (Volume 2) of discourse.\u00a0 The\u00a0introductions propose a historical outline of apophasis as the pivot for an alternative history of Western thought, the history of what was\u00a0never written nor explicitly said and yet conditioned and impinged on, from beyond the threshold of language, all discourse and theory in\u00a0this intellectual tradition.\u00a0 Twenty-seven principle\u00a0authors and their\u00a0seminal texts are introduced in each volume.\u00a0 The series begins from Plato and the Neoplatonic commentaries on the\u00a0<em>Parmenides<\/em>and moves through medieval and baroque mysticisms, which are compared to Kabbalah and Sufi mysticism, in Volume 1.\u00a0 Volume 2\u00a0treats poets of the\u00a0unsayable\u00a0from H\u00f6lderlin and Dickinson\u00a0through Rilke\u00a0and Celan,\u00a0along with philosophers of the limits of language, including Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, Weil, Levinas, Derrida, and Marion.\u00a0 It\u00a0also considers theories by Schoenberg, Jank\u00e9l\u00e9vitch, Adorno, and\u00a0Cage of how music verges upon silence,\u00a0and it\u00a0sounds\u00a0negative discourses\u00a0of architecture and painting as conceived by Malevich, Kandinsky, and van der Rohe, among others.<\/p>\n<p>I pursue the limits of language and interpretation\u00a0further, marking their tension with the exigencies of poetic disclosure\u00a0and religious revelation, in my next published\u00a0monograph.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Poetry and Apocalypse: Theological Disclosures of Poetic Language <\/em>offers an interdisciplinary synthesis, combining a philosophical theory of dialogue (worked out in dialogue with the theory of J\u00fcrgen Habermas);\u00a0a literary-critical interpretation of poetic language in the apocalyptic tradition; and a negative theology that renews certain fundamental impulses and insights of revealed religion.\u00a0 It is concerned with finding the premises for dialogue between cultures, especially between religious fundamentalisms, like the Islamic, and modern Western secularism.\u00a0 The common ground is found precisely in connection with the unsayable, where no party to the discussion can impose its own terms.\u00a0 The thesis is that dialogue in general, in order to be genuinely open, needs to be able to open up to such a possibility as religious apocalypse in ways that can be understood best through the experience of poetic language.\u00a0 Poetic language in a tradition traced from the Bible through Dante, Milton, and Blake to\u00a0<em>Finnegans Wake<\/em> enacts a breaking down of all humanly manipulated systems of communication in an apocalyptic opening to what is absolute and beyond saying.\u00a0 The book interprets the Christian epic and prophetic tradition as a secularization of religious revelation that nevertheless preserves an understanding of the essentially apocalyptic character of truth and its disclosure in history.\u00a0 The usually neglected negative theology that underwrites this apocalyptic tradition provides the key to a radically new and open understanding of apocalypse as inextricably religious and poetic at the\u00a0same time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>One of the great challenges of scholarship for me is to intervene in a diversity of fields.\u00a0 My goal has been to become conversant with the specific terms of different areas of study\u2014different periods and literatures, languages\u00a0and disciplines\u2014and then to make connections between them on the basis of the concerns they share in common as reflected upon philosophically in my own terms.\u00a0\u00a0Thanks to\u00a0this method, the mosaic of my scholarly writings presents\u00a0a wide range\u00a0of materials framed\u00a0by a general philosophy of the humanities.\u00a0 This philosophical reflection on literature and the humanities is what my directly theoretical writings aim to\u00a0develop more explicitly.\u00a0 I\u00a0sketch an epistemology of knowledge in the humanities in &#8220;The Humanities as Involved Knowing&#8221;\u2014the Introduction to my book manuscript,\u00a0<em>The Revelation of Imagination: From the Bible and Homer through Virgil and Augustine to Dante.<\/em> The five ensuing chapters then elucidate the special nature of this type of knowledge as personal, relational, contextual, and temporal-historical in a sequence of\u00a0readings of founding texts of Western civilization.\u00a0 I\u00a0examine exactly how each of these humanities texs opens upon a religious dimension of transcendence.\u00a0 The underlying concern, as in\u00a0of all of my writings in one way or another, is to demonstrate the determining role\u00a0of poetic creation\u00a0in religious revelation.\u00a0 I aim\u00a0thereby to render intelligible the authenticity of such revelation.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Further Perspectives on my Work and its Future<\/h2>\n<div>In developing and advocating my theory of poetic literature as religious revelation, I have\u00a0pursued especially the challenge of extending my scholarship into further fields and disciplines.\u00a0 This mobility reflects the ethos of comparative literature as a discipline and also corresponds to my personal\u00a0intellectual temperament.\u00a0 Once a discourse becomes \u201cestablished\u201d within the boundaries of a\u00a0certain field of specialization, it begins to die:\u00a0 its authoritative status, as proved by the consensus of the &#8220;experts,&#8221; becomes an impediment to untrammeled creative thinking.\u00a0 I felt compelled rather to attempt to traverse fields and cross boundaries by becoming conversant\u00a0with\u00a0the vocabularies of multiple disciplines.\u00a0 This is how I have sought proof of the relevance of my contribution not to specialized scholarship so much as to the perennial Odyssean adventure of the intellect.\u00a0 Humanities knowledge is essentially in movement and in transition.\u00a0 Rather than devoting myself to defending the hermeneutic paradigm and its application to the\u00a0<em>Divine Comedy <\/em>that\u00a0I laid out in my first book, I chose to\u00a0take my essential insights\u00a0in directions surpassing the limits of this framework.\u00a0 I began to explore the variety of ways\u00a0in which\u00a0poetry aspires to become prophecy&#8211;to perform some type of philosophical\u00a0and ultimately\u00a0religious revelation.\u00a0 So interpreted,\u00a0poetry\u00a0re-enacts\u00a0the Promethean attempt to adapt divine fire to human uses.\u00a0 This idea of poetry as theological revelation has guided my work on Greek and Roman classics, the Bible, French Renaissance and German Baroque literature, as well as English and Italian Romanticism, Modernism, and contemporary movements in poetry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>I have been interested in the connections between humanities disciplines\u00a0over\u00a0the whole arc of development of Western culture, as well as in comparative perspectives with non-Western cultures (for instance, in my essay on Mahatma Gandhi &#8216;s ethics and the postcolonial discourse of Edward Said and in my course at the University of Salzburg on Apophaticism East and West, dealing with oriental expressions such as Advaita Vedanta, Nargajuna&#8217;s Buddhism, and the Tao).\u00a0 The point of my scholarship has not been to establish definitive details so much as to grasp the epochal movement of humanities knowledge across different disciplines down through the ages.<\/p>\n<p>This scope has been made possible partlcularly by my teaching roles in humanities and comparative literature.\u00a0 At Vanderbilt in comparative literature for the first fifteen years of my teaching carrer, as well as in a number of teaching appointments abroad, I have been responsible not for some specialized field like medieval Italian literature.\u00a0\u00a0This\u00a0would have been the case for me in a national literature department at\u00a0most major universities, but my appointment from the outset was rather to a comparative literature program at a moderate-sized research university.\u00a0 My training in Italian and especially in Dante placed me in the center of Western humanities tradition,\u00a0yet I was more often called upon to speak to the interests of students in modern literature and theory.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0great part\u00a0of my publications are in fact\u00a0on modern poetry and thought.\u00a0\u00a0However, my most concentrated knoweldge is in ancient and medieval culture, and these backgrounds have likewise proved continuously fruitful.\u00a0 My\u00a0training in\u00a0philosophical\u00a0theology, moreover, has helped me to elaborate a comprehensive view of literature as disclosure of truth modeled on prophetic revelation from its inception in both Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultural matrices.\u00a0 Viewed together, the various components of my work propose in embryo a religious philosophy of the humanities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>All my work in a sense has revolved around Dante\u2019s\u00a0<em>Divine Comedy<\/em> taken heuristically as the most complete instance of literary creation and poetic revelation at the center of Western tradition. \u00a0I\u00a0view the\u00a0<em>Comedia<\/em> as revealing in its plenitude the\u00a0educative purpose and mission of literature in the world that is still our own.\u00a0 My readings of literary works as disparate as contemporary lyric poetry, classical epic, and Renaissance drama are not all separate undertakings.\u00a0 All are extensions of\u00a0an\u00a0interpretation of literature that is founded on the realization of poetic potential in its fullness in Dante\u2019s\u00a0<em>magnum opus<\/em>.\u00a0 Each reading reflects on and illuminates the others.\u00a0 The theoretical concepts I employ vary, but they together make up a coherent approach to knowledge in the humanities.\u00a0 The unity of my work is defined not by its content in historical or geographic or generic terms.\u00a0 It is not\u00a0delimited by being confined to a specific field of specialization or\u00a0by parameters of time or space, but\u00a0by its making a new conceptual whole out of the variety of texts and periods, cultures and languages that it engages and interprets.\u00a0\u00a0This is not a preexisting unity but one forged by\u00a0the work itself.\u00a0\u00a0Such is the synthetic function of thought in general, and it is embodied with peculiar intensity in my critical and theoretical writing.\u00a0 This writing forms a corpus that makes a distinctive statement about what the capabilities and responsibilities of literary thinking in our time truly are.\u00a0 It proposes a philosophy of dialogue between radically incommensurable persons, mind-sets, and cultures and\u00a0elaborates\u00a0a poetics of revelation reaching into the religious sphere of the wholly other and ineffable.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>My backgrounds in philosophy and theology, acquired early on in my career, have enabled me to\u00a0undertake such a project.\u00a0 Having earned a BA in philosophy from Williams College, I pursued studies\u00a0to the master\u2019s level at Oxford University.\u00a0 I have continued theological study, oftentimes in the context of sojourns in various religious communities, including monastic orders and evangelical seminars.\u00a0 I have also participated in philosophy colloquia and summer sessions, for instance, repeatedly at the\u00a0<em>Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici<\/em> in Naples and the\u00a0<em>Collegium Phenomenologicum<\/em> in Perugia, Italy, as well as in France\u00a0at Cerisy (Centre Culturel International) and Evian (International Philosophy Colloquium).\u00a0 I have\u00a0been helped\u00a0to envisage contemporary issues in theory and culture concretely\u00a0in a global perspective thanks especially to long-term residential fellowships in Potsdam (Germany), Cassis (France), and Bogliasco (Italy), as well as to semester-long\u00a0appointments as Visiting Associate Professor\u00a0of Comparative Literature at the University of\u00a0Hong Kong and as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Intercultural Theology and Study of Religion at the University of Salzburg.<\/p>\n<p>The Hong Kong appointment permitted me, furthermore,\u00a0to participate in international conferences well beyond Europe and North\u00a0America\u00a0in Kuala Lampur, Malasia, in Canberra, Australia, and in Udaipur, India, and in each case I contributed to resulting publications with reflections touching on international aspects of literary study and theory.\u00a0 At the University of Salzburg, I lectured on Intercultural Theology and taught\u00a0seminars in German, and I am invited for the future to teach in German on modern atavisms of ancient myths\u00a0in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of T\u00fcbingen.\u00a0 I have also taught French literature and Existentialism as Professor of French-in-residence at Vanderbilt-in-France in Aix-en-Provence (2008).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>Cultivation of languages is an\u00a0aspect of intellectual life that is\u00a0paramount\u00a0for me.\u00a0 With the exception of the writing on the Old Testament, my scholarly work is all done in the original languages.\u00a0 This includes ancient Greek and Latin, as well as medieval languages such as\u00a0<em>langue d&#8217;oc<\/em> and Middle High German.\u00a0 In the case of the modern languages, particularly English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish, this competence includes regular experience in speaking, beyond\u00a0use\u00a0of the languages for research.\u00a0 I have taught\u00a0literature, theology, and philosophy in German, French,\u00a0and Italian, as well as in English.\u00a0 The joy of studying literature for me\u00a0is inseparable\u00a0from immersion in the spoken vernaculars and\u00a0from a continuing practice of living\u00a0in the unique worlds opened up through each\u00a0particular language.\u00a0 A direct poetic experience of the languages as spoken in everyday conversation has motivated me to want to participate deeply with various peoples in their reflection upon their life and history in and through literature.\u00a0 Study turns to love\u00a0in this living communication and assimilation of the idiomatic\u00a0character and specific beauty of peoples\u00a0expressing themselves\u00a0in their own native tongues.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The ultimate destination of this vision of poetic language as theological revelation is likely to be found in creative work beyond the critical and analytical reflection of my essays.\u00a0 This project for a new epic poetry, built on and extending my lyric vein, has for years been a constant aspiration and endeavor. \u00a0In the future, I intend to make it more manifest in my published work<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1554\"> Vanderbilt ranked #1 for graduate programs in <\/a><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1554\">\u00a0comparative literature<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1554\"> by Chronicle of Higher Education 2007<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0*******************<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=feTIpCg4f9U\">Wikipedia Biographical Resum\u00e9<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h2>Links<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/main-53.jpg\">Bogliasco Pictures<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/main-50.jpg\">An offer I can&#8217;t refuse<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/register\/articles?id=30245\">Press release re\/ Fulbright<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.morcelliana.net\/3005-hermeneutica\"><em>Hermeneutica<\/em> Advisory Board<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2014\/03\/Public_Lecture_Franke[1].pdf\">Lecture in Intercultural Theology, Salzburg 2007<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/stats\/productivity\/page.php?primary=10&amp;secondary=81&amp;bycat=Go\">Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt ranked #1\u00a0in the nation in 2005<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2596\">comparative literature Vanderbilt ranked 1;<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2596\">\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/chronicle-2007\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3719\">Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2007<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/comparative-literature-vanderbilt-ranked-1-detail\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2597\">comparative literature Vanderbilt ranked #1.detail<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/main-49.jpg\">Pictures Vanderbilt-in-France<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2014\/03\/Anamaria%20improvising%20theatre.pdf\">w\/Anamaria<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/2014\/03\/Dante%20and%20Transgression.mht\" target=\"_new\">Dante and Transgression.mht<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2014\/03\/Dante%20and%20Transgression.MSW.doc\" target=\"_new\">Dante and Transgression.MSW.doc<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iih-hermeneutics.org\/hermes-award\">Hermes Book Award, 2021<\/a>, International Institute for Hermeneutics, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iih-hermeneutics.org\/_files\/ugd\/f67e0f_d2116d46c92c4fc68d573f923d2c3dbd.pdf\">Laudatio<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Photos<\/h2>\n<p>University of Hong Kong, Visiting Associate Professor of Comparative Literature<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/at-hku\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2952\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2952\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/at-HKU-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"at HKU\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/at-HKU-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/at-HKU-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/at-HKU-650x488.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/at-HKU.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Vanderbilt, Cloisters Fall Semester, 2021<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3430\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-3430\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister-650x366.png\" alt=\"head shot of me in cloister\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister-650x366.png 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-in-cloister.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>**********************************************************************************<\/p>\n<p>Vanderbilt, Fall semester 2021<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/head-shot-of-me\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3431\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3431 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"head shot of me\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/head-shot-of-me.jpg 533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius.jpg\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>U<a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius.jpg\">niversity of Macao, China, 2013-15, Professor and Director of Philosophy and Religious Studies <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius.jpg\">Programme<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-747\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius-650x433.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius-650x433.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/4-discussing-before-Confucius-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-836\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2015\/02\/IMG_15341-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2015\/02\/IMG_15341-650x487.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2015\/02\/IMG_15341-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/photo-w-lemon\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3061\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3061\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Photo-w-Lemon-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo w Lemon\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Photo-w-Lemon-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Photo-w-Lemon-488x650.jpg 488w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Photo-w-Lemon.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>********************************************************************<\/p>\n<p>Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain,\u00a0Spring semester, 2020<\/p>\n<p>Visiting Professor (Profesorado Internacional), Departamento de Filosof\u00eda (Philosophy Department), Facultad de Filosof\u00eda y Letras + research fellow of Instituto Cultura y sociedad, Proyecto Sociedad Civil y Religi\u00f3n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/pamplona-williams-seminar-22-janvier-2020\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3046\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3046\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/pamplona-williams-seminar-22-janvier-2020-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"pamplona william's seminar 22 janvier 2020\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/pamplona-williams-seminar-22-janvier-2020-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/pamplona-williams-seminar-22-janvier-2020-650x366.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/pamplona-williams-seminar-22-janvier-2020.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/william-franke-22-janvier-pamplona\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3047\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3047 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/william-FRANKE-22-janvier-PAMPLONA.jpg\" alt=\"william FRANKE 22 janvier PAMPLONA\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/navarra-photos\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3051\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3051 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Navarra-photos-e1633644873354-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Navarra photos\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Navarra-photos-e1633644873354-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Navarra-photos-e1633644873354-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/Navarra-photos-e1633644873354-650x488.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isrlc.org\/\">ISRLC Intenational Society for Religion and Culture<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iih-hermeneutics.org\/honorary-professors\">International Institute for Hermeneutics, Honorary Professors, <em>Professores honoris causa in Artes Liberales<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/iih-diploma-franke-docx-1-professor-honoris-causa\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3496\">IIH Diploma Franke.docx (1) professor honoris causa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>International Institute of Hermeneutics &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iih-hermeneutics.org\/_files\/ugd\/f67e0f_3a428b7bdc6841e7af61f8261d9fd519.pdf\">Citation (of Career Achievements)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/homepage\/iih-diploma-franke-docx-1-professor-honoris-causa_page_1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3497\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-3497\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/IIH-Diploma-Franke.docx-1-professor-honoris-causa_Page_1-650x502.jpeg\" alt=\"IIH Diploma Franke.docx (1) professor honoris causa_Page_1\" width=\"650\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/IIH-Diploma-Franke.docx-1-professor-honoris-causa_Page_1-650x502.jpeg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/IIH-Diploma-Franke.docx-1-professor-honoris-causa_Page_1-300x232.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/470\/2012\/02\/IIH-Diploma-Franke.docx-1-professor-honoris-causa_Page_1-768x593.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Franke is Professor of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy and Religions at the University of Macao (2013-16). He is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and has been Fulbright-University of Salzburg\u00a0Distinguished Chair\u00a0in Intercultural Theology and\u00a0Study of Religions. He is named among &#8220;arguably the three most&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":615,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":121,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/williamfranke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}