julia watkin (1944-2006) - scholar
Julia Watkin was an internationally known specialist on the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tasmania.
years in denmark
Julia was born in Bristol, England on 29 March 1944, obtaining a B.A. in 1973 as well as a doctorate in 1980 from the University of Bristol. She was awarded a British Council Scholarship in 1976, which enabled her to complete her research in Copenhagen, where she continued as a member of the American Howard V. Hong/Princeton University Press translation project, Kierkegaard’s Writings. She remained on the project and also became Assistant Director of the Department of Kierkegaard Research at Copenhagen University. In 1979 she started the International Kierkegaard Commentary (edited by Robert L. Perkins). She was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (1969).
In 1987, she became a Danish citizen. She taught and supervised students from many countries, also teaching for Denmark’s International Study Program and the Danish Folkeuniversitet.
In 1987, she became a Danish citizen. She taught and supervised students from many countries, also teaching for Denmark’s International Study Program and the Danish Folkeuniversitet.
Move to tasmania
In 1994, she took up an appointment as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tasmania where she initiated and directed the university’s Søren Kierkegaard Research Unit. Her published work includes Kierkegaard; Early Polemical Writings (the first volume in the Kierkegaard’s Writings series); Kierkegaard’s Nutidens religieuse Forvirring (The Book on Adler); A Key to Kierkegaard’s Abbreviations and Spelling/Nøgle til Kierkegaards Forkortelser og Stavemåde; and Historical Dictionary of Kierkegaard’s Philosophy. Her articles and papers on Kierkegaard were published not only in the English speaking part of the world such as Canada, Australia, the UK and the US but were also translated in a number of other countries including Japan, Spain and the Netherlands.
Julia was also keenly interested in the philosophy of science and religion and was awarded the John Templeton Foundation Science and Religion Course Competition prize in 1997.
Julia was also keenly interested in the philosophy of science and religion and was awarded the John Templeton Foundation Science and Religion Course Competition prize in 1997.
Legacy
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Julia passed away on 22 January 2006 in Launceston, Tasmania. With the aim of supporting the ongoing work of Kierkegaard’s scholars, she left the majority of her estate with the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College, an arts college located in Northfield, Minnesota. Since 2006, the library has held an annual Memorial Kierkegaard Lecture in her honour.
Julia also donated a collection of both English and Danish books by and about Kierkegaard to the Dalton McCaughey Library at the University of Melbourne. |
St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
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