Professor Costica Bradatan
Honorary Research Professor in Philosophy
Researcher biography
I am an Professor of Humanities in the Honors College at Texas Tech University and an Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland, Australia. I have also held faculty appointments at Cornell University, University of Notre Dame, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Miami University, and Arizona State University, as well as at several universities in Europe and Asia.
I work on topics in the history of Western philosophy, Continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of literature and of film. I am the author or editor (co-editor) of ten books, among which Dying for Ideas. The dangerous Lives of the Philosophers (Bloomsbury, 2015). The project I am currently pursuing, In Praise of Failure. A Manifesto for Humility, will come out with Harvard University Press in 2018.
I also write essays, book reviews, and op-eds for such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe & Mail, The Australian, The New Statesman, Dissent, Times Literary Supplement, and Times Higher Education, among other places. My work has been translated into a number of languages, including German, Dutch, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Farsi.
I am the religion/comparative studies editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as the fouding editor of "Philosophical Filmmakers," a new book series from Bloomsbury.
Books
Bradatan, Costica (2023). In praise of failure. Four lessons in humility. Cambridge, MA, United States: Harvard University Press.
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Dying for ideas: the dangerous lives of the philosophers. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic.
Book Chapters
Bradatan, Costica and Simon, Ed (2021). Introduction. In The God Beat (pp. 1-7) Minneapolis, MN United States: Broadleaf Books.
Costica Bradatan (2020). Taming Time. The Time is Now. (pp. 7-14) edited by Mihaela Gligor. Bucharest, Romania: Zeta Books.
Bradatan, Costica (2018). Notes on divine homelessness: a reading of Lars von Trier's Dogville. Immanent frames: postsecular cinema between Malick and von Trier. (pp. 129-147) edited by John Caruana and Mark Cauchi. Albany, NY, United States: SUNY Press.
Bradatan, Costica (2014). Introduction: dealing (visibly) in "things not seen". Religion in contemporary European cinema: the postsecular constellation. (pp. 1-9) edited by Costica Bradatan and Camil Ungureanu. New York, United States: Routledege.
Bradatan, Costica (2014). Entangled in God’s story: a reading of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s 'Blind Chance'. Religion in contemporary European cinema: the postsecular constellation. (pp. 74-90) edited by Costica Bradatan and Camil Ungureanu. New York, United States: Routledge.
Journal Articles
Bradatan, Costica (2024). Against the current. Times Literary Supplement, 6305.
Bradatan, Costica (2023). Smell and Sound of a Philosophy. Times Literary Supplement.
Bradatan, Costica (2023). College for clowns: the nomadic survivor of an ugly century. TLS: the Times Literary Supplement.
Bradatan, Costica (2023). Inner Space Oddity: Reporting from the front lines of a writer’s own ‘anomalies’. Times Literary Supplement, 6256.
Bradatan, Costica (2023). Romania's Kafka: the ten-year journal of a young writer facing death. Times Literary Supplement.
Bradatan, Costica (2023). How to swim against the stream. On Diogenes. Los Angeles Review of Books.
Bradatan, Costica (2022). Censor's sensibility: a gravely funny bowdlerizer’s tale. Times Literary Supplement, 20-20.
Bradatan, Costica (2022). Onward Christian emperors. Literary Review.
Bradatan, Costica (2022). Two sides of dignity. Commonweal Magazine.
Bradatan, Costica (2022). The only way to stand it: ‘Here in our Auschwitz and other stories’. Commonweal, 50-52.
Bradatan, Costica (2022). Faust in Romania: the drama of a country that can't find its soul. Times Literary Supplement, 6201.
Bradatam, Costica (2021). Bishop, empiricist, and weirdo. Times Literary Supplement , 6182.
Bradatan, Costica (2021). A Happy Contrarian. Commonweal Magazine.
Bradatan, Costica (2020). The plot and the argument: philosophy as a narrative affair. Los Angeles Review of Books.
Bradatan, Costica (2020). The fox and the hedgehog. Polymathy's past and future. Times Literary Supplement.
Bradatan, Costica (2020). “Sailing without Ballast”. Commonweal Magazine, 54-56.
Bradatan, Costica (2020). A Soft Spot for Atheism. Commonweal Magazine (June 2020), 52-54.
Bradatan, Costica (2020). Always narrating: the making and unmaking of Umberto Eco. Los Angeles Review of Books.
Bradatan, Costica (2019). "It Began in a Manger". Literary Review.
Bradatan, Costica (2018). The gifts of humility. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2018). The life and opinions of Zacharias Lichter. TLS: The Times Literary Supplement (6017), 33-33.
Bradatan, Costica (2018). Are We Doomed to Fail?. iai news (62).
Bradatan, Costica (2017). Philosophy Needs a New Definition. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2017). Why We Fail and How. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2017). Philosophy Has a Lot to Learn from Film. Aeon
Bradatan, Costica (2016). The philosopher of failure: Emil Cioran’s Heights of Despair. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2016). Vitriol in their hearts. The Times Literary Supplement (5924), 16-16.
Bradatan, Costica (2016). Why do anything? A meditation on procrastination. The New York Times
Bradatan, Costica (2016). A Continental Mind. Review of 'The Idea of Europe' by George Steiner. Spiked Review
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Body of work: the dying philosopher. Los Angeles Review of Books.
Bradatan, Costica and Zaretsky, Robert (2015). The Idea of Europe. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Change Comes From the Margins. The New York Times.
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Why people are willing to die for an idea. The Washington Post.
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Philosophy as a Bloody Affair. The European Magazine
Bradatan, Costica (2015). In Defense of Margins. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2015). Dada life. The Times Literary Supplement (5851), 21-22.
Bradatan, Costica (2014). “We will die and will be free”: a gnostic reading of 'The Double Life of Véronique'. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 19 (4), 127-139. doi: 10.1080/0969725X.2014.984448
Bradatan, Costica (2014). “The joy of destruction is also the joy of creation". Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 19 (4), 1-5. doi: 10.1080/0969725X.2014.984417
Bradatan, Costica (2014). The two abysses of the soul. Los Angeles Review of Books
Bradatan, Costica (2014). Norman Manea survived the Nazis and the communists and lived to write about it. The Daily Beast.
Bradatan, Costica (2014). Herta Mueller's Language of Resistance. Boston Review.
Bradatan, Costica (2014). Cecilia Stefanescu: Sun Alley, translated by Alexandra Coliban and Andreea Höfer. The Times Literary Supplement, 1 (5787), 21-21.
Newspaper Articles
Bradatan, Costica (2023, 12 28). The secret pleasure of breaking new year’s resolutions Time
Bradatan, Costica (2023, 01 27). A Socrates gone insane
Bradatan, Costica (2023, 01 03). How sacrifice lost its significance UnHerd
Bradatan, Costica (2023, 01 02). Why I Came to America to Fail The New York Times
Bradatan, Costica (2023, 01 01). Christ at the Assembly Line Commonweal
Bradatan, Costica (2022, 12 21). Power has poisoned academia UnHerd
Bradatan, Costica (2022, 12 13). The herd in the head Aeon
Bradatan, Costica (2022, 08 25). What’s behind a successful academic hoax? The New Statesman
Bradatan, Costica (2022, 03 14). Why Russian leaders kill UnHerd
Bradatan, Costica (2022, 02 18). How Thomas Mann escaped to America and waged a moral battler against Hitler The Washington Post
Bradatan, Costica (2021, 11 17). Privilege is the new original sin UnHerd
Bradatan, Costica (2021, 07 09). Utopian nightmares TLS: the Times literary supplement
Bradatan, Costica (2020, 01 24). A show of faith in the unbelievers The Australian
Bradatan, Costica (2019, 11 22). Tales of an existential croucher Times Literary Supplement 36-36.
Bradatan, Costica (2019, 09 30). Inescapable influence: "how the Christian revolution remade the world" Commonweal
Bradatan, Costica (2019, 07 05). "Democracy is for the Gods" The New York Times
Bradatan, Costica (2018, 11 16). How different really are atheists and believers? The Washington Post B6-B6.
Bradatan, Costica (2017, 03 27). Our Delight in Destruction The New York Times
Bradatan, Costica (2014, 08 17). The wisdom of the exile SR12-SR12.