College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences > Academics > History > Faculty > Matthew Maguire

Matthew Maguire

I’m a European intellectual historian by training. I received my BA from Brown University, and my PhD from Harvard University. At DePaul, I have a dual-appointment in the History Department and in Catholic Studies.

Research
I have devoted my research and writing to modern European intellectual history. My recently completed book deals with early twentieth-century European intellectual culture, above all as a multi-dimensional exchange of arguments and aspirations drawn from Christianity, Judaism, and modern Continental philosophy. My first book was entitled The Conversion of Imagination. It explored how an important tradition in modern philosophy, cultural reflection, and literature identifies imagination as a preeminent faculty to account for and work through theological, philosophical, psychological, political, and moral questions. My ongoing projects explore the cultural and intellectual history of modern Europe, with special attention to the relationships between and among religion, philosophy, literature, and politics. 

Teaching
One of the things that I enjoy most about teaching at DePaul is that I am able to teach the history of Europe, modern intellectual history, as well as the history of Christianity and of Catholicism concurrently, and help students to think and write through and with them. In the history department, I teach courses in European history. In Catholic Studies, I teach surveys in the history of Christianity and Catholicism, as well as seminars on different topics connected to the philosophy of religion.