04/16/2004

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am submitting this letter as part of my application for a faculty
position in humanities at Laney College.

Though I have my M.A and PhD. in economics, philosophy and history were
equally crucial in my education and work: they gave the framework to all
my studies.

I began studying philosophy at the Budapest University of Economics in
Hungary. First, as required, I took three semester philosophy classes
for credit . In addition, I studied another eight semester philosophy in
the "invisible colleges" (szakkollegium) of the university. Though these
student-run organizations were allowed to offer only non-credit classes,
they were very special at that time because they gave me the freedom to
choose classes and instructors. As a result, I was able to study under
the best instructors. In those seminars, I focused on the history of
Western philosophy (from the ancient Greeks to the 20^th^ century) and
philosophy of religion (St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, etc.).

As a graduate student at the University of Zurich in Switzerland I
continued taking classes in history of Western philosophy and also began
to study ethics. I published an article on the Logical Positivist Otto
Neurath and the "Werturteilsstreit" (debate on the value judgment).
Later I became a research assistant at the Philosophy Department of the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and started
working on philosophy of science (Vienna Circle, Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos,
Feyerabend, etc.).

I was interested not only in history of philosophy but also in history
in a broad sense. My interest in intellectual history of Western culture
lead me to study two of the social sciences from a historical
perspective: economics (at Budapest University of Economics) and
sociology (at the University of Zurich). My studies of social- and
economic history at Budapest University and at the University of Hamburg
gave gave me a good foundation for these disciplines.

One of my first publications and my PhD. thesis were about history. I
published an article on the "Fascist Corporate System in Italy in the
1930s and 1940s" and wrote my PhD. thesis on the First World War and
German Economics.

When I became a postdoctoral fellow in the Max Planck Institute for
History of Science in Berlin, Germany, I started research on the history
of the "Viennese Social and Economic Museum" in the 1930s. Because the
museum was the result of the collaboration of two modernists, the
sociologist, economist and Logical Positivist philosopher Otto Neurath
and the Figural-Constructivist artist Gerd Arntz, my approach became
very interdisciplinary. It included not only history of philosophy and
history of the social sciences but also art history.

I have always enjoyed not only research, but also teaching. It has
always given me the opportunity to integrate different disciplines. When
I taught comparative analyses of economic systems at the Budapest
University of Economics, I tried to give an overview not only about the
economic history, but also about the social-, political and intellectual
history of the different historical periods.

In addition to the interdisciplinary approach my seminar on introduction
into the study of Western philosophy and intellectual history gave me
the chance to turn to different medias as well. Wherever it was possible
I tried to incorporate not only texts but also pictures and movies into
the sources of my classes. E.g. We analyzed Michelangelo Antonionie's
movie "Blow up" because the movie is a great source to discuss questions
of philosophy, like what is reality, how does our concept of reality
relates to reality itself etc.

The classes I taught were a great success. After my first seminar the
number of my students (who finally enjoyed the freedom to choose
instructors for their credit classes as well) doubled and stayed
constant till the semester ended. It was such a wonderful experience
that now, when I finally have the opportunity (I got a green card) I
would like to teach again. I think my education, my enthusiasm in
teaching and my openness to explore new territories in the humanities
make me the right candidate to teach humanities in your college.

Dr. univ. Agnes Miklos-Illes