Jonathan Egid
Jonathan Egid is a Lecturer in Philosophy at SOAS, University of London, specialising in the global history of philosophy, with a particular focus on early modern Ethiopia. He completed his PhD on the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿəqob at King’s College London, and previously studied at Wadham College, Oxford, the University of Kent, and the Sorbonne.
He has published widely on the history of philosophy and the philosophy of language, including edited volumes on Ethiopian philosophy for De Gruyter and Oxford University Press. His research has involved extensive archival work across Africa, Europe, and North America, ranging from the Ethiopian National Archives in Addis Ababa to missionary centres in Florence and Cairo, monastery scriptoria in northern Ethiopia, the national libraries of France and Italy, and the ‘secret archive’ of the Vatican. He translates from English, French, Greek and Ge’ez, and is one of the only philosophers working with Ge’ez texts.
He was a BBC New Generation Thinker for 2024, and contributes to a wide range of BBC programming, as well as running a podcast and interview series, Philosophising in… on philosophy in less-studied languages.
His essays and reviews appear regularly in the Times Literary Supplement, Aeon and the Literary Review.