Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, with expertise in early modern philosophy and women philosophers. Combines extensive academic experience with leadership in research management, coordination of international networks, and science communication. Experienced in third-party funding acquisition, supervision of doctoral researchers, and strategic representation of research institutions within and beyond academia.

French qualification for associate professor, February 2022.

Previous positions:

• 2021, September – 2022, August: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists: DFG-funded edition project of the “Historical-critical digital edition of the Paris manuscripts of Émilie du Châtelet’s Institutions de physique”.
• 2017, September ­– 2019, June: Ater (temporary assistant in education and research) and PhD student in philosophy at the University of Strasbourg.
• 2014, October – 2017, June: contractual PhD student in Philosophy and History of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg (supervisor: prof. Frédéric de Buzon).

Languages

Luxembourgish (native), German (excellent), French (excellent), English (fluent), Italian (fluent)
Latin (good), Ancient Greek (basic)

Leadership & Management Experience

Since 2022 – Deputy Head, Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn University

• Coordination of a multidisciplinary and international research team (doctoral fellows, student assistants, and visiting scholars).
• Strategic planning and supervision of research activities, conferences, and digital humanities projects.
• Grant writing experience of third-party funding (DFG, BMBF, Horizon Europe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions).
• Independent acquisition of funding for the international hybrid conference Women and their Body (2023).
• Recipient of the European Commission Seal of Excellence (Horizon Europe 2022).
• External and internal representation of the Center, including collaborations with cultural institutions and public-facing communication.
• Mentorship of early-career researchers and doctoral candidates.
• Organisation and moderation of international hybrid events and summer schools.

Main research fields

Fields:

• History of philosophy: History of early modern philosophy (in particular French and German philosophies) and early modern Women Philosophers
• Early modern philosophy and medicine
• History of medicine and medical theories
• Early modern philosophy of science

Topics:

• Ethics and moral philosophy in Montaigne and Descartes (in connection with stoicism, epicureanism, medieval philosophy, and sixteenth-century French moralists)
• Moral philosophies in Women Philosophers (Sophie Germain, Marie de Gournay, Gabrielle Suchon, Émilie du Châtelet)
• Medical theories and practices in early modern philosophies
• Philosophies of sciences and practical knowledge in early modern philosophies

Education and degrees:

• 09/2019 PhD in History of Philosophy, University of Strasbourg (supervisor: prof. Frédéric de Buzon). Title of dissertation : La question du péché et du mal chez Montaigne et Descartes.

• 06/2014, Master degree in Philosophy (Master in Humanities and Social Sciences, mention Philosophy), University of Strasbourg (supervisor: prof. Frédéric de Buzon). Title of dissertation: Montaigne et Descartes, Les concepts moraux.

• 05/2012 Bachelor degree in Philosophy (Bachelor in Humanities and Social Sciences, mention Philosophy), University of Strasbourg, mention « bien ».

• 2009 High School Diploma at Lycée classique de Diekirch (Luxembourg)

Prizes and Awards

• Seal of Excellence from European Commission Horizon Europe (2022) for the Project: DescartesSurgery, “Descartes and Renaissance Surgery: The Mechanical Idea of Human Being”.
• VivaMente Award 2022 from the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) Pisa.

Third-Party Funding

• Funding from Paderborn University’s equal opportunities funding line 2 (Support for junior professors and post-doctoral students through WiMi positions) for a one-year pre-doc candidate in early modern philosophy.
• Acquisition of Third-party funding for the international, hybrid Conference Women and their Body (15th-17th March 2023)

Research Experience (Grant-writing Experience):

• 2025: Proposal for Grant from the deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, Einzelprojekt: „Die Entdeckung des weiblichen „Ich“ – Introspektion, Handlungsfähigkeit und „Embodiment“ in der (Spät-)Renaissance“
• 2023: Proposal for Grant from the Forschungsprogramm der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaft für 2025; Projekt: Émilie du Châtelet in der deutschen Aufklärung – Archäologie eines philosophischen Systems.
• 2023: Proposal for Grant from the deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, Einzelprojekt: „The Lotzean roots in Constance Jones’s ethics and moral psychology“
• 2023: Proposal for Grant from the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung: Innovative Frauen im Fokus; Project: PHIL_IN „Sammeln und sichtbar machen des weiblichen europäischen Kulturerbes in Philosophie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte“
• 2020+2021: Proposal for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions: European Postdoctoral Fellowship; Project: DescartesSurgery, “Descartes and Renaissance Surgery: The Mechanical Idea of Human Being”.

Responsibilities at the Universities

• Since September 2025 (for two years): Member of the UPB Faculty Council (Humanities/Kulturwissenschaften) for mid-level academic positions.
• Since September 2024: Member of the UPB research commission (Humanities/Kulturwissenschaften) for mid-level academic positions.
• Since September 2022: Coordinator of the New Voices Project by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn.
• March 2016 – March 2018: elected voting member of the faculty board at the University of Strasbourg
• Committee for the organisation of a doctoral summer school 2015 (from 6 to 11 July), Strasbourg.
• February 2015 – February 2017: Member of the voting board at the doctoral school, representative for the PhD students (University of Strasbourg).

Memberships

• Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung NRW
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie
• ESEMP (European Society for Early Modern Philosophy)
• Deutscher Akademikerinnen Bund e.V.
• CREPHAC (Centre de recherches en philosophie allemande et contemporaine, University of Strasbourg/ France)
• PRIN (Early modern Philosophy and Science, University of Piemont/ Italy)

Core Competencies

• Research management and strategic planning
• Science communication and institutional representation
• Third-party funding acquisition and administration
• Team leadership and mentoring
• International and intercultural collaboration
• Academic teaching and supervision

Monograph:

• Soigner l’humain. Péchés et remèdes chez Montaigne and Descartes, Classiques Garnier, coll. « Essais sur Montaigne et son temps », 2022 – Work reviewed in Revue d’Histoire littéraire de la France, 124e année, n° 1, 1 –2024 (Valerio Cordiner, p. 164-165) ; on the website https://pakblog.uni-nke.hu/hirek/2022/08/03/a-buntol-a-vetekig 2022 (Eszter Kovács).

Editor:

• Food, Plants, Remedies and Healing Practices: Women’s Ideas in the History of Medicine, forthcoming in Springer Nature, Series Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, 2026.
• Automata, Cyborgs and Mutants, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, 2026.
• Women and their Body: A Cultural and Historical Struggle Against Tradition, Berlin: De Gruyter Brill, 2025.
• GENDER: Zeitschrift, Geschlecht, Kultur Und Gesellschaft: Sonderheft: Frauen in Der Geschichte Der Philosophie Oder: Brisante Wahrheiten. Philosophinnen Und Denkerinnen Und Die Andere Geschichte Der Wissenschaften. eds Hagengruber, Ruth Edith, Jil Muller, Felix Grewe, and GENDER Journal, Stuttgart: Barbara Budrich Verlag, 2025.
• L’imagination chez Descartes et ses contemporains, special issue of Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg, n° 48, December 2020.

Articles:

• “Marie de Gournay and Michel de Montaigne: Lying as a Vice for Public Utility,” in Vice, Sin, and Sociability in Early Modern Philosophy, forthcoming in Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History Series, 2026.
• “Descartes on clocks and automata,” in Jil Muller (ed.), Automata, Cyborgs and Mutants, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, 2026, p. 75-94.
• “Introduction: Automata, Cyborgs and Mutants: Eccentric Bodies from Humanism to Transhumanism,” in Jil Muller (ed.), Automata, Cyborgs and Mutants, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, 2026, p. 1-15.
• Introduction Women and Their Body: Breaking the Silence in Women and their Body, 2025, p. 1-16.
• “Humours, Passions, and Consciousness in Descartes’s Physiology: The Reconsideration through the Correspondence with Elisabeth,” in Andrea Strazzoni and Marco Sgarbi (eds.), Reading Descartes, Consciousness, Body, and Reasoning, Firenze University Press, 2023, p. 59-80 DOI: 36253/979-12-215-0169-8.05
• “Space and Time: Mathematical and Moral Thoughts in Sophie Germain and Blaise Pascal,” in Chelsea C. Harry and George N. Vlahakis (eds.), Exploring the Contributions of Women in the History of Philosophy, Science, and Literature, Throughout Time, Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 20. Springer, Cham, 2023, p. 85-99 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39630-4_7
• “Ambroise Paré and René Descartes on sensation in amputated limbs,” in F. Baldassari (ed.), Descartes and Medicine, Problems, Responses and Survival of Cartesian Discipline, Brepols Publisher, 2023, p. 81-97.
• “Eritis sicut dii, scientes bonum et malum: Sin, Pride, and Curiosity in the Moral Philosophy of Montaigne and Descartes”, in Philosophie et scepticisme de Montaigne à Hume, Mélanges en l’honneur de Gianni Paganini, Éditions Honoré Champion, 2023, p. 65-80.
• “Les ‘fleaux de nostre ame’ : les vices dans la pensée de Montaigne et de Descartes,” BSIAM, Classiques Garnier, n° 73, 2021.
• “Montaigne et Descartes : l’imagination dans les passions,” Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg, n° 48, December 2020.
• “Présentation,” Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg, n° 48, December 2020.
• “L’anatomie de la mélancolie chez Michel de Montaigne et Félix Platter,” Montaigne Studies, Vol. XXXII, March 2020, p. 99-118.

Online Edition:

• Du Châtelet, Émilie: Institutions de physique. The Paris Manuscript BnF Fr. 12265. A Critical and Historical Online Edition. Edited by Ruth E. Hagengruber, Hanns-Peter Neumann and Aaron Wells with collaboration of Pierpaolo Betti, Jil Muller, Pedro Pricladnitzky. Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn University, Paderborn.

Organised and co-organised more than 15 international conferences, workshops, and summer schools (2015–2025).

• 08-12 September 2025: Libori Summer School, The Early Works of Émilie Du Châtelet, organised together with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.
• 18 June 2025: Hybrid Workshop Women in the History of Medicine and Philosophy, organised together with Dr. Ivana Skuhala Karasman (Senior scientific fellow at IFZG Croatia) and the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.
• New Voices Summer Term Talk Series 2025, on Fertility, Maternity, Reproduction: Women’s Ideas in the History of Medicine, Online Meetings organised together with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University and with the Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, directed by Dr. Fabrizio Bigotti, Pisa, Italy.
• New Voices Summer Term Talk Series 2024 on Food, Plants, Remedies and Healing Practices: Women’s Ideas in the History of Medicine, Online Meetings organised together with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University and with the Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, directed by Dr. Fabrizio Bigotti, Pisa, Italy.
• 19 and 20 June 2023: Co-organisation of the Croatia Libori Summer School on Women Philosophers and Scientists on Psychology, Mind, and Body Awareness.
• 15, 16 and 17 March 2023: International, hybrid Conference Women and their body, organised in cooperation with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.
• New Voices Winter Term Talk Series 2022/23 on Women and their body, Online Meetings organised in cooperation with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.
• 21 and 22 April 2022: Conference about From Automata to Transhumans: Debating Human Nature and its Limitations 1600-2000, organised with the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR), in Pisa, in the context of the VivaMente 2022 Award.
• 23 November 2021: Workshop on Space and Time: 18th – 19th century Women Philosophers and Scientists, organised at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn.
• 29 and 30 March 2017: Conference about “Image, imaginaire et imagination chez Descartes et ses contemporains,” in collaboration with Frédric de Buzon, financed by the Crephac (research center of philosophy Strasbourg).
• 5 October 2016: Doctoral study day about “le Temps,” in collaboration with Mariana Bardelli, financed by the Crephac.
• 30 March 2016: Study day about “La connaissance de soi,” in collaboration with Nicolas Quérini, financed by the Crephac.
• 20 January 2016: Doctoral study day about “le Mal,” in collaboration with Nicolas Quérini, financed by the Crephac.
• 2 October 2015: Doctoral study day following the doctoral summer school in July, financed by the doctoral school.
• 24 April 2015: Doctoral study day about “L’individu et la liberté,” in collaboration with Frédéric de Buzon, financed by the Crephac.

• New Voices Summer Term Talk Series 2025, on Fertility, Maternity, Reproduction: Women’s Ideas in the History of Medicine, Online Meetings organised together with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University and with the Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, directed by Dr. Fabrizio Bigotti, Pisa, Italy.
• New Voices Summer Term Talk Series 2024 on Food, Plants, Remedies and Healing Practices: Women’s Ideas in the History of Medicine, Online Meetings organised together with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University and with the Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, directed by Dr. Fabrizio Bigotti, Pisa, Italy.
• 15, 16 and 17 March 2023: International, hybrid Conference Women and their body, organised in cooperation with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.
• New Voices Winter Term Talk Series 2022/23 on Women and their body, Online Meetings organised in cooperation with the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, directed by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Paderborn University.

• 15 March 2025: Interview of Dr. Jil Muller by Dr. Clara Mavellia.
• 8 February 2023: Melancholy and Fever in the Early Modern Period, The Role of the Mesentery in the Medical Texts of Montaigne and Descartes – Online lecture, Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, Pisa.
• 21 and 22 April 2022: Conference about From Automata to Transhumans: Debating Human Nature and its Limitations 1600-2000, organised with the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR), in Pisa, in the context of the VivaMente 2022 Award.
• 23 November 2021: Workshop on Space and Time: 18th – 19th century Women Philosophers and Scientists, organised at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn.
• 18 to 20 November 2020: Ambroise Paré and René Descartes on Sensations in Amputated Limbs – Conference Medicine in the Philosophy of Descartes, Lights and Shadows, Domus Comeliana, Pisa.

2026

• Olismo in Oliva Sabuco ed Elisabetta di Bohemia – Seminario La filosofia delle donne, Temi e concetti nel pensiero filosofico femminile, Università di Trento, 11 March 2026.

2025

• Enseigner les femmes philosophes: correspondences, journaux intimes et la querelle des femmes – International Conference Enseigner les invisibles. Quels corpus de philosophie moderne dans les salles de classe ?, ENS de Lyon, 18-19 December 2025.

2024

• Zur Historie des Hebammenberufs – DAB Fachsymposium Akademisierung der Hebammenausbildung, Herausforderungen und Chancen, Deutscher Akademikerinnenbund e.V., Leipzig, 19 October 2024.
• Renaissance Moral Theories and Bioethics – Research Colloquium, Institut für Bio- und Medizinethik, University of Basel, 10 September 2024.

2023

• Philosophinnen sichtbar machen – Kolloquium Geschlechter Geschichte, Freie Universität zu Berlin, 1 December 2023.
• Marie de Gournay: The Philosopher Slandered by a Patriarchal Society – 6th Fino Graduate Conference in the History of Philosophy, Pavia, Italy, 12 September 2023.
• Throwback on the Conference Women and their body – Conference Women and Sport in Europe: Past and Present, organised by Cultural Entrepreneurship Institute Berlin, Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists,Ischia Cultura, 9 May 2023.
• Melancholy and Fever in the Early Modern Period, The Role of the Mesentery in the Medical Texts of Montaigne and Descartes – Online lecture, Center for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, Pisa, 8 February 2023.

2025

• Oliva Sabuco on Natural Philosophy – Conference Women Writing Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Europe: Spaces and Exchanges, the University of Exeter, 2-4 June 2025.

2024

• Presentation of the Center HWPS – Gleichstellungstag “Zusammen wirken”, Berlin, 5 November 2024. Invited presentation on institutional communication and visibility strategies for research centers and stakeholders on gender and women issues.
• Presentation of the Center HWPS as a Digital Project in the Humanities – Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie, Münster, 22 to 26 September 2024.
• Women and their Body – Conference 25^th World Congress of Philosophy “Philosophies across boundaries”, Sapienza University, Rome, 1 to 8 August 2024.
• Olivia Sabuco and the “mind-body problem” – Conference Writing the World: Early Modern Women, Natural Philosophy and Medicine, University of York, 11 and 12 July 2024.

2023

• Émilie du Châtelet und René Descartes: Legitimierung einer Erfahrungs- und Wissenstheorie – Workshop Macht der Gewohnheit, Macht des Schreibens, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, 8 and 9 May 2023.

2022

• Émilie du Châtelet and René Descartes – Croatia Libori Summer School, University of Zadar, 11-14 July 2022.
• Descartes on Clocks and Automata – Conference From Automata to Transhumans: Debating Human Nature and its Limitations 1600-2000, Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, Pisa, 21 and 22 April 2022.
• Marie de Gournay and Michel de Montaigne: a lie as a vice for public utility – Workshop Vice, sin, and sociability in early modern moral and political philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, 11 and 12 April 2022.

2021

• Sophie Germain on Space and Time – Workshop Space and Time: 18th-19th century Women Philosophers and Scientists, Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn, 23 November 2021.
• Les ‘fleaux de nostre ame’ : les vices dans la pensée de Montaigne et de Descartes – Workshop Nouvelles Perspectives montaignistes, Journée d’études européennes jeunes chercheurs, 28 and 29 May 2021, via Zoom.

2020

• Ambroise Paré and René Descartes on Sensations in Amputated Limbs – Conference Medicine in the Philosophy of Descartes, Lights and Shadows, Domus Comeliana, Pisa, 18 to 20 November 2020 (via Zoom).

2018

• Vernunft und Leidenschaften der Seele. Das Beispiel der Traurigkeit in den Briefen an Elisabeth von der Pfalz – Workshop Elisabeth of Bohemia – Women and Early Modern Philosophy, “Frauen in der Geschichte der Philosophie,” Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn, 17 May 2018.
• Die Rolle des Körpers in den Leidenschaften: die Traurigkeit der Prinzessin – Talk at the University of Freiburg, 11 May 2018.

2017

• L’orgueil et la générosité chez Descartes – Franco-American Workshop in Lyon, 8 to 10 June 2017.
• L’imagination induit-elle en erreur ? Le rôle de l’imagination dans la connaissance, chez Montaigne et Descartes – Conference l’Image, imaginaire et imagination chez Descartes et ses contemporains in Strasbourg, 29 to 30 March 2017.

2016

• Le monde n’est qu’une branloire pérenne : le temps fuyant chez Montaigne – Doctoral study day about “le Temps” in Strasbourg, 5^th October 2016.
• Connaissance de soi et estime de soi chez Descartes – Study day about “La connaissance de soi” in Strasbourg, 30 March 2016.
• Du cuider naît le péché, le mal moral chez Montaigne – Doctoral study day about “le Mal” in Strasbourg, 20 January 2016.

2015

• Conscience de soi, liberté et individuation chez Descartes – Night of philosophy in Strasbourg, 7 May 2015.
• Conscience de soi, liberté et individuation chez Descartes – Doctoral study day about “L’individu et la liberté” in Strasbourg, 24 April 2015.
• Philosophie, morale et transmission: Descartes et la princesse Élisabeth – Doctoral study day at the doctoral school in Strasbourg, 13 February 2015.

2014

• Le monde chez Montaigne – Talk in the Master class in Strasbourg, 10 December 2014.

Émilie Du Châtelet: Institutions physiques. The Paris Manuscript BnF 12.265

jil.muller@uni-paderborn.de

https://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/person/91668