Staff profile

I joined the department in 2014, having previously held research posts in Heidelberg, Tilburg, and Amsterdam. As an undergrad I started off as an English major, but quickly got hooked on logic and philosophy and that's where I've made my career. After completing an MA in philosophy at University of Wisconsin, I did my Ph.D. in logic at University of Amsterdam. My dissertation, Modalities in Medieval Logic, combined two of my biggest academic and non-academic interests: logic and medieval history. In 2017 I co-founded the Durham centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, of which I am currently a co-director.

Outside of logic, I have been doing research in medieval onomastics (the study of names) since I was in high school, and a culmination of that interest is the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources project, of which I am the Editor-in-Chief.

When not doing logic or names, I can generally be found watching sci fi and drinking beer with my husband, hanging out with my young daughter, doing medieval re-creation/re-enactment, or writing speculative fiction. I am also the head instigator of the site SFFReviews.com, a review site for short science fiction and fantasy.

Current PhD Students

• Zekiye Goz, linguistic creativity and artificial intelligence
• Wei Xie, universal grammar and tense

Research Supervision

I am available for, and interested in, supervising students, at any level, in any of the following areas:

• Logic (mathematical, philosophical, modal, etc.)
• Philosophy of language, esp. philosophy of fiction
• Philosophy of logic
• Philosophy of mathematics
• Medieval philosophy, esp. logic/philosophy of language
• Informal argumentation
• Human and machine reasoning

• Philosophy of Fiction
• Modal Logic
• Philosophical Logic
• Mathematical Logic
• Medieval Logic
• Philosophy of Language
• Onomastics

• History of Philosophy
• Mind, Language and Metaphysics

• 2017: Podcast Interview: Interview on "Philosophobia" podcast series.
• 2017: Radio Interview: Interview on "Hannah Kate's Bookshelf", North Manchester Radio FM.
• 2015: Magazine Interview: Interview in 3:AM magazine's "End Times" series of philosopher interviews; now available at https://316am.site123.me/articles/dynamic-epistemology?c=end-times-archive

Available for media contact about:

• Linguistics & Language: Onomastics
• Philosophy: Logic
• Philosophy:
• Medieval history:

Book review

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2020). Review of Peter Adamson, Medieval Philosophy, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, volume 4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), xxii+637pp. Philosophical Quarterly 70(281): 890-892.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2019). Review of Robin Wilson and Amirouche Moktefi, eds., The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), xiv+266pp. British Society for Literature and Science
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2017). Review of Ana María Mora-Márquez, The Thirteenth-Century Notion of Signification: The Discussions and Their Origin and Development. (Investigating Medieval Philosophy 10.) Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Pp. 256. $142. ISBN: 978-900-429867-5. Speculum 92(4): 1223-1225.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2017). Review of Donna Thornton and Kevin Murray, Bibliography of Publications on Irish Placenames. Peritia 27: 306-307.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). Book Review: Jean Buridan, Treatise on Consequences. Translated with an introduction by Stephen Read, editorial introduction by Hubert Hubien. New York: Fordham University Press, 2015, pp. 185. ISBN 978-0-8232-5718-8 (hardback), $45. Studia Logica 104(6): 1319-1323.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). Review of Maloney, Thomas S., ed., Logica, or Summa Lamberti. Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 2015. pp. xlix, 442. $64.00 (paperback) $64.00 (ebook). ISBN: 978-0-268-03535-8 (paperback) 978-0-268-08699-2 (ebook). Medieval Review 16.05.04.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). Book Review: Articulating Medieval Logic by Terence Parsons. Philosophical Quarterly 66(263): 432-435.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). Review of Brian P. Copenhaver, with Calvin G. Normore and Terence Parsons, Peter of Spain: Summaries of Logic: Text, Translation, Introduction, and Notes. Vivarium 54(1): 113-116.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2014). Review of Marko Malink, Aristotle's Modal Syllogistic. Metascience 23(3): 573-579.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2013). Review of Luca Castagnoli, Ancient Self-Refutation: The Logic and History of the Self-Refutation Argument from Democritus to Augustine. Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 16: 398-402.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2011). Review of Michael J. Fitzgerald, Albert of Saxony Questiones circa logicam (Twenty-Five Disputed Questions on Logic). Speculum 83(3): 719-720.

Chapter in book

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2021). Kinds of Arguments. In The Routledge Companion to Medieval Philosophy. Cross, Richard & Paasch, JT New York: Routledge.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2018). Bathsua Makin and Anna Maria van Schurman: Education and the Metaphysics of Being a Woman. In Early Modern Women on Metaphysics. Thomas, Emily Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 95-110.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2017). Medieval Logic. In The History of Philosophical and Formal Logic: from Aristotle to Tarski. Malpass, Alex & Marfori, Marianna Antonutti London: Bloomsbury. 71-99.
• Uckelman, Sara L., Murphey, Sonia & Percer, Joseph (2017). What's in a Name? History and Fantasy in Game of Thrones. In Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood. Pavlac, Brian A. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 241-250.
• Dutilh Novaes, Catarina & Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). Obligationes. In Cambridge Companion to Medieval Logic. Dutilh Novaes, Catarina & Read, Stephen Cambridge Cambridge University Press. 370-395.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Lagerlund, Henrik (2016). Logic in the 13th Century. In Cambridge Companion to Medieval Logic. Read, Stephen & Dutilh Novaes, Catarina Cambridge Cambridge University Press. 119-141.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016). William of Sherwood. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Zalta, Edward N.
• Kellner, Birgit & Uckelman, Sara L. (2015). Dialectical Self-Refutation and Nāgārjuna's Discussion in Six Points (ṣaṭkoṭiko vādaḥ). In Logic In Buddhist Scholasticism: From Philosophical, Philological, Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Paul, G. Lumbini International Research Institute. 101-134.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2014). A Medieval Epistemic Puzzle. In LIRa Yearbook. Christoff, Zoé, Galeazzi, Paolo, Gierasimczuk, Nina, Marcoci, Alexandru & Smets, Sonja Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation. 301-316.
• Alama, Jesse & Uckelman, Sara L. (2012). What is Dialogical About Dialogical Logic? In Inside Arguments: Logic and the Study of Argumentation. Jales Ribeiro, H. Cambridge Scholars Publication. 207-222.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2012). Making Logic Explicit. In Humanities Perspectives. Jan Jans Tilburg University. 25-27.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2011). A Dynamic Epistemic Logic Approach to Modeling Obligationes. In LIRa Yearbook. Grossi, D., Minica, S., Rodenhäuser, B. & Smets, S. Institute for Logic, Language & Computation. 147-172.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2011). The Ontological Argument. In Just the Argument: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy. Bruce, M. & Barbone, S. Wiley-Blackwell. 25-27.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010). Dynamic Logic. In Key Terms in Logic. Williamson, J. & Russo, F. Continuum Publishers.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010). Reasoning About the Trinity: A Modern Formalization of a Medieval System of Trinitarian Logic. In Logic in Religious Discourse. Schumann, Andrew Ontos. 216-239.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010). Jean Buridan. In Key Terms in Logic. Williamson, J. & Russo, F. Continuum Publishers.

Conference Paper

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2020), William of Sherwood on Necessity and Contingency, in Olivetti, Nicola, Verbrugge, Rineke, Negri, Sara & Sandu, Gabriel eds, 13: Advances in Modal Logic. Helsinki, Finland, College Publications.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2017), Beyond Formality: The Role of the Dialectical Context in Medieval Logic, in Cesalli, Laurent, Goubier, Frédéric & De Libera, Alain eds, Textes et études du Moyen Âge (82) European Symposium in Medieval Logic and Semantics. Geneva, Switzerland, Brepols, Turnhout, 471-485.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2016), The Logic of Where and While in the 13th and 14th Centuries, in Beklemishev, Lev, Demri, Stéphane & Máté, András eds, 11: Advances in Modal Logic 2016. Budapest, Hungary, College Publications, London, 535-550.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2014), Reasoning about Obligations in Obligationes: A Formal Approach, in Goré, Rajeev, Kooi, Barteld & Kurucz, Agi eds, The tenth Advances in Modal Logic conference (AiML-2014). Groningen, Netherlands, College Publications, 553-568.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2012), The Reception of St. Anselm's Logic in the 20th and 21st Centuries, in Gasper, Giles & Logan, Ian eds, Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 405-426.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2011), Obligationes as Formal Dialogue Systems, in Ågotnes, T. eds, STAIRS 2010: Proceedings of the Fifth Starting AI Researchers' Symposium. IOS Press, 341-353.
• Alama, Jesse, Knoks, Aleks & Uckelman, Sara L. (2011), Dialogue Games for Classical Logic (short paper), in Giese, M. & Kuznets, R. eds, Technical Report IAM-11-002 TABLEAUX 2011: Workshops, Tutorials, and Short Papers. Universität Bern, 82-86.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Spencer Johnston (2010), A Simple Semantics for Aristotelian Apodeictic Syllogistics, in Beklemishev, L., Goranko, V. & Shehtman, V. eds, 8: Advances in Modal Logic. Moscow, Russia, College Publications, Moscow, 428-443.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010), Computing with Concepts, Computing with Numbers: Llull, Leibniz, & Boole, in Ferreira, F., Löwe, B., Mayordomo, E. & Gomes, L. M. eds, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6158: Programs, Proofs, Processes, Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Computability in Europe, 2010, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal, June 30-July 4, 2010. 427-437.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2008), Three 13th-Century Views of Quantified Modal Logic, in Areces, C. & Goldblatt, R. eds, 7: Advances in Modal Logic. 389-406.
• Øhrstrøm, Peter, Schärfe, Henrik & Uckelman, Sara L. (2008), Jacob Lorhard's Ontology: A 17th Century Hypertext on the Reality and Temporality of the World of Intelligibles, in Eklund, P. & Haemmerlé, O. eds, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5113: Conceptual Structures: Knowledge Visualization and Reasoning, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2008. 74-87.
• Øhrstrøm, Peter, Uckelman, Sara L. & Schärfe, Henrik (2007), Historical and conceptual foundations of diagrammatical ontology, in Polovina, S., Hill, R. & Priss, U. eds, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4604: Conceptual Structures: Knowledge Architectures for Smart Applications: 15th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2007. 374-386.
• Friedemann, Sara L. (2002), A response to the case against compositionality: Universal sufficient applicability conditions, in Shrader, Douglas W. eds, Philosophical Dreams: Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. Oneonta, NY, USA, Oneonta Philosophy Studies.

Doctoral Thesis

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2009). Modalities in Medieval Logic. University of Amsterdam. PhD.

Journal Article

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2022). Fictional Modality and the Intensionality of Fictional Contexts. The Australasian Journal of Logic 19(4): 1, 124-132.
• Øhrstrøm, Peter & Uckelman, Sara L. (2022). Lorhard, Ramus, and Timpler and “The Birth of Ontology”. Journal of Knowledge Structures & Systems 3(2): 48-56.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2021). What Problem Did Ladd-Franklin (Think She) Solve(d)? Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 62(3): 527-552.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2020). Against the Theistic Multiverse. Kriterion 34(4): 1-14.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2019). Contradictions, Impossibility, and Triviality: A Response to Jc Beall. Journal of Analytic Theology 7: 544-559.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2019). Names Shakespeare Didn't Invent: Imogen, Olivia, and Viola Revisited. Names 67(3): 153-159.
• Besold, Tarek R. & Uckelman, Sara L. (2018). Normative and Descriptive Rationality: From Nature to Artifice and Back. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 30(2): 331-344.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Chan, Phoebe (2016). Against Truth-Conditional Theories of Meaning: Three Lessons from the Language(s) of Fiction. Res Philosophica 2(93): 1-19.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2015). The Logic of Categorematic and Syncategorematic Infinity. Synthese 192(8): 2361-2377.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Slíz, Mariann (2015). Többnyelvű névtani lexikográfia: a Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources elnevezésű nemzetközi szótári projekt. Névtani Értesítő 37: 203-220.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2015). Sit Verum Obligationes and Counterfactual Reasoning. Vivarium 53(1): 90-113.
• Uckelman, Sara L., Alama, Jesse & Knoks, Aleks (2014). A Curious Dialogical Logic and Its Composition Problem. Journal of Philosophical Logic 43(6): 1065-1100.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2013). Medieval Disputationes de obligationibus as formal dialogue systems. Argumentation 27(2): 143-166.
• Prior, Arthur N. & Uckelman, Sara L. (2013). Finnegan's Wake: An Interpretation. Philosophical Inquiries 1(1): 211-214.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2013). A quantified temporal logic for ampliation and restriction. Vivarium 51(1-4): 485-510.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2012). Interactive logic in the Middle Ages. Logic and Logical Philosophy 21(3): 439-471.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2012). Prior on an Insolubilium of Jean Buridan. Synthese 188(3): 487-498.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2012). Arthur Prior and medieval logic. Synthese 188(3): 349-366.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2011). Deceit and Indefeasible Knowledge: The Case of Dubitatio. Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics 21(3/4): 503-519.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010). Logic and the Condemnations of 1277. Journal of Philosophical Logic 39, no. 2: 201-227.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Spencer Johnston (2010). John Buridan's Sophismata and Interval Temporal Semantics. Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 13: 133-147.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2010). The Ontological Argument and Russell's Antinomy. Logic and Logical Philosophy 18, nos. 3-4: 309-312.
• Uckelman, Sara L. (2009). Anselm's Logic of Agency. Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 12: 248-268.
• Uckelman, Sara L. & Uckelman, Joel (2007). Modal and temporal logics for abstract space-time structures. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38: 673-681.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Uckelman, Sara L. (2014). Medieval destinations: Lumbini. Tournaments Illuminated 190: 33.