Professor of Philosophy Nickolas Pappas
The City College of New York Philosophy Professor Nickolas Pappas has been selected as the Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Division of Humanities & the Arts for the 2026-27 academic year.
This endowed professorship is supported by a $1 million gift to CCNY by alumnus Stuart Z. Katz, Esq. ‘64. The gift supports one outstanding professorial faculty member in the Division for one academic year. Emerging from a competitive selection process, Pappas will receive $10,000 to support his research and creative activity for the current academic year.
The 10th faculty member to hold this professorship since its establishment in 2016, Pappas came to City College in 1993. His research concentrates on ancient philosophy and aesthetics, and the overlap between how poetry and other arts were understood in the ancient world. In the past decade, he has developed an interest in how the thinkers of the ancient world, particularly Plato, perceived foreigners, immigrants, and others who were either ethnically or linguistically different.
“There were many, often surprising categories for understanding different types of strangers,” he said. “What is striking to me is that those categories for faraway people informed even how people saw their nearest neighbors.”
To deepen his understanding of categories for strangers, Pappas will travel to Greece this summer to visit lesser-known, small museums that hold relics from civilizations, such as Egypt and Syria, that exported art, furnishings and jewelry to the country. He expects that examining these artifacts will yield insights into Plato’s stereotypes about foreigners that appear in his political writings.
These explorations will inform Pappas’s upcoming book, “Strangers in the House of Philosophy,” the subject of his Stuart Z. Katz Lecture to be delivered at his formal installation on Monday, Oct. 26. The event, which will be attended by Katz and his family, is free and open to the public.
“My wife and I are so glad the 10th Katz Professorship was awarded to Professor Nickolas Pappas, a City College veteran for over 30 years, and a professor of philosophy and classics, subjects dear to my family,” said Katz. “Professor Pappas was mentored by the late philosophy professor Stanley Cavell of Harvard University, a giant in his field. My wife and I look forward to getting to know Professor Pappas and to learn about his studies.”
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Syd Steinhardt
212-650-7875
ssteinhardt@ccny.cuny.edu