Dermot Moran is currently the inaugural holder of the Joseph Chair in Catholic Philosophy at Boston College and he also served as Chair of the Philosophy Department until June 2023. Previously, he held the full Professorship of Philosophy (Chair of Metaphysics and Logic) at University College Dublin, from 1989 to his retirement. At its General Assembly in Athens, Greece, on 9th August 2013, Professor Dermot Moran was elected President of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies/ Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie (FISP), for a five-year period from 2013 to 2018. As President of FISP, he also presided over the 24th World Congress of Philosophy held in Beijing, China, 13-20 August 2018. He is now Past President of FISP (2018 to 2024) involved in organizing the 25th World Congress of Philosophy, Rome, Italy, 1-8 August 2024.
In 2003 Dermot Moran was elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and in 2016 he was elected to the Institut International de Philosophie. Professor Moran was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Humanities in 2012. He was awarded the higher doctorate, DLitt Degree, on the basis of published works by the National University of Ireland in 2013.
He previously lectured in the Department of Scholastic Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast (1979-1982) and in the Department of Philosophy at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (1982-1989), then a Recognized College of the National University of Ireland, and now Maynooth University. He has held Visiting Professorships in the USA, including at Yale University (1986-1987), Connecticut College (1992-1993), Rice University (Fall 2003 and Spring 2006), Northwestern University (2007), and internationally the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Summer 2010). He was Gadamer Visiting Professor at Boston College (Spring 2015). He also served as Walter Murdoch Adjunct Professor in the Humanities, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia (2012-2015).
Dermot Moran was Director of the International Centre of Newman Studies in UCD promoting the legacy of John Henry Cardinal Newman, first Rector of the Catholic University, Dublin, 1954-1858. He is now Chairperson of the Board of the UCD Newman Centre for the Study of Religions.
Dermot Moran was an elected member of the Executive of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (2013-2016).
On 26 October 2015 Professor Dermot Moran was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Philosophy by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens “for his contribution to the promotion of Philosophy in general and with regard to his field of research in particular”. In December 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Professorship in the Department of Philosophy, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. He was awarded an Honorary Professorship, School of Philosophy, Nankai University, Tienjen, People’s Republic of China. 17 October 2019; and Honorary Professorship, Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. July 2019.
