An Interview with Professor David Webb

By Tory Schendel-Vyvoda, Cohort ’23

David Webb is Visiting Faculty at IDSVA and co-taught a course last Spring. Originally from Birmingham, UK, Webb earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Warwick. He then pursued a Master of Arts degree at the University of Essex before returning to Warwick to obtain a PhD. Webb believed he would pursue a career in science, but at the age of twenty, he discovered his passion for philosophy after enrolling in a joint honors course at the University of Warwick titled “Physics and Philosophy.” Although he initially did not enjoy the course, in his final year, he was introduced to philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre. Due to his exposure, Webb enthusiastically shared, “I just loved it from the moment I started, and I couldn't really tell you why, but I just had that reaction to it.”

In addition to his academic background, Webb has extensive professional experience as an author and professor. Notably, between his MA and PhD, Webb spent a year living in Venice, Italy, on a grant to study under the Italian philosopher Franco Volpi. Webb was not only interested in studying under Volpi but also stated that it was his dream to live in Venice. He said, “It's just such an incredible city. Venice is such an astonishing place, and I wanted to actually live there rather than just stay for a few days on holiday.”  While attracted to Venice, his Italian connection is more than a passion for the “City of Canals.” Webb’s mother was Sicilian, and he soon learned Italian, which led to a proposal that he translate Gianni Vattimo’s book, The Transparent Society, from Italian into English while earning his doctorate. He noted, “Back then,…it was unusual for graduate students in philosophy to be able to work in Italian,” and he had been recommended by the University of Warwick faculty to undertake the project. Webb also mentioned some additional inspiration for wanting the job. Having played the guitar since childhood, he fell in love with a guitar in a London shop on Denmark Street. He asked the publisher for an advance on the translation project so that he could buy the guitar, which he still has today. 

Thanks to his translation of The Transparent Society, Beyond Interpretation, and other works by Vattimo, the IDSVA President, Simonetta Moro, invited Webb to contribute to The Vattimo Dictionary, which she edited. From this collaboration, Webb was invited to guest lecture on Michel Serres and Lucretius at the institution’s Tuscany summer residency at Spannocchia in 2022. Since then, Webb has participated in other IDSVA experiences, leading him to co-teach the Spring 2025 course “803.2 Toward an Ethico-Aesthetics” with President and Professor Moro. Webb states that he has only been impressed with the IDSVA community, commenting that he is always kindly received by the staff and students while appreciating the structure of the doctoral program in the visual arts. Specifically, Webb articulated that applying philosophy to art is more than a commentary. Instead, art and philosophy are “twin track forms of inquiry which speak to each other” and appreciate how IDSVA recognizes the importance of this connectivity in the work that the professors and students engage in. Therefore, Webb not only hopes to support IDSVA in its approach to art and philosophy, but as a professor, he hopes that he can help students “to have an experience of what it is to ask questions and pursue them, to get a sense about how you think through something.” To Webb, teaching is not about memorizing terms or names but about deeply engaging with the texts and “getting inside” them to understand how they work and what they can do. 

Webb enjoys a robust teaching career spanning over thirty years and has published two books, numerous book chapters, and journal papers. Webb shared that his work over the last ten years has focused on the philosophers Michel Serres and Michel Foucault. Webb admires how Serres brings the arts and humanities together with the sciences to develop a wonderful form of thinking that refreshes our understanding of what it means to belong to the world. In his book Foucault’s Archaeology: Science and Transformation, Webb showed how Foucault’s account of knowledge was indebted to French philosophy of science and mathematics, a topic he’s returning to in his work in progress now. 

He offered valuable advice on the peer-review publishing process in his concluding remarks. He encouraged students to share their work with as many colleagues as possible to exchange ideas and gain constructive feedback. He emphasized the importance of being pragmatic when selecting journals for publication and reassured that it is normal to feel discouraged if an article is rejected, even multiple times. Rejection is a standard part of the process, and the feedback provided can be instrumental in reworking the manuscript to meet the publisher's requirements or to develop the work to send elsewhere. Additionally, he discussed how academic journals often seek book reviews. He recommended that students research a journal’s editor and either inquire if there are any books available that need reviews or propose a review of a book they would like to write about. This is a fantastic way to enter the realm of peer-review publishing and to become engaged in the peer-review process.

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