Curriculum Vitae
B.A., Law, Federal University of Tocantins, Brazil, 2014; Teaching Assistant, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2016; M.A., Philosophy, Federal University of Rio Grande so Sul, Brazil, 2017; Adjunct Professor, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2018; Adjunct Professor, University of St. Thomas, 2020-2023; Ph.D., Philosophy, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas, 2024; Tutor, Thomas Aquinas College, 2023-
Publications & Presentations
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“The Creation according to St. Thomas Aquinas” (pt: A criação segundo Santo Tomás de Aquino.) XIVth Latin-American Congress of Medieval Philosophy. North University of Saint Thomas (Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás). San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, September 2013.
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“Aristotle and Leibniz against Hume: A Defense of the Principle of Causality” (pt: Aristóteles e Leibniz contra Hume: uma defesa do princípio de causalidade.) Fourth Annual Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Graduate Conference of Research in Philosophy. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre, Brazil, October 2015.
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“The Conimbricenses and the Controversy over the Unity or Plurality of Substantial Forms in Man”, XIVth International Congress of the International Society for the Study of Medieval Philosophy (SIEPM). Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale. Porto Alegre, Brazil, July 2017.
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“Does Aquinas’s Fifth Way Remain Defensible?” The Place of the Person in the Cosmos. Sponsored by The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (University of Oxford) and the John Templeton Foundation. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Santiago, Chile, September 2017.
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“Understanding and Defending the First Part of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Fifth Way” (pt: Entendendo e defendendo a primeira parte da quinta via de Santo Tomás de Aquino) VIIth Brazilian Congress of Philosophy of Religion. Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. São Paulo, Brazil, October 2017.‘Avaliando as razões da Primeira Turma do STF no HC 124.306 pela descriminalização do aborto no primeiro trimestre de gravidez’ in Dignidade da Pessoa Humana e Direito à Vida. Estudos de Filosofia, Direito e Bioética, 361-390. Rio de Janeiro: Lumen Juris, 2021.
Profile
“I first came across Thomas Aquinas College through its website many years ago,” says Rodrigo Ribeiro, who joined the New England teaching faculty at in 2023. “I thought about applying then to come as a student, but at that point I was halfway through law school — and in Brazil — so I ended up putting it aside.”
A few years later, Mr. Ribeiro’s life would change course. The young student had found a new fascination alongside law: philosophy.
After earning a master’s degree at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Mr. Ribeiro emigrated to Houston, Texas, to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of St. Thomas’s Center for Thomistic Studies in 2018. Searching for a roommate, he found a TAC alumnus who was also beginning his studies at the Center. The two hit it off. “The first night I had in Houston was marked by a pleasant dinner and hours of intelligent conversations with several other TAC graduates,” he recalls.
Over his years in Texas, Mr. Ribeiro befriended many more alumni from around the area. “I could not fail to be impressed with their seriousness about the life of wisdom and the Catholic faith, different as their personalities were,” he says. “I would ask what had inspired them to pursue and live such a life, and they would constantly refer to their alma mater.”
Fascinated, Mr. Ribeiro picked up A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic Liberal Education, the College’s founding and governing document, to better understand his friends’ background. “I became convinced of the wisdom and prudence put into the work done at the College,” he says. “I concluded that I would do well to model my studies after it.” Inspired, the graduate student crafted and worked through a personal reading list alongside his formal studies — and, upon submitting his dissertation this past year, applied to teach at the College.
“I wish to pursue the active-contemplative life that St. Thomas calls the most perfect life, the life Our Lord lived — the life built on abundance of contemplation, and on the sharing of that contemplation with others through teaching,” Mr. Ribeiro reflects. “From the experience I have had, I cannot think of a better place to live such a life than at TAC.”