Robert D. Hughes’ academic journey began at the University of Oxford, where he read Modern Languages under Dr John Rutherford (Spanish) and Drs I. W. F. Maclean and R. A. G. Pearson (French). Never being one to choose the easiest or the most direct route towards a destination (unless lunch was involved), Hughes continued by taking a degree in Fine Art (specialising in sculpture) at the Hull School of Art and Design. For the next 6 years, Hughes immersed himself in the production of the drawings which can be viewed in the ‘Visual Works’ section of the site, drawings which up until late 2012 he has never exhibited in public. Following this stint as an invisible visual artist, Hughes, always a keen reader, decided to embark upon a Masters degree in the History of Ideas in the History Department at Lancaster University, under Drs Peter Harman and Stephen Pumfrey, and went on to complete his doctorate under the latter’s supervision
After completing his doctorate, and having defended a thesis on ‘The Christology of Ramon Llull in the light of his Ars magna‘ (2002), Hughes was awarded the title of Magister of the Maioricensis Schola Lullistica and appointed a member of the Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull at the University of Barcelona.
Hughes is currently living in Prague, working as a self-employed translator of medieval Catalan texts and related scholarly works, and as an independent scholar, concentrating upon aspects of the relation between medieval concepts of science and theology, particularly in the works of Ramon Llull, and on this author’s complex relation to late-antique and medieval currents of Neoplatonism.
Dr Hughes has been an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of History (profile available at: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/history/profiles/812/) and is also affiliated with the University of Barcelona (as a member of the aforementioned Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull). He is also a member of the following organizations:
The American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain;
The British Society for the History of Science;
P.E.N. Club català (for which his profile is available at: http://www.visat.cat/espai-traductors/esp/traductor/116/robert-d.hughes.html);
and The Anglo-Catalan Society.
He also holds editorial positions at Obrador Edèndum on the Editorial Board of the Bibliotheca Philosophorum Medii Aevi Cataloniae series, and in June 2009 was appointed to the Editorial Board of the bi-annual online journal AITHER (devoted to the study of Greek and Latin philosophical traditions) http://www.aither.cz/casopis/index.html produced by the Department of the History of Older European and Czech Philosophy, at the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR).
His translation of The Catalan Expedition to the East: from the Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner was nominated for the Modern Languages Association, Lois Roth Award 2007 for translations of book-length literary works published in 2006.
Not that it indicates any lack of resolve on his part, but Hughes’ life has often been one of abrupt changes, not least of which was the catastrophic sporting head injury he sustained in his early teens, the effects of which, despite his remarkable recovery, remain with him to this day.