[1] Anellis began his study of philosophy in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, gaining his B.A.
[1] He studied with Jean van Heijenoort at Brandeis University and obtained the Ph.D. in 1977 with his thesis Ontological Commitment in Ideal Languages: Semantic Interpretations for Logical Positivism.
He taught at Mississippi Valley State University in 1980 and Mount Saint Clare College the next year.
[1] As a researching scholar he visited International Logic Review in Milan, Italy in 1982, and also the Bertrand Russell Editorial Project at McMaster University.
In 1989 he joined the Institute for American Thought and became a research associate in the Peirce Edition Project in 2008.