We offer our warmest congratulations to Claire Hall (Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow in Classics & Ancient History), who has been appointed Lecturer in Classics & Ancient History at the University of Bristol. In her new position, Claire will continue working on the project she undertook at Durham, an investigation into how ideas about the future were articulated in ancient philosophical, literary, and religious texts (to become a book entitled In the Grip of the Future). Claire is the latest in a number of recent postdoctoral fellows associated with DCAMP to obtain a permanent position in a very challenging academic job market.

Congratulations to Dr Valerio Ricciardi, who has passed his PhD viva with no corrections. His PhD thesis, ‘Cicero’s Philosophical Rhetoric’, argues that rhetoric plays a larger and more pervasive role in Cicero’s philosophical and political thought than is usually assumed. His co-supervisors were Prof. Phillip Horky and Dr Nathan Gilbert (Durham), with supervision by Jaap Wisse (Newcastle). His examiners were Prof. Roy Gibson (Durham) and Dr George Karamanolis (Vienna).

Professors Edith Hall FBA (Principal Investigator) and Phillip Horky (Co-Investigator) have been awarded a 5-year Frontier Research Grant (formerly ERC Advanced Grant) from UK Research and Innovation to pursue knowledge of Aristotle’s writing styles and their reception in ancient philosophy and science. The project, titled ‘Aristotle Pezographos: the Writing Styles of Aristotle and their Contribution to the Evolution of Ancient Greek Prose’, will take place under the aegis of the Durham Center for Ancient and Medieval Philosphy (DCAMP) and feature two postdoctoral research assistants. The team, which includes an advisory committee of experts on Aristotle and on Greek prose stylistics from around the world, will read and determine the prose stylistics of all the major texts of Aristotle and the Aristotelian Corpus, as well as ascertain the influence of Aristotle’s styles on later philosophers and scientists, like Aspasius, Galen, and John Philoponus, over a 5-year period (from September 2023 until September 2028).

Congratulations to the DCAMP co-director Dr Phillip Horky for winning a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for the academic year 2022-23. Dr Horky will spend the year working on a new book project, The Philosophy of Democracy in Antiquity, in which he will seek to trace ancient Greek and Roman philosophical arguments in support of democracy. Part of his work will include a workshop in Durham, under the aegis of DCAMP, devoted to examining democratic philosophy in the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic periods (to take place in 2023). More information about his project can be found at the British Academy’s website.

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/mid-career-fellowships/past-awards/2021-22/

DCAMP Workshop: ‘Texts, Edition, Translations’ (11 February 2022, 4 March 2022, 11 March 2022)

The workshop focuses on skills and methodologies for doing research in Classics and Ancient Philosophy.
For information, please contact the organiser: Dr Giulia Bonasio ([email protected])

11 February: Dr Yury Arzhanov (University
of Salzburg)
“Aristotle in Orient” Via Zoom

4 March: Prof Christopher Rowe (Durham
University)
“Restoring a Text: reflections on an
Aristotelian case (the Eudemian Ethics),
with working examples”
In person and via Zoom

11 March: Dr Michael McOsker (Köln
University)
“The Joys and Travails of Charcoal
Papyrology: The Herculaneum Papyri”
In person and via Zoom

DCAMP is proud to announce that two of its PhD Students, Dr Carlo Cacciatori (PhD Durham), and Dr Edoardo Benati (PhD Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), have passed their vivas! Carlo’s PhD thesis was titled ‘Plato’s Later Moral Epistemology’, and it was supervised by Dr Phillip Horky and Dr Giulia Bonasio, with external examination from Dr Nathan Gilbert and Prof. Dimitri El Murr (École Normale Supérieure – Université PSL in Paris). Edoardo’s PhD thesis was titled ‘Gli Horoi pseudoplatonici. Introduzione, edizione critica e commento’ (The Pseudoplatonic Definitions: Introduction, Critical Edition, Commentary), and it was supervised by Prof. Mauro Tulli (Università di Pisa) and Dr Phillip Horky. The external examiners were Prof. Tiziano Dorandi (CNRS, Centre J. Pépin) and Prof. John Dillon (Trinity College, Dublin). Edoardo was a cherished visiting student in Durham for the academic year 2018-19. Many congratulations to them for their excellent work, and auguri for the future!

DCAMP is pleased to announce the launch of a new book series, published by Cambridge University Press, titled Cambridge Texts and Studies in Platonism, co-edited by Dr Phillip Horky (Durham), Prof. Dr Irmgard Männlein-Robert (Tϋbingen), and Dr Federico Petrucci (Turin). More information about the series, including the expected publication of the volumes arising out of Project Academy, will be forthcoming. The official launch will occur at a conference at the University of Turin, Italy, co-sponsored by DCAMP and the Philosophy Department at the University of Turin, titled ‘Perspectives in Platonism: towards a New Agenda’, 27-29 October 2021. The Classics editor for Cambridge University Press, Michael Sharp, will himself inaugurate the new series on 28 October, 6-7pm. The conference will feature DCAMP members Phillip Horky, Giulia De Cesaris (PhD 2020), and Carlo Cacciatori (current PhD student). To attend the conference in person or remotely, please contact [email protected].

DCAMP is extremely excited to welcome two new colleagues to our Centre.

Edith Hall returns to Durham as Professor, after two decades working in London. Her research includes the study of Aristotle, about whom she wrote a book (Aristotle’s Way, here reviewed by the Guardian).

Claire Hall arrives in Durham as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow for 36 months (2022-25), to work on ‘Knowing the Future in Post-Hellenistic Greek Antiquity”. Claire completed her doctorate in Theology at All Souls, Oxford, in 2019. Her first monograph, Origen and Prophecy, has been recently published.

Congratulations and welcome to them both!

The Durham Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (DCAMP) is pleased to announce successful recent appointments of its members to academic posts starting in autumn 2020.

Dr Myrthe Bartels (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics & Ancient History, 2017-19) obtained a 2-year research position through the Dipartimento di Eccellenza programme at the Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, University of Pisa.

Dr Graziana Ciola (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Philosophy, 2018-20) obtained a 2-year Excellence Fellowship in the History of Philosophy at Radboud University.

Dr Giulia De Cesaris (PhD in Classics, 2020) obtained a 3-year Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders to pursue research at the De Wulf – Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Philosophy, KU Leuven.

Dr Logan Williams (PhD in Theology & Religion, 2020) will be keeping it local, teaching Ancient Greek at Cranmer Hall College, Durham, and Ancient Hebrew in the Department of Theology & Religion, Durham University.

We wish them our warmest congratulations!

The DCAMP events page has been updated with visiting research seminars and conferences occurring from January until April! Please visit dcamp.uk/calendar.