Myrthe Bartels

Email: myrthe.bartels@upce.cz

Location: Building G, 07 023

ORCID: 0000-0002-6274-8941

Website: https://upce.academia.edu/MyrtheLBartels

Myrthe Bartels studied Classics at Leiden University in the Netherlands and received her PhD in Classics in 2014. She specialises in ancient Greek literature and the history of political thought. She has worked in several European countries and has taught in four languages (Dutch, English, German and Italian) to Classics/Classical Civilisation, History, and Philosophy students. She is currently preparing a new major research project on how Plato conceptualizes the obligations we as citizens have towards the laws and the common good.

Research interests: 

  • ancient philosophy
  • ancient ideas on law and legislation
  • theories of the common good
  • Plato and his interpretation
  • the relation between philosophy, refutation, and politics in Plato
  • reception of ancient philosophy in 17th-century Europe

Publications

Monograph

  • Bartels, M. L. (2017). Plato’s Pragmatic Project. A Reading of Plato’s Laws. Hermes Einzelschriften 111. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag 2017. (ISBN: 978-3-515-11800-2)

Journal articles and book chapters

  • Bartels, M. L. (2023). ‘Recontextualising philia: Two verbal echoes of Crito’s argument in the Speech of the Laws in Plato’s Crito’, NEC Yearbook 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, 9–29. (DOI: 10.58367/NECY.2023.2.1.9-29)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2021). ‘Philosophical perspectives on eunomia’, Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 38.3, 473–493. (DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340346)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2020). ‘Plato’s Seasick Steersman: On (Not) Being Overwhelmed by Fear in Plato’s Laws’, in: Emotions in Plato, eds. Laura Candiotto and Olivier Renaut. Brill’s Plato Studies Series 4. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 147–168. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432277_009)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2017). ‘Political friendship and need in Nicomachean Ethics V’, Verbum 19: The Nicomachean Ethics in the History of European Thought, State University of St.-Petersburg Press. (in Russian)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2017). ‘Why do lawgivers pursue philia more than justice? Aristotle, EN VIII.1’, Maia: Rivista di letterature classiche 69.1, 3–22.
  • Bartels, M. L. (2012). ‘Senex Mensura. An Objective Aesthetics of Seniors in Plato’s Laws’, in: R.M. Rosen and I. Sluiter (eds.), Aesthetic Value in Classical Antiquity, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 133–158. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004232822_007)

Book reviews

  • Bartels, M. L. (2021), review of: Paul Kalligas, Chloe Balla, Effie Baziotopoulou-Valavani, Vasilis Karasmanis (eds.), Plato’s Academy. Its Workings and Its History. Cambridge University Press 2020, in: Metascience 31, 133–136. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-021-00696-3)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2020), review of: Julia Annas, Virtue and Law in Plato and Beyond. Oxford University Press 2017, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2020.03.15.
  • Bartels, M. L. (2019), review of: Marcus Folch, The City and the Stage. Performance, Genre, and Gender in Plato’s Laws. Oxford University Press 2015, in: Gnomon, 91.8, 683-687.
  • Bartels, M. L. (2017), review article of: Susan Sauvé Meyer, Plato: Laws 1 and 2. Oxford University Press 2015, in: Mnemosyne 70.6, 1059–1072. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342480)
  • Bartels, M. L. (2014), review of: Mark J. Lutz, Divine Law and Political Philosophy in Plato’s Laws. Northern Illinois University Press 2012, in: Mnemosyne 67.4, 661–664.
  • Bartels, M. L. (2014), review of: Gregory Recco and Eric Sanday (eds.), Plato’s Laws. Force and Truth in Politics. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press 2013, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2014.05.08.

Grants and fellowships

2024-2027: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship CZ (Global): sponsored by the EU-funded Operational Programme JAK through the Czech Ministry of Education (24 months outgoing phase at the University of Toronto; 12 months return phase at University of Pardubice) (start: February 2024)

2022–2023: Junior Core Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

2020–2022: Postdoctoral Research Grant, Dipartimento di Eccellenza 2018–2022, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa, Italy

2018–2019: COFUND Junior Research Fellowship, Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University, United Kingdom

2018: Young Researcher Scholarship, Fondation Hardt pour l’étude de l’antiquité classique (Vandœuvres, Switzerland) (March)

2017–2018: NEC International Fellowship, New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest, Romania; included 1 month at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (April)

2015–2017: Christoph Martin Wieland Postdoc-Stipendium des Vizepräsidiums für Forschung, Universität Erfurt, Germany

2015: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) of the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

2014: Postdoctoral Research Scholarship, Dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek Fund (Netherlands), Visiting Scholar at the University of Edinburgh

2014: Young Researcher Scholarship, Fondation Hardt pour l’étude de l’antiquité classique (Vandœuvres, Switzerland) (September)

Invited presentations (selection)

  • ‘What would an ancient democratic utopia have looked like?’, workshop ‘Utopia and Democracy’, CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, Hungary (27 April 2023)
  • ‘Democracy and the Common Good in Ancient Greek Political Thought’, at the Research Seminar of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic (1 November 2022)
  • Commentator in panel workshop on George Duke’s book Aristotle and Law: The Politics of Nomos (CUP, 2020), at the UK-IVR Conference 2022: Law, Rationality and Practical Reason: Ancient and Contemporary Perspectives (Zoom) (11 June 2022)
  • ‘What intoxicates the puppet? Philosophical temptations in Plato’s Laws’, paper at international workshop ‘Pathos and Nomos: the treatment of affections in Plato’s Laws’, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium (22 October 2021)
  • ‘Wein und Dialektik in Platons Gesetzen’, paper at 19th Kolloquium zur Antiken Philosophie of the Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie, Erlangen, Germany (in German) (11 January 2020)
  • Presentation at Reading Seminar on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics VIII.8-IX.3, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (18 October 2019)
  • ‘Plato and Aristotle on the Application of the Law’, paper at the working group ‘Praktische Philosophie’ of the Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie, Würzburg, Germany (6 July 2019)
  • ‘Plato on Applying the Law’, paper at the Annual International Meeting ‘Philosophy in Assos’, in 2019 on Plato, Assos/Behramkale, Turkey (3 July 2019)
  • ‘A Philosophical Perspective on Legislation in Plato’s Laws?’, paper at conference ‘Legislation and lawgiving: philosophical perspectives on antiquity’, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (12 June 2019)
  • ‘Groping for the Philosopher in Plato’s Laws’, paper at conference ‘Grasping the Philosopher in Plato’s Academy’, Gargnano sul Garda, Italy (30 May 2019)
  • Two guest lectures at the University of Pisa about my 2017 monograph (invited by Prof. Bruno Centrone) (27 and 28 May 2019)
  • ‘Punishment in Plato’s ‘Truest Tragedy’’, paper at international workshop ‘Plato’s Mimēsis Revisited’, Tübingen, Germany (5 May 2019)
  • Response to paper ‘Plato’s Comic Principles: On the Ascetic Socrates’ by William Strigel (University College Dublin), at the workshop ‘Plato on Comedy’, Durham University, UK (30 March 2019)
  • ‘Aristotle on a special kind of utility friendship’, keynote lecture at the Postgraduate Conference in Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy Department, University of Edinburgh, UK (17 July 2015)
  • ‘Plato and the Sophists’, guest lecture at University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland (16 May 2014)

Workshop and panel organisation

  • Workshop ‘The Nature and Psychology of the Legal Preambles in Plato’s Laws’ at the University of Pisa (hybrid) (15 June 2022)
  • Workshop ‘Philosophy of Music: Perspectives on Antiquity’ at Durham University (with Prof. Andy Hamilton) (11–12 July 2019)
  • Second meeting of the working group ‘Förderung von Nachwuchswissenschaft-lerinnen’ of the Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (with Dr Bettina Bohle) (16 June 2017)
  • Inaugural meeting of the working group ‘Förderung von Nachwuchswissenschaft-lerinnen’ of the Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (with Dr Bettina Bohle) (30 July 2016)
  • Panel ‘Images of the Self in Aristotle: philia, sympatheia, homonoia’, Annual Meeting of the Classical Association, Edinburgh (with Dr Pia Campeggiani) (7 April 2016)

Professional memberships

  • International Plato Society (full member) (2021–present)
  • International Society for Socratic Studies (2021–present)
  • Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie (2016–present)
  • OIKOS: National Research School Classical Studies (Netherlands) (associated member)
  • British Society for the History of Philosophy (2019–2022)
  • British Society of Aesthetics (2018–2020)