Biography
Myrthe Bartels is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ethics and the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, after a two-year outgoing phase at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto (project funded by an MSC-CZ Grant). She mainly works on ancient Greek political thought with a focus on the relation between philosophy and legislation in Plato's dialogues, though she has also written about the adaptation of rhetorical and philosophical practices associated with the Italian accademia in seventeenth-century musical culture in Central Europe. Previously, she held fellowships at Durham University, the University of Pisa and the Central European University. In her current project, she looks at how Plato conceptualizes the philosopher's obligations to their society. She received her doctorate in Classics from Leiden University.
Research interests
- ancient philosophy
- ancient ethics and political thought
- political theory
Publications (selection)
- (accepted). "Is the Slave Doctor Right? Re-reading the Doctor Analogy in Plato's Laws 9", Classical Quarterly.
- (forthcoming 2027). “Plato: envisioning a new society: Plato’s Laws”, in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought, ed. Carol Atack. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- “Academic Disputations on Love: Socrates in Seventeenth-Century Opera”, in Music as Classical Reception: Amplifying Antiquity, eds. Emily Pillinger and Miranda Stanyon. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2025, 164‒179.
- “Aristotle on Citizenship, Scholē and Democracy”, in Utopia and Democracy: Theories, Practices, Fictions, eds. Zsolt Czigányik and Iva Dimovska. Palgrave Studies in Utopianism. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2025, 75‒89.
- Plato’s Pragmatic Project. A Reading of Plato’s Laws. Hermes Einzelschriften 111. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag 2017.
Email: myrthe.bartels@upce.cz
Location: Building G, 06
ORCID: 0000-0002-6274-8941