St John’s College, Oxford, is delighted to announce that Professor Anne Sheppard (Professor Emerita of Ancient Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London) will deliver the fourth annual Donald Russell Memorial Lecture, on the theme of ‘Saying it in Style: Some Uses of Rhetoric by Platonist Philosophers in Late Antiquity’.
The lecture will be held in the St John’s College Garden Quad Auditorium, St Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3JP on Thursday 22 Oct. 2026 (wk. 2 of Michaelmas Term) at 5pm.
In her lecture, Prof. Sheppard will discuss how the philosophers of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries AD made use of what they had learned in the rhetorical schools, both in their commentaries on Plato and in other forms of writing. The first part of the lecture will focus on how Proclus and his contemporary, Hermias of Alexandria, deploy the theory of three styles, as an example of their use of tools drawn from the rhetorical tradition of literary criticism. The second part will consider the influence of rhetoric on the writing of encomia by Synesius and by Proclus’ pupil, Marinus, on the composition of hymns by Synesius and Proclus, and on the writing of a Platonic dialogue by Aeneas of Gaza.
The Donald Russell Memorial Lecture was established by the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford, in 2023 to celebrate and honour the contribution of Professor Donald Russell FBA (1920-2020) to the discipline of Classics, and his exceptionally generous support for Classics at St John’s. The lectures are dedicated to the fields of Classical studies in which Professor Russell had particular interest, including the arts of Greek and Latin prose, rhetoric, and imperial Greek literature. Previous lecturers included Michael Trapp, Judith Mossman and Ewen Bowie.
The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Garden Quad Reception Room. For more details and to register your attendance via Eventbrite, please see here.
Note: this is not a Classical Association event – please contact the organisers directly with any enquiries.