Dr Han Baltussen

Biography/ Background

Han Baltussen was born in Maastricht (the Netherlands), where he was educated at the Henric van Veldeke College (incl. Greek and Latin), going on to study Classics and Ancient Philosophy at the University of Utrecht. His doctoral thesis, written under the supervision of Jaap Mansfeld (Utrecht) and Hans B. Gottschalk (Leeds), dealt with the dialectical methodology in Theophrastus' De sensu, a short work which surveys and criticises early theories of perception (Revised version published in 2000 by Brill).

In 1993-96 he was Research Associate to the Early Stoics Project in Utrecht, from 1997-2002 he was a Research Associate with the international translation project of the Neoplatonic Commentators and a Temporary Lecturer and Tutor in ancient Greek philosophy at Kings College London (Dept. of Philosophy).

Awards, Honours and Grants:

• 1996 Travel grant to Fondation Hardt, Geneva (NWO)
• 1996-97 as Junior Fellow at the Centre for Hellenic Studies (Trustees of Harvard University) in Washington DC 
• 1997-2002 a combined Fellowship of the British Academy and the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) held at Kings College London (Philosophy Dept.)
  
• 2003 Faculty Small Research Grant (Adelaide)
• 2006 postdoctoral fellow ("Member") at the School of Historical Studies in the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton, NJ (Fall term)
  
• 2007 Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP 0770690) for project "Philosophical Consolation and Psychotherapy in Antiquity", 2007-2009
• 2009 Nominated for the University's inaugural Excellence in Education Awards
  

Qualifications

BA 1983, MA & Dip.Ed. 1986, PhD 1988-1993 (Utrecht University)

Teaching Interests

Han teaches Classics at all Undergradute levels and is involved in the following courses (N.B. level 2 and 3 courses are now called Advanced levels, all listed under codes starting with 20xx):

• CLAS 1001 "Divine Rulers and Popular Tyrants" [sem. 1, 2009]
• CLAS 1002 "Citizens, Cults, and Emperors in Ancient Greece and Rome" (coordinator) [sem. 2,  2009]
• CLAS 1003 "Games, Festivals and Leisure in Greece and Rome" (coordinator) [sem. 1, 2010]
• CLAS 2024 "Ancient Medicine and its Legacy: Hippocrates to Harvey" (coordinator) [sem. 1, 2009]
• CLAS 2030 (EUST) "Ancient Philosophy" (coordinator) [n.a.]
  
• CLAS 2031 "Afterlife and Underworld in Antiquity" (coordinator) [sem. 1, 2010]
• CLAS 2032 "Classical Mythology" [returns in 2011]
• Greek and Latin languages
  

• At Honours level he teaches topics in the history of ideas (intellectual history, history of medicine) exploring the importance and far-reaching influence of ideas on ancient and modern societies (e.g. madness, prejudice, medical ethics, censorship). 

He welcomes proposals from students who would like to do postgraduate work on topics in Greek and Roman philosophy, ancient medicine and the history of ideas.

Research Interests

Han's research interest is in the history of ideas, in particular the nature and influence of Greek thought & culture (e.g. philosophy, science and medicine), investigating interdisciplinary questions of genre, transmission and continuity in their cultural and political contexts. Prime example is his ARC funded diachronic study of philosophical consolations in the ancient world and beyond (ARC Discovery grant 2007-9). Another strand of his research concerns the suppression of ideas (censorship) and the expression of social and political critique (satire, historical prose).

Current work in progress includes (all titles are provisional):  

• (monograph) Ancient Consolation and Care of the Soul. Grief Management in Greek and Roman Consolatory Writings (under consideration with Oxford University Press)
• (book chapter) "Translation, Emulation, Transformation: Cicero's Mission to Latinize Greek Philosophy" in A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the History of Western Translation ed. by S. McElduff and E. Sciarrino [submitted Oct. 2009]
• (conference paper) "Marcus Aurelius and the therapeutic use of soliloquy" in B. Sidwell & D. Dzino (eds) Emotion, Power and Status. Papers in Honour of R.F. Newbold (Univ. of Adelaide, Dec. 2008)
• (book chapter by invitation) "Early Peripatos" in Routledge Companion to Ancient Philosophy ed. by J. Warren (Cambridge) and F. Sheffield (London) 
• (commentary) Theophrastus of Eresus. Fragments in Physical Doxography, FHSG 225-45 (commissioned by Theophrastus Project as vol. 3.2.1, for Brill, Leiden)
• (introduction) Aristotle's Heirs: An Introduction to the Peripatetic Tradition (322 BC-200 AD)  (commissioned by Acumen Ltd, UK) 

Publications

[A full list is provided in the attached file below]

I. Books

2010 [forthc] (edited volume) Acts of Consolation. Approaches to Loss and Sorrow from Sophocles to Shakespeare (Proceedings of a London colloquium December 2007, submitted & under consideration with the Cambridge University Press; ARC output 1)

2010 -- & H. Tarrant [forthc.] (scholarly translation) Simplicius' commentary on Aristotle's Physics 1.5-9. Translation, introduction and notes (in the international series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle with Duckworth, London; submitted Jan. 2009; revision of pre-proofs in progress) 

2008 (monograph) Philosophy and Exegesis in Simplicius. The Methodology of a Commentator (Duckworth: London, Hb. 292 pp.) ISBN 9780715635001 Click here for additional information. 

* Review: "In this stimulating book Han Baltussen provides an account of important specific features of the extant Aristotelian commentaries of the Neoplatonist Simplicius." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.05.19)

2004 (conference proceedings, 2 vols.) P. Adamson, H. Baltussen, M.W.F. Stone (eds) Philosophy, Science and Exegesis in Greek, Latin and Arabic Commentaries (Supplements to the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies; London: ICS, 83.1-2) Click here for additional information.

2000 (monograph) Theophrastus Against the Presocratics and Plato. Peripatetic Dialectic in the De sensibus (Brill, Leiden/ xiv & 285 pp) Click here for additional information.

II. Recent /forthcoming articles & book chapters

2010/11 (forthc.) "Introduction: the act of consolation before Freud", in H. Baltussen (ed.) Acts of Consolation. Ancient Approaches to Loss and Sorrow from Sophocles to Shakespeare (under consideration with Cambridge University Press)

2010/11 (forthc.) "Cicero's Grief in Context: his Consolatio ad se", in H. Baltussen (ed.) Acts of Consolation. Ancient Approaches to Loss and Sorrow from Sophocles to Shakespeare (under consideration with Cambridge University Press)

2010 (forthc) "Simplicius and the Subversion of Authority", in Antiquorum Philosophia. An International Journal [8,800 words] (submitted June 2009)

2010 [in press] "Simplicius", ch. 39 in Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, ed. by Lloyd Gerson (Univ. of Toronto) [10,000 words + bibliography] (submitted Jan. 22, 2009; expected April 2010)

2009 [in press] "Galen", "Hippocratic Oath", "Hippocratic Corpus", "Theories of Perception" in Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, USA, expected Dec. 2009)

2009 "A Grief Observed: Cicero on Remembering Tullia" in Mortality. Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying (Routledge, UK) vol. 14.4 (Nov.): 355-69.

2009 "Personal Grief and Public Mourning in Plutarch’s Consolation to His Wife", American Journal of Philology 130.1: 67-98.

Professional Associations

• Australasian Society for Classical Studies (2002-)
• American Philological Association (1996-)
• Classical Association, UK (1997-)
• Dutch National Graduate School in Classical Studies (Associated member)
• Dutch Research Center for the History of Ancient Philosophy (1996-)
• Society of Ancient Medicine, USA (2000-)

Community Engagement

• Convenor Faculty Library Committee (2009-)
• Member of the Faculty Research Committee (June 2009-)
• Coordinator public lecture: the Annual Constantinos Moraitis Hellenic Lecture (2003-)
• Honorary Treasurer Classical Association South Australia (2006-)
• Executive Committee Member of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies (2003-)

Files

• Simplicius - HBALPhilosophy_Exegesis.jpg [37.5K] (image/jpeg)
• Theophrastus Bk - BookTheoph.jpg [5.2K] (image/jpeg)
• Book cover 04 - Book2004.jpg [13.2K] (image/jpeg)
• Publics_Sept09 - 09Publs_HB_Sept29.pdf [152.8K] (application/pdf)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Arts and culture, History
Expertise	the nature, transmission and influence of ancient Greek philosophy and medicine; grief, loss and consolation in the ancient world and beyond
Notes	Fellowship awards from Centre for Hellenic Studies (Washington DC 1996-97) and Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton 2006) ARC Discovery Grant for project on consolation as psychotherapy (2007-09) Several grants for travel and research support

Entry last updated: Sunday, 22 Nov 2009