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Sean McConnell 2022 imageHonours Co-ordinator
Postgraduate Co-ordinator

Contact

Office 5N4, Arts Building
Email sean.mcconnell@otago.ac.nz

Academic qualifications

  • 2010: PhD, University of Cambridge
  • 2007: MPhil, University of Cambridge
  • 2005: BA(Hons), University of Otago

Background and research interests

Sean completed first his MPhil and then his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

His current research focuses on ancient philosophy, in particular Graeco-Roman philosophy in the first century BC and the interface of philosophy and politics at Rome during the decline and fall of the Roman republic. A major interest is how ethical and political theory, appropriated from the Greek philosophical tradition, is put into practice and developed by figures such as Lucretius, Cato, Varro, and Cicero in the light of Roman cultural and socio-political circumstances.

Teaching

2024

  • CLAS 238 Fantasies, Phobias and Families in Graeco-Roman Myth
  • CLAS 340 Love, Death and the Good Life: Socrates and Plato
  • CLAS 440 Advanced Studies in Socrates and Plato
  • LATN 212 Intermediate Latin Authors
  • LATN 329 Advanced Latin Authors 2
  • LATN 464 A Topic in Latin Literature

Has also taught

Areas of research supervision

  • Cicero
  • Classical philosophy
  • Lucretius
  • Plato

Publications

McConnell, S. (2014). Philosophical life in Cicero's letters. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 260p.

Gilbert, N., Graver, M., & McConnell, S. (Eds.). (2023). Power and persuasion in Cicero's philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 268p. doi: 10.1017/9781009170352

McConnell, S. (2023). Cicero and the Cynics. In R. Woolf (Ed.), Cicero's De Officiis: A critical guide. (pp. 182-200). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781009049375

McConnell, S. (2023). The model of voting in Cicero's best state. Polis, 40, 304-328. doi: 10.1163/20512996-12340410

McConnell, S. (2023). The problem of Aristippus at Cicero, De officiis 1.148. Mnemosyne, 76, 121-135. doi: 10.1163/1568525X-bja10086

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