Humanities and Social Sciences

Philosophy and Religious Studies

News & Events

Goodbye and thankyou to Mr John Penwill

John Penwill was born in England, and grew up in Tasmania. He studied at the University of Tasmania, and later at Downing College, Cambridge. He taught at Monash University and the University of Tasmania before being appointed to the Bendigo Campus in 1987.where he has taught in the Arts Program for twenty-two years.

John's specific interest is in Roman literature of the late republic and early empire, with a particular focus on the interface between literature and philosophy. He is a scholar of international standing, and has given lectures and seminars by invitation at numerous overseas universities, including Cambridge, Edinburgh, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Brown, Buffalo and Crete.

John has been Associate Editor of the international refereed journal Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature for more than 30 years. He is also editor of Iris, the journal of the Classical Association of Victoria. He was convenor of the annual conference of the Australian Society for Classical Studies in Bendigo in 2004, and served as president of the Society from 2006 to 2009. He was a foundation member of the Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar, which has convened annually since its inception at the University of Tasmania in 1987.

John’s teaching of undergraduates encompassed a wide range of disciplines and periods. He taught Classical Literature, Modern Literature, Australian and Contemporary Literature, Greek Philosophy, Classical Historiography, Classical and Neo-Classical Art, Women’s Studies, Classical Greek and Latin Language and English Language Studies. He co-ordinated the design of the original honours course in Humanities, first offered in 1992, and has taught a unit in Roman Studies each year since. He was convenor of the Arts Program at Bendigo for several years from 1999.

His strong academic focus, his wide-ranging interests and his skills as a teacher will be sorely missed. We offer our thanks to John for his many years service to La Trobe University Bendigo and wish him all the best for his future endeavours.