Trendall Lecture
The Trendall Lecture alternates between an Australian and an international early or mid-career researcher who exemplifies distinguished scholarship in the Classics.
Australia has a rich history of world-leading researchers of the ancient world, its languages, literature, thought, history, art and civilisations. The Trendall Lecture celebrates this long tradition and reminds us of the deep and continuing relevance of the ancient world and late antiquity to modern life.
We are delighted to partner each year with the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference (ASCS) to host the Trendall Lecture.
Namesake & history
Professor A.D. (Dale) Trendall AC CMG FAHA (1909–95) was a Foundation Fellow of the Academy. This lecture is made possible by a bequest from his estate.
The first Trendall Lecture was given by Professor Michael Osborne, then Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University, in 1997 and has been delivered almost every year since.
Dale Trendall, of course, in a lifetime of scholarly endeavour demonstrated only too brilliantly the historical, social, and artistic significance of Greek pottery. Michael Osborne, Trendall Lecture, 1997
Past lectures
Lectures 21-25
Twenty-fifth lecture
Experiencing Immersion from Antiquity to Modernity
Dr Emma Cole, University of Queensland
13 February 2024, Melbourne
Twenty-fourth lecture
Why Ovid (and Translation) Matters
Professor Stephanie McCarter, The University of the South, Tenessee, USA
10 February 2022, Tasmania
Twenty-third lecture
In the Garden of the Fugitives
Dr Estelle Lazer, University of Sydney
8 February 2021, Online
Twenty-second lecture
Straying from Myth
Marian Maguire
28 January 2020, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
An edited version of this lecture will appear in Humanities Australia No.12.
Twenty-first lecture
At the Crossroads and in the Crosshairs: Class, Ideology and Personality-driven Politics at Rome in the Second Century BC
Associate Professor J. Lea Beness and Associate Professor Tom Hillard, Macquarie University
4 February 2019, Armidale NSW
Lectures 11-20
Twentieth lecture
The force of tradition in early Greek poetry and painting
Associate Professor Anne Mackay, University of Auckland NZ and President of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies
30 January 2018, Brisbane
Nineteenth lecture
‘More celebrated than actually known’: Sir John Soane’s Greek vases
Professor Tyler Jo Smith, University of Virginia, USA
18 May 2015, Melbourne
Eighteenth lecture
What makes a Roman Goddess? Ovid, the Empress, and female apotheosis in Rome
Emeritus Professor Carole Newlands, University of Colorado, USA
28 January 2015, Adelaide
Seventeenth lecture
The gleam through the arch: Homer’s world revisited
Emeritus Professor Trevor Bryce FAHA
9 October 2014, Brisbane
Sixteenth lecture
Individuality and innovation in Greek sculpture
Professor Andrew Stewart
18 January 2013, Sydney
Fifteenth lecture
Homer and Plato
Professor Richard Hunter FAHA
22 February 2012, Sydney
Fourteenth lecture
Consoling yourself and others: Ancient and modern perspectives on managing grief
Professor Han Baltussen FAHA
19 October 2011, Adelaide
Thirteenth lecture
Anecdote apophthegm and the ‘real’ Alexander
Professor Brian Bosworth FAHA
13 October 2009, Newcastle
Twelfth lecture
The audience on stage: Rhetoric, emotion, and judgement in Sophoclean theatre
Mr Simon D. Goldhill
21 September 2008, Melbourne
Eleventh lecture
Beyond the stereotypes
Professor Majella Franzmann FAHA
29 November 2007, Sydney
Lectures 1-10
Tenth lecture
How women (re)act in Roman love poetry
Professor Barbara K. Gold
31 January 2006, Hobart
Ninth lecture
It’s in the post
Professor Pauline Allen FAHA
20 September 2005, Brisbane
Eighth lecture
From Greece to Rome via southern Italy
Dr Andrew Burnett
16 March 2004, Sydney
Seventh lecture
Pylades, pantomime and the preservation of tragedy
Emeritus Professor John Jory
2003
Sixth lecture
Sophocles: The first thousand years
Professor Emerita Patricia Easterling
2002
Fifth lecture
Excavating and interpreting the Governor’s Palace, Acropolis, Jebel Khalid
Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FAHA
2001
Fourth lecture
Comic cuts: Snippets of action on the Greek comic stage
Professor Richard Green
2000
Third lecture
The baroque style in Magna Graecia: Some Important representatives of Apulian vase-painting in the 4th Century BC
Professor Alexander Cambitoglou FAHA
1999
Second lecture
Wealthy Corinth
Dr Elizabeth Pemberton FAHA
24 November 1998, London
Inaugral lecture
The gadfly of Greek history (The infuriatingly opaque nature of inscriptions as sources for Greek history)
Professor Michael J. Osborne FAHA
5 August 1997, Melbourne