Learning from the ancient world

Meet our new Seymour Reader Dr Tom Hercules Davies who comes to us from Princeton and Yale Universities.

Nearly 70 years after Percy Seymour’s passing, his gift continues to enrich learning at Ormond, even though university study has changed immensely in that time. Seymour had a specific vision for his fellowship: he wanted to enhance Ormondians’ study of Ancient Greece and Rome at a time when these topics were at the heart of most humanities degrees. Today, things are very different, but our new Seymour Reader, Dr Tom Davies, explains that the ancient world can give us useful perspectives on twenty-first century challenges.

“One thing the ancient world teaches us is how rapidly societies can change. In the Bronze Age, prosperous, cosmopolitan societies collapsed rapidly into chaos. Sophisticated networks of trade and diplomacy dissolved, with a resulting loss of prosperity.” Tom said.

In the face of the climate crisis and other challenges we face today, Tom sees this not so much as a dire warning that societies can go backward, but an optimistic sign that civilisations can change quickly if they need to.

“Another thing the ancient world can teach us is that there are many ways to organise society and many social, political and economic systems; knowledge that could help us think creatively about change in our own times.”

Tom brings this knowledge of the ancient world to a range of College academic programs. As well as tutorials in Classics, his understanding of ancient knowledge systems has informed Ormond’s new Astronomy Forum. Participants learn how people in previous ages explained the world, and what their shared beliefs tell us about the way different cultures interacted. Similarly, his expertise in ancient languages and cultural interaction is enhancing the College’s Linguistics Forum. He hopes his contribution will help students understand that studies of the deeper past give us information not available through any other source. • Seymour Readership

Ormond has long welcomed fellows, artists in residence and academics to enrich the College with their teaching, mentorship, and participation in college life. One part of this is the Seymour Readership which for nearly seventy years has brought Classics scholars to Ormond.

The Readership was established by Percy Seymour, an outstanding scholar who Ormondians described as ‘the embodiment of comprehensive scholarship applied to real situations.’

The first Seymour Reader arrived at Ormond in 1961 and since then incumbents have helped develop Ormondians’ understanding of classical thought. The fellowship has also had a broader influence on philosophy in Australia by bringing significant international philosophers to Melbourne.