David Theunis Runia is a Dutch-Australian classical scholar and educational administrator who has worked in both

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Early life

Runia was born in the

Noordoostpolder Noordoostpolder (; ) is a polder and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. Formerly, it was also called ''Urk, Urker Land''. Emmeloord is the administrative center, located in the hea ...

, the Netherlands. At the age of four he emigrated to Australia when his father Klaas Runia took up a chair at the

Reformed Theological College The Reformed Theological College (RTC) is the theological college supported by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia, the Reformed Churches of New Zealand, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Australia. It is located in the Melbourne ...

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

. After attending Newtown State School and

The Geelong College The Geelong College is an Australian Independent school, independent and co-educational, Christianity, Christian Day school, day and boarding school located in Newtown, Victoria, Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria (Australia), ...

, he studied Classics at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

from 1969 to 1976 and was a resident of Queen's College from 1969 to 1971. In 1977 he returned to the Netherlands, where he obtained his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

at the

Free University, Amsterdam The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...

in 1983.

Academic career

In 1985 Runia was awarded a C&C Huygens Post-doctoral Fellowship by the Dutch National Research Body Z.W.O. (later N.W.O.), enabling him to be a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton in 1986–87 and a visiting fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in Canberra in 1987. In 1991 he was appointed De Vogel Professor Extraordinarius at the

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

, The Netherlands, a position that he held until 1999. In 1992, Runia was appointed to the Chair of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. In 2002 he returned to Australia on his appointment as Master of Queen's College at the

, a position he held until retiring in 2016. He is currently a

Professorial fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

in the School of Historical Studies in the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

at the University of Melbourne. In March 2017 he was appointed Director of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamation ...

. He has also been a Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Ancient Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, since 2007. Runia was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

in 1999 and a Correspondent of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 2004. He was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the

2025 Australia Day Honours The 2025 Australia Day Honours are appointments Australian honours system, to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2025 by the Governor General of Australia, Sa ...

. Runia's scholarship research has focused on two main areas: (1) the interaction of

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

and Jewish-Christian thought, with particular attention paid to the contribution of the Hellenistic-Jewish author

Philo of Alexandria Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian Je ...

and (2) the genre of ancient

doxography Doxography ( – "an opinion", "a point of view" + – "to write", "to describe") is a term used especially for the works of classical historians, describing the points of view of past philosophers and scientists. The term was coined by ...

, which gives us valuable information on the thought of early Greek philosophers.

Publications

*''Philo of Alexandria and the'' Timaeus ''of Plato'', 1986 (dissertation). *''Philo of Alexandria: an Annotated Bibliography 1937–86'', 1988 (with R. Radice) *''Exegesis and Scripture: Studies on Philo of Alexandria'', 1990 *''Philo in Early Christian Literature: a Survey'', 1993 *''Philo and the Church Fathers: a Collection of Papers'', 1995 *''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, Volume I: The Sources'', 1997 (with Jaap Mansfeld) *''Philo of Alexandria: an Annotated Bibliography 1987–96'', 2000 *''Philo of Alexandria'' On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses: ''Translation and Commentary'', 2001 *''Proclus Commentary on Plato's'' Timaeus.'' Volume II Book 2: Proclus on the Causes of the Cosmos and its Creation'', 2008 (with Michael Share) *''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, Volume II: The Compendium'', 2009 (with J. Mansfeld) *''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, Volume III: Studies in the Doxographical Traditions of Ancient Philosophy'', 2009 (with J. Mansfeld) *''Aëtiana IV: Papers of the Melbourne Colloquium on Ancient Doxography'', 2018 (edited with J. Mansfeld) Editor of −
The Studia Philonica Annual
', 10 volumes 1989–1998; with Gregory E. Sterling, 20 volumes 1999–2018 (excepting volume 28, which was a Festschrift in his honour, edited by Gregory E. Sterling (contains bibliography of his publications from 1977 to 2016)

References

External links

Queen's College Senior Common Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Runia, David 1951 births Living people People from Noordoostpolder Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Members of the Order of Australia Academic staff of Utrecht University Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Academic staff of Leiden University Academic staff of the Australian Catholic University