"À l'école des Anciens". War and its representations from the perspective of ancient rhetoric

Danielle van Mal-Maeder is Professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Lausanne. Her research focuses mainly on the Ancient Novel and Rhetoric. She is director of a research centre on ancient declamation. She is also involved in a number of international projects and sits on the editorial boards of various scientific journals.

Alessandra Rolle is currently Lecturer of Latin language and literature at the University of Lausanne. Her research focuses mainly on Varro, Roman religion, Latin rhetoric and declamation. She is director of the research project  'Divina eloquentia. La religion dans la formation rhétorique à Rome entre République et Empire'. She is the author of several articles and books chapters, and of two books.

Sabine Luciani is full professor of Classics at Aix-Marseille Université. She teaches Latin language and literature, Roman civilisation, the history of ideas and mythology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research interests are in the history of philosophy, with a particular focus on Hellenistic and Roman philosophy and the relationship between philosophy and literature in ancient Rome. She is interested in the Republican period and especially in two Latin philosophers: Lucretius and Cicero, on which she has published several books. She is currently working on two projects: the translation and commentary of Cicero's Tusculan disputations and an anthology of texts on consolation.

Anne Balansard is Professor at Aix-Marseille Université, in Greek Language and Literature, Département des Sciences, TDMAM. She is a specialist of Plato and in his relationship with his predecessors: Sophists and Rhetoricians. She has worked on dialogism and enunciation in his works.

Julie Dainville earned her PhD from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 2019. Her research centers on ancient rhetoric, with a particular focus on the relationship between rhetoric and divination in the Greek world, as well as on the teaching of rhetoric, notably through papyrological sources. She also teaches Greek religion, mythology and literature at the Université libre de Bruxelles. 

After publishing two books, one on conspiracy theories (2019) and the other on dystopias (2022), Sébastien Chonavey is focusing his research on apocalyptic discourses. His doctoral thesis analyses the discourses of young environmental activists, their connection to catastrophe, the figure of Cassandra, and their new relationship with the universal audience. Sébastien began his academic journey with a teaching qualification in French and moral studies (2016), followed by a Master’s in French and Romance languages and literatures (2019), and a CAPAES at ULB in the same year. In 2020, a Seed Money grant launched his doctoral project. For the 2024-2025 academic year, he is completing his three-year term as a Mini-Arc doctoral candidate (ULB), supervised by Professor Emmanuelle Danblon at GRAL. He teaches as an assistant at ULB and as a lecturer for bachelor’s programmes at several higher education institutions in Brussels. He is also a reserve officer in the Belgian Navy, seconded as a rhetoric and ethics advisor. Additionally, he serves as the director of the Belgian MilClub and coordinator of the European Interconvictional Meetings.

Benjamin Sevestre-Giraud is agrégé de Lettres classiques and teaches communication at Sorbonne Paris Nord University (IUT de Villetaneuse). He will shortly be submitting his thesis entitled “Prolégomènes à une réinvention de la rhétorique : l'expression, la communication, l'argumentation et leurs imaginaires disciplinaires du lycée à l'université” (Aix-Marseille Université/ Université libre de Bruxelles). 

B. Sans is an assistant professor in Latin language and literature at the Université Rennes 2 (France) where he is a member of the CELLAM Laboratory and, as a long-standing member of the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), he collaborates with the Groupe de recherche en Rhétorique et en Argumentation Linguistique (GRAL) led by Emmanuelle Danblon. His research focuses on two complementary aspects: 1) the relationship between rhetoric and ancient historiography and more recent historical representations ; 2) the adaptation of the ancient rhetorical curriculum to contemporary needs and audiences.