Staff profile

Giulia Bonasio is Associate Professor in Ancient Philosophy. Dr Bonasio’s research focuses on ancient ethics and epistemology. She is a specialist in Aristotle’s ethics, in particular in the Eudemian Ethics. Dr Bonasio is interested in contemporary debates inspired by ancient philosophy for example in virtue ethics, and in the relation between ancient epistemology and AI. In addition to ancient philosophy, she has interests in ancient Greek literature, in particular in lyric poetry, tragedy, and in the history of emotions.

Dr Bonasio's book The Unity of the Virtues in the Eudemian Ethics (Oxford University Press 2025) approaches the EE as a treatise in its own right and shows that understanding the philosophical proposal of the EE is fundamental for a full picture of Aristotle’s ethics. In her book, she develops a new approach to the unity of the virtues and to the interactions among the virtues. The book is based on the most recent Greek edition of the text (Rowe 2023).

In 2022, Dr Bonasio has been Guest Professor at the Zentrum Altertumswissenschaften of the University of Zürich and Senior Fellow of the Collegium Helveticum. 

Before coming to Durham, Dr Bonasio was a Faculty Fellow at the University of King’s College in Halifax (Canada) where she taught in the Foundation Year Program. She was also affiliated with the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University.

She was educated in Italy, where she completed a BA and a MA in Philosophy at the University of Padova. She received a MA, a MPhil and a PhD in Classical Studies/Ancient Philosophy from Columbia University. 

Dr Bonasio is currently editing a book on Perspectives on Wisdom that includes contributions in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Islamic, Buddhist, Old Chinese, and Indian philosophy, as well as neuroscience (under contract with De Gruyter).

Doctoral Supervision

Dr Bonasio is happy to supervise doctoral dissertations in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in particular on Aristotle.

Current and former PhD students supervised

Giulia Bernardini Plato and Comedy

Rossana Zanetti (co-tutelle with the University of Pisa) Nel laboratorio di Aristotele: indagini sulla composizione e sviluppo delle due Etiche

Carlo Cacciatori (supervised as second supervisor) Plato's later moral epistemology

School Talks and Outreach

Dr Bonasio would be happy to give talks on ancient philosophy, as well as on topics and contemporary debates that relate to ancient philosophy.

Authored book

• Bonasio, G. (in press). The Unity of the Virtues in the Eudemian Ethics. Oxford University Press

Book review

• Bonasio, G. (online). Review of F. Alesse, Aristotle on prescription: Deliberation and Rule-Making in Aristotle’s Practical Philosophy (2018). Classical Journal,
• Bonasio, G. (2017). Review of W. Lapini, L'epistola a Erodoto e il bios di Epicuro in Diogene Laerzio (2015)
• Bonasio, G. (2016). Review of J. Warren, The pleasures of reason in Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Hedonists (2014). Classical World, 109(4),

Chapter in book

• Bonasio, G. Honour and its goodness in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics. In D. Cairns, & M. Canevaro (Eds.), Honour in Classical Greece. University of Edinburgh Press
• Bonasio, G. Complete Virtue. In G. Di Basilio (Ed.), Investigating the Relationship Between Aristotle's Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics (172-188). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326233-11

Conference Paper

• Bonasio, G. (2016, December). The transgressive notion of the sublime in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. Presented at Breaking the Rules, Leiden
• Bonasio, G. (2019, December). Pleasure and motivation in the Eudemian Ethics. Presented at Aristotle World Congress in Thessaloniki: Aristotle 2400 Years, Thessaloniki
• Bonasio, G. (2014, December). Passions tragiques : la pitié et la crainte par rapport à la catharsis en Aristote. Presented at Passions : transports, sublimation, Montpellier

Journal Article

• Bonasio, G. (2022). The Pleasure Thesis in the Eudemian Ethics. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 60(4), 521-536. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2022.0051
• Bonasio, G. (2021). Natural goods in the Eudemian Ethics. Ancient Philosophy, 41(1), 123-142. https://doi.org/10.5840/ancientphil20214117
• Bonasio, G. (2020). Kalokagathia and the unity of the virtues in the EE. Apeiron, 53(1), 27-57