Heather Reid, professor of philosophy, recently was an invited speaker at the American Academy in Rome Classical Summer School, and she gave a presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Olympic Academy Participants Association in Ancient Olympia, Greece.

Heather Reid, professor of philosophy at Morningside College, recently gave lectures in Italy and Greece.

She was an invited speaker at the American Academy in Rome Classical Summer School. Her talk was on “What Gladiators Can Teach us about Stoicism.”

“The lecture explains how Roman gladiators embody the philosophical ideals of Roman Stoicism because they are not afraid of death, they do not care about social standing or wealth, and they focus only on what is in their control,” Reid said.

Reid also gave a presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Olympic Academy Participants Association in Ancient Olympia, Greece. She focused on “An Ethical Definition of Olympic Sport,” and argued that the term Olympic should be used in an ethically prescriptive way instead of as a descriptor for athletic excellence.

Reid is a specialist in ancient philosophy and the philosophy of sport. She recently completed the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. She has published six books related to sports philosophy and the Olympics. A member of the Morningside faculty since 1996, she received her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.