Beginnings in England Owen's first academic appointment was a
research fellowship at
Durham University from 1950 to 1953. This brief stint saw the preparation of his first scholarly publication, an article on
Plato's
Timaeus. In 1953, he was elected to the newly established lectureship of
ancient philosophy at Oxford. Although his post was designed to provide teaching on
Pre-Socratic philosophy, he also directed regular classes on Plato and
Aristotle aimed at graduate students. Together with Ryle and their colleague
J. L. Austin, he provided a generation of future scholars with a foundation on these two philosophers. In addition to his university assignment, he became a fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1958. In 1963, he was elevated to a professorship. During his time at Oxford, Owen was part of a drive to revive academic collaboration on the philosophy of Aristotle. He was one of the founders of the revived Oxford Aristotelian Society, an influential close-reading group. Their meetings were attended by a core of leading contemporary philosophers, including
W. D. Ross,
Martha Kneale and her husband
William Kneale. His other collaborative project were the
Symposia Aristotelica, triennial meetings of international Aristotle scholars initiated by Owen and the Swedish [classicist
Ingemar Düring. He was particularly engaged in organising the 1957 and 1963 editions of the conference, the latter of which was held at Oxford.
Harvard In 1966, Owen left Oxford to take up the Victor S. Thomas Professorship at
Harvard University. In the years preceding his appointment, he had made visits to the United States and had received offers of chairs from numerous universities. The new post afforded him improved working conditions "with ample funds and support" from the departments of classics, philosophy and the
history of science. His move to the United States coincided with a rise in the stature of ancient philosophy at American universities, which was at that time fostered by the work of the Plato scholar
Gregory Vlastos at
Princeton University. Continuing the developments of his time at Oxford, he initiated a monthly research seminar (the "New York Seminars"), where scholars from the
Northeastern United States would come together to discuss the work of Aristotle. He also enabled a number of distinguished European thinkers to make extended research visits to Harvard as Loeb fellows.
Cambridge When the
Laurence Professorship of Ancient Philosophy at
University of Cambridge was vacated by the retirement of
W. K. C. Guthrie in 1973, Owen made a successful bid to succeed him and returned to England. He was, in turn, elected a fellow of
King's College, Cambridge, where he was given rooms in the pediment of the
Gibbs Building. As in his previous posts, his focus lay on graduate teaching and seminars but he did not involve himself in faculty or university business while at Cambridge. He did, however, re-create his American research seminar by founding a parallel "London Group" dedicated to the study of Aristotle's
Metaphysics. Since its inception in the 1970s, the group has produced volumes on several books of the
Metaphysics. Towards the end of his life, Owen suffered from episodes of
depression, showed signs of
burnout, and was prone to
alcoholism. He died of a
heart attack on 10 July 1982, aged 60. He was buried at the churchyard of
Lower Heyford in
Oxfordshire and was survived by his wife Sally. ==Personal life==