News and Events

January 28

"Dreams in Greek and Roman Religion: Old and New Problems." Lecture by Gil Renberg, Lecturer of Classics and Religious Studies, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Dr. Renberg is the 2018 Goodwin award recipient for his book, "Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World."

January 7

"Dido of Carthage: Reclaiming a Roman Queen."  Lecture by Josephine Quinn, Associate Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University and Martin Fredericksen Fellow and Tutor of Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford.  Dr. Quinn is author of In Search of the Phoenicians, published by Princeton University Press in 2018.  

October 5

"Bodies, Books, Histories -- Augustine of Hippo on the Extraordinary." Lecture by Susanna Elm, the Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of History and Classics, at UC Berkeley. 4:30-6:00pm, at the Galbraith Room, H&SS 4025

October 9

"Late Antiquity: 'Long and Broad.'" Seminar featuring Arnaldo Marcone, Humanistic Studies Department, Roman History, Roma Tre University. 1:00-4:00pm at the Galbraith Room, H&SS 4025.

June 6, 2018

In collaboration with the Scripps Center for Maritime Archaeology, we hosted a lecture on underwater archaeology, by Professor Stella Demesticha. The talk, "Mazotos, Cyprus: A 4th BC Shipwreck Site by the Book?" discussed a fourth-century shipwreck discovered off the coast of Cyprus, near the village of Mazotos. The shipwreck lay undisturbed for 2,400 years.  Underwater excavations and new digital technologies reveal much about classical ships and their cargos.

May 1-2, 2018

The first UCSD-Fudan University, Shanghai, graduate student conference in Greco-Roman antiquity was held.

April 24, 2018

Dr. Philon spoke about "Cultural Encounters: The Innovative Islamic Architecture of the Deccan, India." Dr. Philon has a PhD on the Bahmani of the Deccan and Early Islamic Deccani architecture. She was the curator of Islamic Art at the Benaki Museum, in Athens, Greece and is the co-founder of the Deccan Heritage Foundation.. Co-sponsored with the Jewish Studies Program and Middle East Studies Program.

April 18, 2018

Special Screening & Discussion of Iphigenia: Book of Change, a film by Elise Kermani.  The film of a live performance is inspired by Euripides' plays of Iphigenia, as well as stories of contemporary women who have endured, survived, and escaped captivity.  A common thread throughout the sources of inspiration is the concept of a prison in one's mind versus a physical place of imprisonment or incarceration. This performance found its origins in the experience and survival by a relative of Kermani at Teheran's Evin Prison when she was 16 years old.  How does one survive the experience of solitary confinement, physical, psychological, and emotional torture? As an "archaeologist of Greek myth," Kermani found a vehicle for her production through the ancient Greek plays about Iphigenia.  It is an intense journey through a series of seemingly unrelated events united by situations of confinement, censorship, fear, and death.  Throughout all this, however, there is a sense of hope of a better future if the characters involved continue to persevere, seek knowledge and listen to their muses.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the director, Elise Kermani, and UCSD's professors Page duBois and Babak Rahimi.

The film screening is co-sponsored with Middle East Studies and the Classical Studies Program, and part of Institute of Arts and Humanities' Film Series.

March 26, 2018

Celebration for Greek Independence Day. This year's Independence Day event celebrates the contributions, accomplishments, and experiences of our students.  It featured presentations by our doctoral students, who gave brief summaries of their cutting-edge research.  Each year hundreds of students take our Hellenic Studies courses and a smaller number of them go on our summer program in Greece.  They recounted their experiences of living and studying in Greece.  This event took place at 5:00-7:30pm in the Huerta-Cruz Room, at the Old Student Center.  

March 15, 2018

Lecture co-sponsored with the Classical Studies Program, with guest speaker Katerina Ierodiakonou, Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the University of Geneva. The talk, "Ancient Theories of Color," will be held at the Huerta-Cruz Room, at the Old Student Center at 5-7pm. Light refreshments will be served, following the talk. 

March 10, 2018

Concert with the Xylouris White Duo, at the Loft.  Doors open at 6:30pm.  The Concert will be preceded at 7:00pm by a discussion with the performers, moderated by Professor Tom Gallant. Xylouris White is firmly rooted in the past and future. Playing Cretan music of original and traditional composition, the band consists of Georgios Xylouris on Cretan laouto and vocals and Jim White on drum kit. Xylouris is known and loved by Cretans and Greeks at home and abroad and has been playing professionally from age 12. Jim White is an Australian drummer known and loved throughout the world as the drummer of Dirty Three, Venom P Stinger and now Xylouris White. For the last four years these two men have been performing as Xylouris White, the culmination of 25 years of friendship forged through music and place. Tickets are FREE for UCSD Students. General Admission is $10. This event is co-presented with University Centers. 

February 15, 2018

A lecture with Dr. Nikos Panou, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Peter V. Tsantes Endowed Professor in Hellenic Studies at Stony Brook University. Dr. Panou will talk about "Artifices of Eternity: Constructing Sainthood in the Ottoman Balkans." The talk will be held at the Governance Chambers on the 4th floor of the Price Center, at 5pm.

February 12, 2018

The annual Vassiliadis Lecture was held at The Village 15th Floor, from 5-7pm.  Our featured speaker, Dr. Michael Kulikowski, the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History and Classics  at Penn State University, will speak on "Was There a Eurasian Late Antiquity?". Dr. Kulikowski writes on the institutional and political history of late antiquity.  His books include Rome's Gothic Wars (2007) and Triumph of Empire (2016), and have been translated into six languages. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal.  Light refreshments will be served following the lecture.

January 18, 2018

The second annual Ranglas Lecture was held at The Village 15A, between 5-7pm.  The talk is: "Were Barbarians Barbaric? The View from Greece," featuring Erich Gruen, Wood Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley .  The talk attempts to elicit how term "barbarian" was understood in the Hellenic world. Greeks Regularly referred to those who did not speak Greek as "barbaroi." Was this simply a matter of language and culture? Or did the term carry within it a sense of ethnic inferiority? Did that label signify uncivilized savages who were reckoned as contemptible and even subhuman? In short, did such characterization constitute racism?   

November 16, 2017

“Nations Against Empires: Nation State Building in the Balkans, 18th-20th Centuries.” A special lecture with Dr. Christina Koulouri, Professor in Modern and Contemporary History at Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences, in Athens, Greece, and Director of the Research Center for Modern History.  The talk will focus on major transformations in Southeastern Europe from the late eighteenth cetury to the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the First World War (1914-1918), in the context of global changes that led to the demise of the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and German empires and reconfigured the map of Europe.  The talk will be held at The Village at Torrey Pines, on the 15th floor, from 5-7pm.  Light refreshments will be served after the talk. 

October 9, 2017

“An Archaeologist's Eye: Drawing the Parthenon Sculpture (or trying to see what is no longer visible).” Lecture with Katherine Schwab, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Fairfield University, scans of whose graphite drawings are part of the permanent installation in the Acropolis Museum, in Athens, Greece.  Dr. Schwab will discuss the drawing techniques she developed, the process of making these drawings, including the influence of Tibetan thangka painting, discoveries she has made, and proposed polychromatic effects in some of the Parthenon's East metopes. The talk will be held at the Fung Auditorium, in the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, at the Jacobs School of Engineering, from 5-7pm, and will be followed by a reception with light refreshments.

October 29, 2016 at 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
UC San Diego hosted the Friends of Ancient History Meeting.

January 14, 4:00 pm
Johannes Haubold gave a lecture titled: “Greece and Mesopotamia: Paradigms and Pitfalls of Comparative Literature”

February 9, 4:30 pm
Christine Shepardson (Lindsay Young Professor at the University of Tennessee) gave the 4th annual Vassiliadis lecture on "Putting Religion in its Places: How the Roman Empire Became Christian"

March 24, 4:30 - 6:30 pm
The Eighth Annual UC San Diego Greek Independence Day Celebration— Sponsored by the Nicholas Family Endowed Chair and the Center for Hellenic Studies Program

1. Introduction and Report on the Center for Hellenic Studies
2. Current Research by UCSD Doctoral Students
3. Featured Speaker: Dr. Laurie Kain Hart, Professor of Anthropology, UCLA "Greece at the Cutting Edge: from the Cold War to the Migration Crisis" Reception

March 31– April 2
UC San Diego’s Center for Hellenic Studies participated in the 2016, Second Annual Western Consortium for Hellenic Studies Graduate Student Conference at Simon Fraser University

April 7, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Event: Marco Formisano of the University of Ghent gave a talk: “A 'new-allegorical' reading of late Latin poetry"

April 14, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Event: Screening of the documentary film: “Kisses for the Children” Followed by a Q and A session with the film’s director, Vassilis Loules.

April 18, 4:00 pm
Antonis A. Ellinas gave a talk: Organizing against Democracy: The Development of the Golden Dawn in Greece

May 12, 6:00 pm
Inaugural Address by Professor Denise Demetriou the Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas Endowed Chair in Ancient Greek History

May 17, 4:30 pm
Event: Scott McGill of Rice University gave a talk: "Did Plagiarism Exist in Ancient Rome?"