About Us

Established in 2019, the Center for Hellenic Studies at the University of Chicago, housed within the Division of the Humanities, is a forum for research and teaching many aspects of the Hellenic letters and culture, including the Greek language, literature, philosophy, art, history, and ideas. The Center’s vision of Greece is multidimensional —as a diversified intellectual and cultural body which, through time and geography, has produced and continues to produce ideas that inform, engage, and inspire contributions to the world.

What unifies the Greeks is their language, which presents a continuous unbroken tradition that stretches back in time for more than 3,000 years,” said Anastasia Giannakidou, founder and inaugural director of the Center for Hellenic Studies and the Frank J. McLoraine Professor in the Department of Linguistics at UChicago. “Modern Greek is a small language in the U.S., but an important element in the identity of the Greek diaspora. The Center for Hellenic Studies supports students and researchers studying the Greek canon within a unified perspective under one umbrella that puts together a diverse set of disciplines that address the ancient and the modern in language, literature, history, politics, culture, philosophy, and linguistics, providing a truly interdisciplinary forum.”

The study and teaching of Hellenic topics has been central at the University of Chicago since its founding. The University teaches the Greek language in all its stages: ancient Greek, Biblical Greek (koine), and modern Greek. The Center has affiliated faculty in multiple departments in the Humanities, Social Sciences, as well as the Divinity School —teaching more than a hundred courses yearly to more than a thousand students on topics across the spectrum of Hellenic Studies.

With this fertile campus ecology, and knowing the important contribution Hellenic thought has had, and continues to have on society, the Center takes an expansive interdisciplinary approach, aiming not just to coordinate and amplify efforts across the University but also to create a new venue for centering the importance of Greece and Greek contributions, and to being a hub for activities that will inspire both within and outside of academia.

The Center takes an expansive interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on the Greek language, and a unified vision of the Hellenic tradition (Ancient, Medieval, and Modern) as a rich intellectual heritage that deserves to be studied as a whole if we are to gain a deep rather than a superficial understanding. The study of the great works of classical Greece is a vital part of a liberal education but it is only the starting point of the study of Hellenic ideas across three millennia, resulting in the vibrant culture of Modern Greece. Our aspiration is paradigm building: we maintain a perspective on the Hellenic canon as a whole, and want to build an academic paradigm that moves beyond the traditional limitations in US academy.