The department of Classical Studies maintains a vibrant and active research program among all of its faculty. Each faculty member is engaged in personal research projects, while the Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies provides a forum for local, national and international research and scholarship.
Dr. Altay Coşkun is very much interested in the dynamics of power and ideology, as well as the diverse methods of inclusion and exclusion. His main research focus is on the Seleukids, the most powerful dynasty amongst the successors of Alexander the ‘Great’, and gravitates around the Seleukid Study Days (e.g., VIII: The Afterlife of the Seleukids, 2025), the Seleukid Lecture Series, and the book series Seleukid Perspectives. His other Hellenistic and Roman research concentrates on the Galatians, Judaea, and the Mithradatid kingdoms, further Roman ‘friendship’ diplomacy and citizenship. His interest in mytho-geography has yielded several historical maps and articles on the dynamic Argonautic (and Odyssean) land- and waterscapes. Moreover, he also enjoys creative engagement with ancient literary sources that may teach us about memory, ethical judgment, and the mechanisms of a thriving democracy. Together with Ben Scolnic, he runs the Unheard Voices of the Past. He further serves as academic advisor to the student-directed creative journal Epic Threads and collaborates on the Edgar William Pyke Coin Collection with Jessie Blackwell and dedicated students.
Dr. Riemer A. Faber pursues research in two main areas: Greek and Latin poetry, and neo-Latin literature. The intertextuality of Hellenistic Greek and Latin Augustan poetry is the focus of much of his work in classical antiquity. Recent publications in this field include the co-edited volume Comparing Roman Hellenisms in Italy, which examines in detail the local, historical, and material circumstances that distinguish different types of Roman Hellenism, and the edited collection of studies, Celebrity, Fame and Infamy in the Hellenistic World. Two representative articles focus on intermediality in epic ekphrasis and on the description of a shield in Antimachus’ Thebaid. The focus of his neo-Latin literature is on the New Testament scholarship of Erasmus. He has produced an edition of Erasmus’ Annotations on Galatians and Ephesians, and a translation of the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae. Current projects focus on Greek and Latin poetry (especially pastoral and epic) and early modern Latin prose.
Dr. Andrew Faulkner is especially interested in the tradition of Greek poetry, from Homer to the literary production of the Byzantine Empire. He is also more generally interested in the literature and culture of Late Antiquity (c. 300–800 AD), as well as early Christian literature and theology. One focus of his work has been the Homeric Hymns and the tradition of Greek hymns. He has written a commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, edited a collection of essays on the Homeric Hymns, and together with Prof. Andreas Schwab and Prof. Athanassios Vergados, co-edited a collection of essays on the reception of the Homeric Hymns in later literature. In the area of early Christian and Late Antique poetry, he has published an edition, translation, and study of the s0-called Metaphrasis Psalmorum, a paraphrase of the Psalms in Homeric hexameter verse possibly attributed to Apollinaris of Laodicea. Reflecting his interests in the broader multicultural traditions of Late Antique literature, he has together with Dr Cillian O’Hogan and Dr Jeffrey Wickes edited a volume of essays on the reception of Genesis in Late Antique Poetry, which explores poetry in Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac. He is currently the Editor of Phoenix, the journal of the Classical Association of Canada. Together with Prof. Laura Lieber and Prof. Scott McGill, he is also editing a two-volume Oxford History of Late Antique Literature, which includes 80 contributions on the diverse literature of Late Antiquity in a variety of linguistic and cultural traditions. His other on-going research projects include a commentary on Aelia Eudocia’s poetic Martyrdom of Saints Cyprian and Justina (5th c. AD) and, together with Dr Christos Simelidis, an edition of a newly identified Byzantine paraphrase of the Psalms in iambic trimeter.
Dr. David Porreca, the Co-Director of the Undergraduate program in Medieval Studies, is very interested in Medieval intellectual history, especially the reception of the pagan Classical tradition in the Christian Middle Ages. The main focus is on the enigmatic figure of Hermes Trismegistus. Having conducted research at over thirty manuscript libraries scattered throughout Europe, Porreca has become interested in ancient and Medieval magic, astrology, alchemy, palaeography, manuscript transmission and glosses. His main publications include three books, co-authored with his former student and current collaborator Dan Attrell (and others). They focus on the Latin astral magic text known as Picatrix (2019), Marsilio Ficino's polemical work De Christiana religione (2022), and The Theoretical Latin Hermetica (ca. 2026). His next book project will be The Curious Commentators of MS Copenhagen, Fabricius 91 4, involving 13th-century annotations drawing on Sidonius Apollinaris’ Letters, Apuleius’ De deo Socratis and the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus’. Besides, he also researches the dynamics of the rise, flourishing, and downfall of complex societies (such as ancient Roman civilization), especially with regard to the impact of resource depletion.
You may also look at the profiles of the individual faculty members to see the kinds of research that they conduct. Faculty members will often employ students, both graduate and undergraduate, to help in their research projects, both graduate and undergraduate, so there