The Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies (WIHS) supports international research, outreach, and pedagogy focused on the history, cultures, and intellectual traditions of the Hellenistic world. Through conferences, publications, and collaborative networks, WIHS brings together scholars, students, and the public to explore the ancient Mediterranean in global context.
The Hellenistic world was an age of profound transformation, defined by movement across borders, encounters between cultures, and new ways of understanding power, identity, and belonging. Emerging from the conquests of Alexander and extending across the Mediterranean, Near East, and beyond, it was a world in which ideas, peoples, and practices circulated with unprecedented intensity. Cities rose and fell, empires were negotiated as much through diplomacy as through force, and local traditions were reshaped through sustained contact with wider political and cultural horizons.
The Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies exists to explore this complexity in all its dimensions. Bringing together scholars from history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religious studies, and related fields, the Institute fosters interdisciplinary research that connects texts, material culture, landscapes, and lived experience. Through collaborative projects, international conferences, publications, and teaching initiatives, WIHS advances a global conversation about the ancient world—one that foregrounds nuance, diversity, and methodological rigor while remaining attentive to the human realities behind historical change.
We invite you to explore the work of the Institute throughout this website. Learn more about upcoming lectures, workshops, and conferences; discover publications produced by WIHS scholars and collaborators; and engage with the people and ideas that shape our research community. Whether you are a scholar, student, or interested member of the public, we welcome your curiosity—and encourage you to connect with us, support our work, and take part in the ongoing study of the Hellenistic world.
The acquisition of a knowledge of history is of the greatest utility for every conceivable circumstance of life.
News
WIHS Supports International Hermes Conference in Naples
This international conference hosted at the Università di Napoli L’Orientale focused on the writings and legacy of the pseudonymous figure Hermes Trismegistus and brought together over 30 scholars from 10 different countries. It was a fascinating update on the conference on the same theme held at the same location in November 2001, several participants of which were also present at this year’s iteration. The conference was also the occasion to launch a new book by WIHS Executive Committee member David Porreca (in collaboration with UW graduates Dan Attrell and Brett Bartlett, as well as our Italian colleague Matteo Stefani) entitled “The Latin Hermes in Translation - Asclepius, Glosses on Trismegistus, Book of Six Principles of Things, Book of 24 Philosophers”, published by Brepols in their Corpus Christianorum in Translation series. Conference proceedings will be published as an upcoming volume of the journal Micrologus. Conference organizers expressed their gratitude for the the financial support provided by WIHS that helped make the event possible.
Homer Rocks throughout the Ages
For nearly three millennia, Homer has been captivating Greek, Mediterranean, and Western societies. By tapping into the rich traditions of the ancient Near East and diving deep into tall tales of his own time, his epics struck more than one cord with his contemporary and future audiences.
Welcome Mustafa Adak as New Member of the Executive Committee
There is more exciting news about the Institute’s Executive Committee. We are honoured that Dr. Mustafa Adak has accepted our invitation to join our executive council. His work on the Athenian polis gained him his MA (1995) and PhD (1999) in Ancient History at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg. After teaching as lecturer in the Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures at Akdeniz University in Antalya (1999-), he became Professor of Greek Language and Literature in 2005. For a quarter century, he has been working incessantly on the history of ancient Asia Minor especially based on the Greek inscriptions of the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods. His surveys along the ancient roads of Lycia, Pisidia, and Pamphylia have yielded several discoveries, most famously the Stadiasmus Patarensis (published with the subtitle Itinera Romana Provinciae Lyciae, Istanbul 2007, together with Sencer Şahin). His recent focus has shifted to the even richer epigraphic record of Ionia, especially Teos (cf. Teos and Abdera. Two Cities in Peace and War, Oxford 2022, with Peter Thonemann). He is the editor of the journal Philia, a title well chosen to express his outstanding qualities as a team player, always enthusiastic to share the latest inscriptions that may elucidate Hellenistic Anatolia, and to assist scholars and students towards publishing their findings at the highest level. Please, join us in welcoming Mustafa Adak!