Whether you realize it or not, you already know something about the Hellenistic Age (323 31 BCE). This was a great age of expansion territorial, cultural, artistic and scientific.
In the wake of Alexander the Greats conquests, classical culture was spread throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and into North Africa and the Middle East. Great cosmopolitan centres began to spring up, like Alexandria in Egypt, and became great gathering points for intellectuals, scientists, poets and artists. Philosophies that were to influence all of Western thought were invented, poetic forms and styles that writers still use today were created, great scientific breakthroughs from anatomy to engineering (computers and robots, anyone?) were discovered and beautiful art that was to fundamentally influence the Italian Renaissance and beyond was first conceived. From Alexander the Great until the last Hellenistic monarch (Cleopatra of Egypt) was deposed by the might of Rome, this period in Western cultural history is seminal to our own, modern world and how we understand ourselves within it.
The Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies (WIHS) was established in 2010 as the first research center in North America dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the Hellenistic era. It seeks to function as an international networking hub for scholars and students, and to foster collaborative scholarly activities.
View the official WIHS brochure (PDF).
