Center for Hellenic Studies
Encyclopedia
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
located in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at 3100 NW Whitehaven Street. It is affiliated with Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Nestled in Rock Creek Park
Rock Creek Park
Rock Creek Park is a large urban natural area with public park facilities that bisects Washington, D.C. The park is administered by the National Park Service.-Rock Creek Park:The main section of the park contains , or , along the Rock Creek Valley...
behind Embassy Row
Embassy Row
Embassy Row is the informal name for a street or area of a city in which embassies or other diplomatic installations are concentrated. Washington, D.C.'s Embassy Row lies along Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., and its cross streets between Thomas Circle and Ward Circle, although the vast majority of...
, the Center for Hellenic Studies offers a variety of both residential and remote fellowships each year to scholars and researchers working on projects in a variety of fields, including "archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, literary criticism, philology, philosophy, pedagogical applications, reception, and interdisciplinary studies." The Center provides housing for "residential" fellows and their families, and accommodates remote fellows and visiting scholars during shorter stays. Fellows are selected by a panel of Senior Fellows, a group of five internationally-selected senior classicists. Fellows are typically pre-tenured PhDs from around the world, most often from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
or North America. The "Center", as it is commonly called, has been a stopping point in the careers of many budding classicists who have gone on to be major contributors in the field.
Director of the Center
The Director of the Center is hired by Harvard University. Michael C.J. Putnam (Brown UniversityBrown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, 1962) was the first director, but acted as a substitute for Bernard Knox
Bernard Knox
Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox was an English classicist, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the Center for Hellenic Studies. In 1992 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Knox for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S...
(Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, 1963-1985), the Center's first official Director. Knox was succeeded by Zeph Stewart (Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, 1985-1992), and Stewart by Co-Directors, Kurt Raaflaub
Kurt Raaflaub
Kurt Arnold Raaflaub is a Swiss historian and Emeritus Professor of Classics and History at Brown University. He is the brother of conductor Beat Raaflaub....
and Deborah Boedeker (Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, 1992-2000). The current Director of the Center is Gregory Nagy
Gregory Nagy
Gregory Nagy , born in Budapest Hungary in 1942, is an American professor of Classics at Harvard University, specializing in Homer and archaic Greek poetry. Nagy is known for extending Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories about the oral composition-in-performance of the Iliad and Odyssey...
(Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, 2000-present).
Campus
The main building of the Center houses one of the world's premier research libraries for the study of the classical world. The library is primarily used by residential and visiting fellows, as well as visiting scholars, but it is also open to the public. It includes a rare book room with several ancient manuscripts. The main building also houses offices for the fellows, the staff, and the administration.The wooded campus has a large mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
as the director's residence, a "stoa" with five apartments for the fellows without families, three cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s for the fellows with families, two subdivided cottages serving as double residences, five guest-rooms to accommodate visitors, and one cottage that has been transformed into a multi-media conference facility . There is easy access from the Center to Rock Creek Park.
History
The Center was established in 1961 through an endowment, "exclusively for the establishment of an educational center in the field of Hellenic StudiesHellenic studies
Hellenic Studies is an interdisciplinary scholarly field that focuses on the study of Greek culture, ancient, Medieval and modern, including Hellenic diaspora communities around the world....
designed to rediscover the humanism of the Hellenic Greeks," made by the Old Dominion Foundation, (the predecessor to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
). The governing body was the "Trustees of Harvard University" (not equivalent to Harvard University, however). The Center was completed in 1963 by the architect H. Page Cross on land donated by Marie Beale in memory of her son, Walker Blaine Beale (Harvard College class of 1918) who died in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In 1996, the Italian Embassy bought about half of the land from the Center and built a new facility there. In the mid-1990s, under the directorship of Raaflaub and Boedecker, the Center was greatly expanded (from 8 Junior Fellows to 12, and with a significant renovation of the library).
Starting in 2000, the current Director, Gregory Nagy
Gregory Nagy
Gregory Nagy , born in Budapest Hungary in 1942, is an American professor of Classics at Harvard University, specializing in Homer and archaic Greek poetry. Nagy is known for extending Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories about the oral composition-in-performance of the Iliad and Odyssey...
, has brought a new focus on outreach (both national and international), information technology, publishing, and collaborative research to the Center for Hellenic Studies, as evidenced by the Center's dynamic website. In 2003, under Nagy's direction, the Center began renovations to transform one of the cottages into a new multi-media conference center. The design plans were drawn up by the architectural firm, Convergeo, and in 2006, the "Digital Agora" was unveiled.
In September of 2006, the Center for Hellenic Studies opened a campus in Nafplion, Greece. John Petropoulos is the first, and current Director of Research for the Center in Nafplion. The offices in Nafplion help to coordinate the summer programs that the Center offers, including opportunities for research, study and internship abroad. Currently, the Center for Hellenic Studies is working as a partner institution with the Onassis Foundation to prepare for the Athens Dialogues Conference that the Onassis Foundation will host in Athens this November.