Why does Hellenic studies matter for all of us?

Helping share Greek language, history, and tradition more widely around the world has been a key part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) mission from the start. But in an era of rapid retrenchment in the humanities in which society’s gaze is fixed firmly on the future, why does studying Hellenic culture matter?

Over 30 years, SNF has supported Hellenic studies and related programs at universities in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Turkey, and beyond that have taken a range of approaches in the field, from traditional archaeology and public humanities to tech-forward language-learning tools and contemporary anthropology. The Foundation has also helped to formalize programs around the world and connect them with one another, bringing together disparate efforts of scholarship and outreach in shared purpose.

We’ll hear from several of these partners about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how they’re helping us appreciate our shared humanity in the process. Sometimes, to effect SNF’s guiding principle of putting “humanity at the core,” we need to put humanities at the core.