Looking at the ancient world through a contemporary lens, New Directions in Classics celebrates 10 years of bridging ancient Greek and Roman times to the present.
Over the past decade New Directions has had over 2000 audience members from the University and downtown community participate in learning about the ancient world. Since its inception in 2016, the speakers have included diverse voices that range from classicists and ancient historians to museum curators, conservators, graduate students and postdocs from across campus, North America and beyond.
We’ve aimed – successfully, I think – to demonstrate the vitality of the Classics and of ancient Mediterranean history, literature, and art to our lives and work here in Winnipeg.
Dr. Peter J. Miller
This year’s six-part series, which is co-organized annually by Dr. Peter J. Miller, Professor in the Department of Classics, and Ruth Dickinson (BA Hons 18). covers charioteer rebellions, soldiers in Roman Arabia, modernist theatre and more.
“We’ve aimed – successfully, I think – to demonstrate the vitality of the Classics and of ancient Mediterranean history, literature, and art to our lives and work here in Winnipeg,” shared Dr. Miller.
New Directions has been especially interested in scholars whose work looks beyond the canon of art and literature, or which delves into the lives of those who have been effaced, erased, and marginalized in the traditional accounts of the ancient Greek and Roman world.
“We have prided ourselves since the series’ inception on the notion that New Directions in Classics is not for Classics faculty and students (though, they’re welcome, of course!), but for the whole community of students, staff, and faculty – and members of the public – who are inspired by curiosity and who look to understand some of the ways that the Mediterranean past is alive in twenty-first century Winnipeg.”
For a complete list of upcoming lectures, visit the 2026 New Directions homepage.
