About us
The Ghent Institute for Classical Studies was founded in 2010 by Prof. dr. Koen Verboven to bring together all scholars working on Classical Antiquity at Ghent University.
Today, its members are drawn from the departments and research units of ancient history, archaeology (MARU and HARG research groups), literary studies (Greek & Latin literature and linguistics), ancient philosophy, law, religion and reception studies. Its core thematic focus is the Greco-Roman world in all its aspects from its early days to its reception in the contemporary world. The GICS actively contributes to current debates in Classics, in particular concerning the foundations of Classics as a discipline and its often controversial relevance in the contemporary world.
An internal collaboration platform
The GICS serves as a platform by which the Ghent Classics community seeks to promote internal connectedness and facilitate collaboration, and raise its visibility outside its own university through outreach efforts and the expansion of its international network. Each year, the GICS organizes a series of activities (public lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences), among which feature prominently the GICS lectures, the GICS roundtables and the GICS podcast.
The GICS also circulates information on UGent and non-UGent activities in Classics among its members through a weekly newsletter, and serves as the key reference point for residing and incoming PhD researchers, Erasmus students and Visiting Scholars in Classics in Ghent. The GICS collaborates with a number of internal and external partners.
Current chairman and secretaries
Learn more about the research of Prof. dr. Marco Formisano (Chairman)
Marco studied Classics at the University of Palermo, Paris VII, and the Freie Universität Berlin, and received his PhD in 2000 from the University of Palermo. Following several post-doc grants, he was hired as Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Collaborative Research Center “Transformations of Antiquity” at the Humboldt-University in Berlin (2005-2012). During his time in Berlin, he became a Frances Yates Fellow at the Warburg Institute in London (2005), and a Research Associate at the Italian Academy of Advanced Study at Columba University in the city of New York (2008-2009). Since 2013, Marco is Professor of Latin Literature at Ghent University, where he is also a member of the Sarton Centre of the History of Science. He specializes in the literature and poetics of late antiquity; ancient literature of knowledge; acts and passions of the early Christian martyrs; the Panegyrici Latini; and masochism in ancient and modern literature.
Learn more about the research of Dr. Dimitri Van Limbergen (Secretary)
Dimitri is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) at the Department of Archaeology of Ghent University. Dimitri graduated in Classical Archaeology at the KU Leuven (2005), and received his PhD in 2015 from the Universities of Pisa and Ghent. He has held fellowships at the Collegio dei Fiamminghi in Bologna (2008-2009), the Academia Belgica in Rome (2010), and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Berlin (2013), and has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York (2017-2018). His research deals with viticulture and agriculture in Roman antiquity, with a focus on Italy and the Western Mediterranean from Republic to Empire.
Learn more about the research of Piril Us MacLennan (Secretary)
