When Dia Philippides discusses her work, both at Boston College and beyond, her face lights up. It is not a secret that she loves what she does. As a student, Philippides first came to BC to pursue two master's degrees in classical studies after attending Radcliffe for her undergraduate degree. After graduating from BC, she worked at Harvard and ultimately was invited back to BC to be a professor of classical studies by the senior colleagues of her department. She now has tenure as a full professor.
Philippides, born to an archeologist mother and a Greek father, has lived her life half in Greece and half in the United States. Her husband - also a professor at the time of their meeting - concentrated in Greek studies and formally worked in Amsterdam where the couple met. The couple lived in Europe for a number of years.
Although the classics in general were her field of study, the focus of all of Philippides's work, both inside and outside the classroom, is Greek. As a professor, she teaches both ancient Greek - focusing on tragedy, language, and literature - and modern Greek - concentrating in literature, language, and culture with an emphasis on Greek film.
"I enjoy to work with ideas inspired with antiquity because it [is] closer to today. Greece has many layers - there is tragedy, philosophy, even Roman, Byzantium, and medieval ruins among the remains of classical Greece. There are lots of nations that come to life and survive," Philippides says.
Philippides's work, however, extends outside the classroom. She is involved with research in Greece, regarding the Grecian Renaissance in Crete that occurred almost parallel to the Italian Renaissance.
"Venetians came to Crete during the Crusades and founded several Jesuit schools on the island," Philippides says. "That in and of itself is a link between BC and the Grecian world."
The literature that came out of this period is what Philippides and her colleagues are working to bring to the public view. She has just recently finished a CD-ROM that features the work done on the discovered literature. She hopes that, by putting the material in such a medium, it will be easier to get younger people interested in the subject. Philippides also points out that because there were a good amount of Jesuit schools scattered throughout the Aegean Sea, there are many records of Jesuit dramatic productions taking place on the islands dating from the 17th century.
The link between Greece and BC is something that Philippides considers very important; the study of the classics has been a part of BC since the founding of the University and Greece is the first foreign country to boast its very own BC Alumni Club. The club has heightened awareness in Greece about BC as well as extended its hospitality to many BC students who wish to visit or study in Greece.
Philippides's work continues to leave its mark. Technological advances such as the computer help her analyze Greek literature. The computer is described by Philippides as using a sort of "applied mathematics" as a way of looking for patterns within the text.
"I enter the literary text into the computer and then write programs to analyze the language and the form of text. Do we perceive a difference in style between the language of the women heroines from that of the men? A difference in the author's style between two or more texts? Can we note differences in the author's style between his narrative and the passages of dialogue?" she asks.
By using the computer programming, Philippides is able draw parallels and connections between ancient works such as a tragedy and the rhyme patterns found in a modern Greek play or romance. She also uses several forms of multimedia within her classes.
"[I use] slideshows showcasing landscapes of Greece or artifacts from museums and archeological sites, texts with specific passages underlined, music, or videos related to ancient or contemporary Greece," Philippides says.
The research in which Philippides is involved requires that she take a leave of absence from teaching. The research, however, also benefits the students here at BC when she returns to her position as a full time professor. This research, although perhaps taking her away her from the BC community, is vital for the courses she teaches.
While overseas, she constantly gathers new information to enrich her classes. Despite her time away, she is aware of her calling as an educator - while talking about her students she cannot help but smile. She loves to see her students succeed and gives them every opportunity to do so. She frequently uses her students as research assistants in order to allow them to get the most out of their experiences as students. She also supports her students' plans for after college by writing letters of recommendation to graduate programs and to study abroad programs or simply hearing about their successes after graduation.
Philippides also has a collection of what she affectionately refers to as "artifacts" created and left by her students: masks from ancient drama, replicas of an ancient theater, a wand for the god Dionysus, and a painting based on a poem by Cavafy. These are vestiges of the accomplishments of her students that inspires her to continue the work that she loves.
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