• About

A leading figure in Classical Studies in Portugal, Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira left an indelible mark on the national and international scientific landscape of the 20^th and 21^s centuries thanks to her expertise and knowledge. Rocha Pereira carved new paths and granted her fellow scholars a broad and varied set of academic, cultural, and literary works that elevated the Humanities to a uniquely high standard of rigour and erudition.

She viewed the Classics the way they are meant to be viewed, as living cultural landscape comprised of and inducing restlessness, in permanent dialogue with the present we live in.

Rocha Pereira revolutionised teaching and research in the field of classical philology, kickstarting and cultivating an intensive scholarly pursuit of Greek theatre translation and critique in the School of Coimbra. This work paradigm would be then equally applied to her pursuits in Latin medieval literature. Rocha Pereira’s preferred field of expertise and pedagogy, the History of Classical Culture, allowed her to produce knowledge and deepen encyclopaedic skills that combined literature, language, ancient history, art history, political thought, philosophy, and science. Reception studies were a constant part of her trajectory, with particular focus on the presence of the Classics in Renaissance-era works and the impact of Graeco-Latin cultural heritage on Portuguese literature.

The objective of this conference is to pay homage to the Master, the Academic, in the way she would appreciate the most: by presenting to peers the results of up-to-date studies that promote and further knowledge in the disciplines Rocha Pereira herself strengthened.