Research
The Department pursues a broad range of research areas. Young researchers are accordingly encouraged to single out their research topics according to their individual interests. This is reflected in the large thematic and methodological variety of the qualifying papers that are submitted. Furthermore, the teaching staff deliberately avoid compartmentalization between Greek, Classical Latin, Medieval and Neo-Latin, in order to foster constructive dialogue among neighboring disciplines.
Study of Religions remains one of the key areas of research within Classical Philology at the University of Zurich, with the late Professor of Greek Walter Burkert as its founding father and figurehead until his death on 11 March 2015, and his pupils Prof. Riedweg and Prof. Gemelli partly following suit.
Prof Dr Markus Hafner was appointed to a full professorship in Greek Studies at the University of Zurich in 2025. In his research, he examines a broad spectrum of issues relating to ancient Greek literature, which are not limited to antiquity but also include central challenges of the present day. He occupies himself with the educational culture of the Imperial period, particularly with the author Lucian in the intellectual context of the Second Sophistic as well as in the network of complex relationships between Greek and Roman culture. Furthermore, he has edited an interdisciplinary volume on dealing with the emotion of grief and the rhetoric of consolation. His field of research also includes concepts of literary authorship, especially anonymity, pseudepigraphy and collective authorship in Greek literature, on which he is currently leading a research project originally funded by the European Union (ERC) entitled COLLAPSE. Moreover, he is interested in the history of Classics and its intertwining with politics.
Prof. Dr. Anke Walter has been full professor of Latin at the University of Zurich since May 2025. One of her research interests are ancient origin stories. She has published a monograph on the representation of time in ancient stories of origin and co-edited a volume on the narrative strategies of origin narratives. Another co-edited volume on the power of origins is forthcoming. A second focus of her research is the interaction between literature and religion, especially in the context of ancient festivals. In her most recent monograph, Anke Walter examines the representation of festivals in Latin literature, i.e. in particular in texts that do not primarily deal with festivals, such as Ovid’s Fasti, but in other Latin elegies, Horatian lyric, post-Vergilian epics, and historiography. She has also edited a volume on the temporality of festivals. Ancient epic poetry, especially Flavian epic, is another focus of her work. She has published a monograph on storytelling in Flavian epic and is currently working on a German translation of Statius’ Thebaid for de Gruyter’s Tusculum series. Finally, she is interested in the physicality of conflict in Latin literature and is currently preparing a new research project on the literary treatment of pain and injury in Neronian and Flavian epic poetry.
The research of Prof. Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann focuses on textual criticism and editorial work, the pragmatics of Latin in the Middle Ages, and poetological questions concerning the Latin literature of the same period. She is particularly interested in linking theoretical questions with the analysis of the textual witnesses. She is currently completing the critical edition of Petrus Alphonsi's Dialogus, and the SNSF-funded project Il mondo antico visto delle glosse medievali on the examination of ancient myths and ancient rhetoric in high and late medieval commentaries on the classics.
As an SNSF Ambizione grant recipient, Dr Francesca Galli has been conducting a research project on medieval optics and its dissemination, use and influence in various contexts at the Chair of Medieval Latin since September 2022 (The ‘Ineffabilis Utilitas’ of Optics. Hybrid Uses of a Pivotal Science in 13th-century Imagery and Thinking; PZ00P1_201935).
Further information, including more detailed descriptions of current and completed research projects, as well as lists of the current PhD and Habilitation projects within our Department, can be found on the German-language page.