Maria Dimitropoulos is a PhD candidate in the Classical Studies program. She primarily works on Greek art and architecture in the Archaic and early Classical periods, and her dissertation is on visual representations of intra-familial conflict and violence in ancient Greece. At Columbia, Maria has taught Elementary and Intermediate Attic Greek, and she has been a T.A. for language and history courses, including a global core class on Egypt in the Classical World, as well as courses in Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology.
Outside of her dissertation research, Maria participates in an archival project on former Barnard Professor Margarete Bieber and her contributions to ancient art history. Because of her previous work on the modern reception of ancient Greece and on ancient drama, she is especially interested in Dr. Bieber’s role in the early 20th century revivals of Greek theater and festivals. In the past, she has presented her research on the role of archaeology in the formation of national identity in early modern Greece at the University of Toronto in a paper entitled Nation-Building in 20th century Greece: Converging the Ancient with the Modern (2017). She has also presented her work on the development of drama in Greek colonies in Magna Graecia, Macedon, and Asia Minor at the 2018 Cleveland Symposium in a paper entitled Despots and Drama: Tyrants as catalysts for the spread of Classical Greek Theater (2018). More recently, Maria has participated a joint research initiative with the Department of Histoire de l’art et Archéologie of the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne on 20th century university collections of classical antiquities in the United States.
Maria has worked on numerous archaeological projects including the underwater archaeological survey at the Roman Port Sanisera in Menorca (2012), the excavations at Gournia, Crete (2013, 2014), and the Columbia excavations in Onchestos, Thebes (2014 - 2018). Since arriving at Columbia, she has received fellowships to work on her research in Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and Egypt. Email Maria Dimitropoulos.