Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST
Location: 3100 Whitehaven St. NW, Washington DC, 20008
The Center for Hellenic Studies invites local middle school and high school educators to participate in a day-long pedagogy workshop centered around Homer’s Odyssey and its historic reception. Capitalizing on the Odyssey’s recent visibility and its prominence in cultural discourse, this workshop is intended as an opportunity to explore and collect strategies and resources for teaching Homer’s Odyssey as a versatile text ripe for interdisciplinary study and engagement.
The basic format of this workshop will be two-fold. The first session will feature a guided discussion of pre-circulated readings proposing some fundamental theories of reception and adaptation. Together, we will explore what it means to adapt an ancient work in different cultural contexts and through different media. We will also discuss the pedagogical possibilities born from the use of adaptations in the classroom. After a lunch break, the second part of the workshop will explore strategies for employing the Odyssey as a centerpiece for interdisciplinary study. Post-session, participants will receive a resource packet featuring relevant and recent scholarship on the Odyssey and its reception, as well as a crowd-sourced list of adaptations for classroom use.
No previous experience with the Odyssey is assumed or required. In the belief that our pedagogy is strengthened through a diversity of perspectives, we are especially interested in reaching educators from a broad range of disciplines including but not limited to literature, social studies, history, and Latin.