Helma Dik

Helma Dik is an Associate Professor in Classics and the College at the University of Chicago, affiliated with the Department of Classics within the Division of the Arts & Humanities. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam (1995). Her research focuses on synchronic linguistics of Classical Greek, integrating syntax, semantics, and pragmatics with stylistic analysis in authors like Herodotus, Demosthenes, and Sophocles. She collaborates with Digital Classics initiatives such as the Perseus Project and organizes annual Digital Humanities colloquia with regional universities. Her current projects explore automated parsing algorithms for ancient languages and gendered language in drama through text mining.

Her research interests span corpus linguistics, digital humanities, and ancient prose style. Notable works include Word Order in Greek Tragic Dialogue (Oxford, 2007) and a forthcoming book addressing computational approaches to classical languages. She has advised dissertations on topics like network analysis of gemstones in literature and CRF parsers for Greek texts.

Professor Dik’s digital humanities activities include co-developing the Logeion and Philo4Classics platforms. She mentors students in both Classics and computational methods, with undergraduates pursuing careers in IT and academia. She actively participates in interdisciplinary conferences and maintains a blog discussing pedagogical and research innovations.