Djair Dias Filho joined the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity subfield in 2017. Being broadly interested in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins, he hopes to concentrate on the study of the Graeco- Roman world in its Jewish and pagan expressions, as well as on the ways both of these cultures may intersect not only with each other, but also with New Testament and early Christian contexts. One particular interest has been Philo of Alexandria. As a member of the Portuguese translation project of Philo’s works, Djair has devoted a considerable part of his research working on this Hellenistic Jewish author, and plans to use his massive corpus as a starting point to explore a variety of issues pertaining to the disciplines of philosophy, biblical interpretation, classical reception studies, and early Christianity.

Before coming to Princeton, Djair studied Classics at the University of São Paulo and completed graduate degrees in theology and religious studies at the universities of Oxford (PGDip), Edinburgh (MTh), and Yale (MAR). He also spent one year as an exchange student at the University of Heidelberg.