Djair Dias Filho’s research focuses on the intersection of Jewish, Christian and pagan traditions in Antiquity, with special interest in Philo of Alexandria. Dias Filho’s dissertation, titled “Herakles and the Jews: Encounters with a Divine Hero in Antiquity”, offers a comprehensive study on the presence of Herakles (also known as Hercules) in ancient Judaism. By analysing literary and material sources, it addresses issues of religious accommodation, cultural assimilation, and social integration of a major demographic group in Hellenistic and Roman times.

Before completing his Ph.D. in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity at Princeton University, Dias Filho studied Classics at the University of São Paulo (BA) and completed graduate degrees in theology and religious studies at Oxford (PGDip), Edinburgh (MTh), and Yale (MAR). He also spent one year as an exchange student at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg.