Symposia
Symposia is the world’s first classics journal to publish the work of high schoolers. Founded in 2026 by three Stanford students, Symposia aims to encourage youth engagement with the classics. The publication is biannual with two submission cycles– end of fall and spring– with each edition featuring five essays across two categories.
What’s a symposium?
In ancient Greece, a symposium was a gathering after dinner where patrons relaxed and debated. No one spoke from authority. Ideas got tested through conversation, sometimes torn apart, sometimes abandoned by morning for better ones. Plato liked the format enough to write a dialogue named after it, where a room full of Athenians argue about love— even Socrates doesn't get the last word.
We made ours plural, symposia on purpose. One symposium is a single room, one night, one conversation. Symposia is all of them at once — every student who submits is starting their own conversation with antiquity, on their own terms.