NEWS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS
MODERN GREEK PROGRAM 2015-16
INSIDE:
Announcing the Launch of the Paideia Project’s Endowed Professorship Campaign
Generous Travel Award Takes Our Students to Greece
Check out the Modern Greek Book Collection
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
CONTENTS
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Protecting Our Legacy: A Message from Georgios Anagnostou
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Remembering and Honoring the Paideia Project Pioneers
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A Rare Gift: William Peter Kaldis Donates His Modern Greek Book Collection
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Faculty News Makers The Phaedon John and Litsa Kozyris Undergraduate Travel Award: An Unforgettable Learning Opportunity Undergraduates Share Summer Experiences in Greece The Modern Greek Program in Action: Building Bridges Between University and Community
We are grateful to artist Evangelia Philippidis for designing our Paideia Project image.
A Message from Georgios Anagnostou Director of the Modern Greek Program Ohio State University Dear Friends of the Ohio Greek-American Community, We have long been fortunate that far-sighted members of the Greek community in Columbus mobilized in the 1970s to establish a Modern Greek Program at Ohio State. Today, Ohio State’s Modern Greek Program is one of the strongest and most respected in the nation. Unfortunately, budget cuts require us to take action. In the autumn of 2015, a group of Greek-American leaders began a statewide fundraising campaign to create an endowed professorship and thus ensure the teaching of Modern Greek language and culture, in perpetuity, at The Ohio State University.
The Endowed Fund for the Teaching and Study of Modern Greek Language and Culture #482910 Contact: Liz Burns Senior Director of Development
Across the country, universities are reducing funding for foreign language instruction, Modern Greek, in particular. We at Ohio State currently have two full-time faculty and a contract-lecturer working in Modern Greek. The positions of Professors Jusdanis and Anagnostou are secure and funded by the university, but upon the retirement of these two tenured faculty members, the Modern Greek Program could be eliminated. What is at stake in our fundraising is not funding the current faculty, but the future survival of Modern Greek studies at Ohio State. To address comparable circumstances, Greek communities in Michigan, New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Southern California have raised funds to establish chairs or professorships in Modern Greek to ensure the permanence of their Modern Greek programs after the retirement of current faculty. To preserve what we have built in Ohio, we must follow their example. An endowed professorship would guarantee that Greek language and culture will be taught, in perpetuity, at one of the best public universities in the nation. This will be a proud legacy of the Ohio Hellenic community for future generations.
burns.217@osu.edu 614-292-2197 John Swartz Senior Director of Development Swartz.9@osu.edu 614-688-1834 Professor Georgios Anagnostou anagnostou.1@osu.edu
Read more about the Paideia Project: go.osu.edu/Bh5S
The university has supported our Modern Greek Program. It positively responded to the community’s initiative by creating a Modern Greek Program at Ohio State, one of the few programs in the country with two tenured positions. This has made it possible for students from across Ohio and elsewhere to discover Greek paideia in the classroom and through study in Greece. Modern Greek Studies at Ohio State cannot survive without your help. We are asking you to contribute to the mission of raising at least one million dollars to establish an endowed Professorship of Modern Greek Studies. This is not for us; it is for the future of Hellenism in Ohio. We invite you to join us to preserve the teaching of our language and heritage at Ohio State. Sincerely,
Professor Georgios Anagnostou
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L-R: Vassilis Konstantinidis, Bill Antonoplos, Christos Bouzounis, Holly Papaleonardos, Elias Adamantidis, Gregory Jusdanis, Nick Alexander, John Swartz, Litsa Kozyris, Dimitris Sicaras, Eliseos Taiganides, Georgios Anagnostou, Aristotelis Hutras, Diamantis Adamantidis, Socrates Space, Zack Space, Anthony Kaldellis, Mark Fullerton.
Remembering and Honoring the Paideia Project Pioneers Historical Support of the Modern Greek Program Forty years ago, the Hellenic community in Columbus undertook the pioneering Project Paideia to create our Modern Greek Program. We remember and honor this legendary initiative. The community planted the seed for what is now an internationally respected program. We express our deep appreciation to these pioneers for both their initiative and their support of the program through the years. Their donations have helped us organize workshops; invite speakers to campus and to the community; and purchase educational material including books, films and documentaries for our classes.
Seated, L- R: Prof. Vassilis Lambropoulos, Dr. Tom Leontis, Dimitris Papaleonardos; Middle, L-R: Tom Chase, Prof. Gregory Jusdanis, Nick Soulas, Artemis Leontis, Litsa Kozyris, Anna Leontis, Kosmas Synadinos; Back, L-R.: James Jelett, Prof. Phaedon Kozyris, Becky Regas, Nick Alexander
A RARE GIFT: THE WILLIAM PETER KALDIS MODERN GREEK COLLECTION AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES In October 2015, the Modern Greek librarian, Miroljub Ruzic, and the executive director of the Hilandar Library, Predrag Matejic, organized a meeting honoring William Peter Kaldis for donating his personal library to Ohio State’s Modern Greek Collection. Modern Greek Faculty joined in thanking Dr. Kaldis and his daughter, Maria Kaldis Arend, pictured above. Dr. Kaldis, Emeritus Professor of History at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, donated his prized collection to Ohio State to make it available to students and scholars. Acquired while he was a Fulbright scholar in Greece in 1956, his collection contains many rare books, some not currently held by any other collection in the United States.
FACULTY NEWS MAKERS Georgios Anagnostou organized the Plenary Roundtable, “Youth Cultures in Greek America,” at the Modern Greek Studies Association Symposium (Atlanta, Georgia, October 2015). In May 2016, in Sacramento, CA, he talked about representations of Greek Americans in television. In June, he gave two talks: On Louis Tikas and Ludlow, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; and on his new book of poetry, Γλώσσες Χ Επαφής, Επιστολές εξ Αμερικής, in Athens, Greece (http://endymionpublic.blogspot.com/2016/07/blogpost.html). He has published two articles: on the film, My Life in Ruins; and on Greek American historiography. His interview with the Greek News Agenda about Greek America and Greek American studies is featured in Rethinking Greece (available online). Anagnostou received a $7,800 grant from Ohio State’s Humanities and Arts Discovery Theme Program to launch Ergon: Greek/American Arts and Letters, an online GreekAmerican journal.
Gregory Jusdanis: In November 2016, Jusdanis gave a talk on a Moroccan novel in Fez, Morocco. In December and May, he conducted research in London and Athens for his forthcoming biography of the renowned poet, Constantine Cavafy. In August, he gave a presentation on the Spanish translation of his book, Fiction Agonistes. In Defense of Literature, at the University of Buenos Aires; he lectured on friendship at the university’s medical school, and participated in a one-hour radio program on Greek culture in Buenos Aires. Christopher Brown presented the work of our students in Greek radio at the Modern Greek Studies Association meetings in Atlanta in October, 2015, and presented papers on the integration of Modern and Ancient Greek language instruction by scholars at the University of Birmingham at the Balkan Linguistics Conference in Utah in April and at the University of Chicago in May. He was invited speaker on Socrates at the Ancient Civilizations symposium at Columbus State Community College, September 30, 2016.
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THE PHAEDON JOHN KOZYRIS AND LITSA KOZYRIS TRAVEL AWARD: AN UNFORGETTABLE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY We are grateful to Litsa Kozyris, a long-time supporter of the program, for her generosity in creating this award. This past summer, three students used award funds for travel to Greece. Sofia Deligiannidis, Anna Maria Thalassinos and Stavroula Pabst share what this learning experience at the University of Athens meant to them: Stavroula Pabst: Double major, Modern Greek and History As a result of the study abroad program, I was given a wonderful opportunity to spend more time in a country I consider to be my second home, as well as meeting many different people from around the world who were just as interested in learning about Modern Greek as I was. While the classes being taught in Greek were somewhat intimidating, it was an amazing experience to meet so many students from other countries, such as Bulgaria, Russia, Germany and Italy, and learn about their passions for Greek, Greece, and learning languages, in general. My Greek has improved greatly as a result; I consider my time in Greece this past summer a key time in which I could work towards fluency in another language. To say the least, I would love to go back.
Anna Maria Thalassinos: Major in Modern Greek Immersing myself in all things Greek for a whole summer has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have always believed immersion is one of the only ways to become truly fluent and comfortable with a language–and this summer is proof of that for me. My class taught me many aspects of grammar and vocabulary and each and every day was an opportunity to practice that. Immersion is incredible because not only are there endless opportunities to practice a language, there is also the opportunity to pick up on the vernacular and learn phrases and non-verbal communication skills that the people of that country use. This summer was unforgettable–filled with many learning experiences, friendships and memories–and I highly recommend students take advantage of The Ohio State University’s many study-abroad programs at least once in their undergraduate career.
Sofia Deligiannidis: Minor in Modern Greek The program THYESPA was a very interesting experience. It was fairly easy to understand everything in Greek during class time, although the lectures entirely in Greek were hard to follow. Even so, it was amazing to see the diversity and interest in the Greek language, from those who are not Greek. Being one of the few ethnically Greek people, it made me immensely happy to see students from all different countries coming to learn Greek, and a decent amount of them were even better at the language than me. I am glad that I took advantage of this opportunity to spend so much time in Greece. It was eye-opening, and I discovered a lot; not only about Greece, but about myself. I look forward to furthering my knowledge of Greek, and am truly grateful for the opportunity that I had.
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Litsa Kozyris and Phaedon John Kozyris
THE MODERN GREEK PROGRAM in ACTION: Building Bridges between University and Community—with Events, Learning Opportunities, Public Lectures—recent examples: • Each November, we host students ages, 8-16, from the Greek School of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral (Columbus), teachers and parents. Ohio State students enrolled in Modern Greek language courses present their work, teach Greek language exercises and encourage younger students in their study of Greek. Organized and coordinated by Christopher Brown, the event illustrates the Program’s commitment to language teaching in the Columbus community. • In April, 2016, we organized a community talk on food practices in Greece, held at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Poet, educator, professor and translator Christopher Bakken (Allegheny College) discussed, “Honey, Olives, Octopus: A Hellenized Barbarian Raids the Greek Table.” • We host Modern Greek television broadcasts three days each week in Hagerty Hall’s Crane Café. Weekly, our Greek conversation hour welcomes community members to join our students and faculty in Greek conversation. We also sponsor internet Greek radio broadcasts—a great opportunity for parents, friends and the public to hear our students discuss Greek culture and events, in Greek. In May, the Olympic Society helped students celebrate their final broadcast in Crane Café, supplying food catered by Anna’s Restaurant. • During 2015-2016, we offered three lectures: Author and college professor Natalie Bakopoulos (Wayne State University) discussed, “Literary Spaces: The Real and the Imagined.” Bakopoulos also presented her work to our culture and language classes. Ohio State alumnus Kenneth Zak gave a talk about his legal career and discovery of Greece, “From Ohio State to Greece and back.” Afterward, Zak made time to meet with Modern Greek students. Stathis Gourgouris (Columbia University) gave this year’s Annual Thomas E. Leontis and Anna P. Leontis Memorial Lecture in Modern Greek Studies, on, “Culture at Times of Crisis, Crisis as Culture.” Over the last six years, some 30 Ohio State students have studied at the University of Athens THYESPA summer program in Modern Greek. This past summer Nicholas Kyriacou, Stavroula Pabst, Anna-Maria Thalassinos and Sofia Deligiannidis participated, several with the help of THYESPA summer scholarships.
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