A. S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies

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The Program in Hellenic Studies provides students with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the language, literature, history, and politics of post-classical Greece. Through a wide range of courses, students are exposed to a polyphony of viewpoints which help them understand the historical and political experiences of Byzantine, Ottoman and modern Greece; the ways in which Greece has borne its several pasts and translated them into the modern era; and the distinguished literary and artistic traditions of a country that many regard as the birthplace of Western civilization. One of the leading centers in the United States for the study of Hellenism, the Onassis Program includes a diverse faculty drawn from a variety of disciplines. The Program also sponsors numerous cultural and intellectual activities. The University's Bobst Library is home to two special endowed collections of Hellenic Studies: the Papamarkou Library of Byzantine and Medieval Greek Books, and the Vardinoyannis Library of Hellenic Civilization. Also, NYU in Athens gives students the opportunity to study in Greece during the summer.

Past Events:

MGSA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Registration is now closed.

On October 13-15, 2011, the A. S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies will be hosting the 22^nd biennial international symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association. In addition to offering a wide variety of papers on multiple aspects of contemporary Hellenic culture, literature, language, history, society, politics, economics and the arts, the symposium will feature a plenary session on the current financial crisis in Greece and Europe and will include Aristides Baltas, Professor of Philosophy at the National Technical University of Athens and Effie Avdela, Professor of Modern History at the University of Crete. [The preliminary schedule is now available.]

The MGSA is the professional association representing scholars in all academic fields who specialize in the study of Hellenism, Greece and the Greeks from late Antiquity to the present. Its focus is the study of not only post-independence Greece but also the period of Ottoman rule and the later Byzantine Empire, as well as those aspects of early Byzantine, Hellenistic and Classical times that have a bearing on the modern period. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Modern Greek Studies in the United States and Canada. The Association’s activities over the years have been extensive: it has convened international symposia and summer seminars and has issued periodical publications as well as a number of significant volumes on Greek history and literature. Indeed, many of the papers presented at the biennial symposium eventually appear in the Journal of Modern Greek Studies, the official organ of the Association, which is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

The Association holds an international symposium every two years, and we have the honor of hosting it this year. This symposium is the oldest and largest of its kind in the world. It provides a unique forum for current research and new ideas and it also is a forum that provides opportunities for graduate students to present their research and to encounter scholars in their area of specialization but also in other areas. This is only the second time the MGSA has selected New York and NYU as the location of its central event—the first time was in 1983—and we are particularly enthusiastic about the symposium’s return to NYU.

The symposium, which will take place at the Kimmel Center, will consist of nearly forty panels that have been organized by the symposium’s program committee to offer a wide variety of papers covering a number of humanities and social science fields—literature, history, religion, language, linguistics, the arts, politics, sociology, and others. Scholars will attend the symposium from as far away as Turkey, Greece, Israel, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Spain, Austria, Italy, and Australia.

We have secured rooms for participants in the Holiday Inn Manhattan Downtown/Soho Hotel at 138 Lafayette Street at special rates. The hotel is just steps from New York University and Greenwich Village. The hotel's amenities include free high-speed wireless internet access throughout the hotel, an on-site fitness center, and a 24-hour business center with copy and print services. Rooms are limited. Follow this link to book your rooms online NOW. Please do not forget to mention special code *MGS* in order to receive the symposium rate.

For further information about the symposium, please contact: Liana Theodoratou (hlt1@nyu.edu), Niki Kekos (niki.kekos@nyu.edu), or Christos Birkitt (christos@nyu.edu). You also may contact the MGSA's Executive Director, Victor Papacosma (mgsa@kent.edu).