Modern Greek Studies Releases Its First Annual Overview for 2012-2013

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Modern Greek Studies program has released their first annual overview for the 2012-2013 academic year. A copy of the annual overview is available online and on the MGS website. The newsletter covers several areas of interest, including past events that the program has held; outreach activities organized to reach out to populations outside of the University; grants and student achievements; co-sponsors and new members; as well as highlights concerned with the associate faculty and advisory board members.

From the newsletter:

The program in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was established in 2008 after a moving initiative of University students led by the Hellenic Student Association, who in a meeting they had with the then Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost, Dr. Linda Katehi, asked for the establishment of a program in Modern Greek Studies. The aim of the program would be to foster the study of the Greek language, Greek history and culture, and to explore past and current perspectives on Hellenism. In creating this new program, the University of Illinois joined a growing trend among leading institutions of higher education in North America, offering programs in Modern Greek Studies that are dedicated to the study of language, literature, culture, and history of Modern Greece. The program is also continuing an educational tradition started by the Greek-American community in Chicago, one of the largest in the United States and historically the first to take an active interest in Greek-speaking education, whose geographical proximity to our campus is an important asset in our efforts. The program represents a collaborative achievement among several units across campus, which are supporting it with their knowledge and expertise: The School of Literatures Cultures and Linguistics (SLCL), where the program is housed, the Department of Linguistics, the Department of Classics, the Department of History, the Department of Political Sciences, the Department of Music, the School of Architecture, the College of Education, the European Union Centre (EUC), the Russian East European and Eurasian Centre (REEEC), the Centre for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES), the Program in Comparative and World Literature, the Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education, the Centre for Translation Studies, Dalkey Archive Press and the University Library are among the units supporting the program with academic input, resources, and expertise.

The European Union Center is a proud supporter of the Modern Greek Studies program, having collaborated on several research, teaching and public engagement activities over the past year and looks forward to future collaborations. Congratulations!