By Catherine Curan

The largest Symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association in its 56-year history was held at Princeton University from October 17-20, hosted by the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies.

The Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) is an international organization that promotes the field in North America, and its biennial Symposium is a signature event. More than 250 people registered for the 28th Symposium, which featured panel discussions, intellectual exchange, and fellowship. The Seeger Center hosted the Symposium at the Friend Center for Engineering Education, a bright and airy building with a 250-seat auditorium and capacious convocation hall.

From Thursday, October 17, to Saturday, October 19, 166 speakers presented on Modern Greek literature, culture, anthropology, and political and social history topics. Students and scholars affiliated with universities and research institutions in the U.S., Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany, Sweden, and Australia, as well as independent scholars, participated. The roster of presenters and moderators included roughly 80 students and scholars affiliated with the Seeger Center, including Program in Hellenic Studies alums, faculty and associated faculty, and former visiting and postdoctoral fellows. Several current Seeger postdoctoral fellows shared their research. An unprecedented number of graduate students, including several from Princeton, also took part in the Symposium.

An evening event capped each day of presentations. On Thursday evening, Seeger Center Director Dimitri Gondicas and Congressman John Sarbanes (D–Md.) – a member of the Class of 1984 and one of the first graduates of Princeton’s Program in Hellenic Studies – welcomed attendees at a reception at the Friend Center, reflecting on Hellenic Studies at Princeton and worldwide. Friday’s evening program featured a concert at Richardson Auditorium by acclaimed Greek singer-songwriter Alkyone. On Saturday, Princeton University Professor of Anthropology Elizabeth Davis delivered a keynote address at the Friend Center.

“All of us at the Seeger Center are delighted to reconnect with so many old friends and to meet new ones, modern Greek studies colleagues from around the world and the record number of graduate students, the next generation of scholars in our field,” said Dimitri Gondicas, Seeger Center director and co-chair of the local arrangements committee, at the welcome reception.

The 2024 Symposium marked a return by the MGSA to its roots in Princeton – and an occasion to recognize decades of work by the University and the MGSA to promote the field of Hellenic studies. The MGSA was founded in Princeton in 1968, and the University hosted two prior gatherings, the inaugural Symposium in 1969 and the 30th-anniversary Symposium in 1999. The inaugural event at Princeton featured nine panels on literature and Modern Greek language. 

At the welcome ceremony on October 17, Katerina Lagos, president of the MGSA, spoke about the evolution and growth of the international Symposium since 1969. 

­“This year we have an especially full and robust program,” Lagos said. “You will see topics ranging from PASOK to Greek diaspora culture up through modern Greek magic material alchemy in our program. We also have special sessions that focus on the library and archival holdings and our flagship Journal of Modern Greek Studies panel and on global diasporas.”

Gondicas said that hosting the Symposium at Princeton for the third time was an honor. He added that it was an especially happy occasion to convene the gathering in 2024, the 45th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton.

Noting the extensive resources and collaboration required to produce the Symposium, Gondicas thanked Seeger Center colleagues on the local arrangements committee, including Associate Director Nikos Panou, who served as co-chair, Executive Director Kate Baxter, Center Manager Linda Taylor, Events Administrator Eleni Banis, volunteers and staff. He also thanked MGSA President Lagos, Executive Director Vangelis Calotychos, and Co-Chair of the Symposium program committee Tom Papademetriou, who earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 2001. In addition, Gondicas acknowledged the Seeger Center’s Symposium co-sponsors, 14 Princeton departments and schools, and other donors, alums, and friends who support the Center’s programs on campus and at the Princeton Athens Center and elsewhere in Greece and the Hellenic Mediterranean.

Recognizing mentors and forerunners, Gondicas acknowledged the work of the founders of the MGSA to promote the field. He thanked Stanley J. Seeger, Class of 1952, who “made it all possible for us with his transformational gift and his understated generosity.”

Looking ahead, Gondicas announced a new Seeger Center postdoctoral fellowship supported by the Edmund and Mary Keeley Modern Greek Studies Fund. Princeton professor Edmund Keeley (1928-2022), a preeminent translator and scholar of Modern Greek literature, served as the second chair of Princeton’s Committee on Hellenic Studies, a predecessor to the Seeger Center, and was one of the founders of the MGSA and its first president. His wife, Mary Stathato-Kyris Keeley (1926-2012), also translated Modern Greek literature.

Reflecting on the mission of the Seeger Center, Gondicas noted that it spans not only teaching and research but also public service, community-facing activities, and access initiatives for first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students in the United States and Greece.

In his introduction for Congressman John Sarbanes, Gondicas spoke of the founding era of Princeton Hellenic Studies, when he taught Greek to a handful of smart, committed undergraduates, including John and his two siblings, Michael and Janet. During John Sarbanes’ student days, he and Gondicas “dreamed about the future, how to strengthen the study of the Hellenic world while promoting the values of public service in the United States, the Greek diaspora and Greece,” said Gondicas.

One of their ideas came to fruition in 2014: the Paul Sarbanes ’54 Fund for Hellenic Studies and Public Service. The fund honors John Sarbanes’ father, Paul Sarbanes, Princeton Class of 1954, who served six years in the House of Representatives and 30 years in the Senate.

John Sarbanes has represented the state of Maryland since 2007, serving as a senior member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and chairing the Democracy Reform Task Force. Sarbanes plans to leave Congress at the end of his current term.

At the Friend Center, Sarbanes spoke of his appreciation for the work of the Seeger Center and the MGSA, adding that he planned to express that admiration “wearing a number of different hats,” starting with his role as a member of Congress. Noting that strengthening relations between Greece, Cyprus, and the U.S. has been central to his work, Sarbanes highlighted the importance of modern Greek studies programs in fostering shared values that promote unity.

Sarbanes then spoke about the crucial role of modern Greek studies programs at a time of urgent threats to democracy. He said it was not surprising that America's founders looked to Athenian democracy for inspiration and that the creation of the U.S. inspired the Greek revolution.

“Modern Greek studies invites us to reflect on the irrepressible yearning for freedom that is redeemed in a democratic society, steeped in the Hellenistic ethos,” he said, adding, “Modern Greek studies can be a resource … in shaping pro-democracy strategies.”

Turning to the topic of service, Sarbanes spoke of another hat – his role as a founder of the Paul Sarbanes '54 Fund for Hellenism and Public Service. Describing service as “Hellenism in action,” Sarbanes noted that the fund is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, fostering innovative connections between the Seeger Center and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Sarbanes concluded with reflections on his undergraduate years and the enduring influence of this education. He spoke of studying Greek with Gondicas and the legendary Princeton professor of Greek and Slavic languages Richard Burgi and writing essays on the poetry of George Seferis and C.P. Cavafy for Edmund Keeley.

“Having access to these amazing teachers, not simply teachers of language and poetry and culture, but really teachers of life, as I know all of you are here, made me more knowledgeable, more empathetic and more connected to the wider world. It also taught me a lot of humility,” said Sarbanes.

He added: “I’m convinced that the better part of me is constructed from my experience with modern Greek studies, and for that I will be forever grateful.”

The welcome ceremony also featured an awards presentation. Michalis Sotiropoulos, a 2016-17 postdoctoral fellow at the Seeger Center, received the Edmund Keeley Book Prize for “Liberalism after the Revolution: The Intellectual Foundations of the Greek State, c. 1830-1880,” published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. Maria Kaliambou, a 2006-07 Ted and Elaine Athanassiades Postdoctoral Fellow at the Seeger Center, was awarded the Vasiliki Karagiannaki Prize for the Best Edited Volume in Modern Greek Studies for “The Greek Revolution and the Greek Diaspora in the United States,” published by Routledge in the Studies in Modern History series in 2023.

On Friday, the panel discussions began at 8:30 a.m. and concluded at 5:30 p.m., spanning topics from theater and music to legacies of fascism to the Greek diaspora to the formation of the Greek state. In the convocation hall outside the seminar rooms, the Seeger Center hosted a display of several dozen books on Modern Greek topics as well as poetry and fiction in translation and an exhibition of cartoons by artist Dimitris Hantzopoulos. The Hantzopoulos works shown in Princeton were published in Kathemerini between 2015 and 2024 and were exhibited especially for the 2024 MGSA Symposium with the kind permission of the artist.

Following four sessions of panels, a graduate mentoring session was held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Attendees filled the rotunda at Chancellor Green. Small groups of students met with senior scholars for question-and-answer sessions. 

Friday’s events culminated in “Songscapes of Greece,” an unforgettable concert by acclaimed Greek singer-songwriter Alkyone at Richardson Hall. She performed original work and new interpretations of traditional Greek songs. Alkyone was joined on stage by Nikitas Tampakis, Class of 2014, an accomplished violist, singer, and songwriter who organizes concerts for the Seeger Center. Tampakis and Alkyone met at a songwriting workshop in Greece in 2018. At Richardson, they performed the song they co-authored at the workshop, “Mine,” which celebrates creativity.

On Saturday, panel topics included Cold War Greece, Greek-Ottoman relations, film and photography, refugees and migration in the 20th century, and women, gender, and sexuality. Nearly 200 people attended the keynote lecture by Prof. Elizabeth Davis, “On the Uses and Abuses of a History of Conflict: Context and Recursion in Cyprus, 2024.” The evening concluded with a dinner outside the Friend Center under a tent lit by strings of sparkling lights.