Happy Holidays from the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies

On behalf of all the faculty and staff at the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, we would like to extend our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

Despite the many challenges of the past year, the SNF Centre made sure to redouble it's efforts in it's mission to study and teach all aspects of Hellenism and the Hellenic experience both at home and abroad. In the summer we quickly pivoted to online events, beginning with our annual Island Sessions Seminar, Political Animals: Explorations of the Political Across the Ages, which featured an impressive range of scholars from across North America and Europe. In case you missed the event, the recordings can be found online. We also took the opportunity to try something new by starting a podcast! We highly recommend listening to the inaugural episode Byzantine Relics and Greek Lives featuring our director, Dimitris Krallis, and professor Anthony Kaldellis from Ohio State University, if you haven't already!

Over the past year, there were also some pretty incredible milestones.

In April, alongside the General Secretariat for Public Diplomacy and Greeks Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, headed by the General Secretary Mr. Ioannis Chrysoulakis, and with generous support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, we announced Staellinika, an online platform and suite of apps for teaching the Greek language. Later in the year we met with Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis in June to discuss the benefits of the initative and its impact on Greek diaspora communities around the world. On October 6th, we announced the full release! To date, Staellinika has over 23,500 users across all of its platforms!

To further engage the youth of the Greek diaspora, we partnered with the Hellenic Canadian Congress of BC to launch What is Byzantium?, an online workshop series intended to educate young learners aged 6-12 about what it would have been like to live in the Byzantine Empire. For a sneak peek of the workshops, check out the videos, What is a Solider? and What's So Funny? on our YouTube channel. 

In our new home within the Department of Humanities, we embarked on some exciting collaborations, including the development of the Memory and Trauma Through History and Culture Series which was co-organized by Humanities lecturer Alessandra Capperdoni, and our very own assistant professor James Horncastle and lecturer Eirini Kotsovili. The first event was a symposium which focused on the theme of migration while the second was a panel that shared research on the theme of pandemics. 

This past fall we also shared some exciting news!

Assistant professor Sabrina Higgins was awarded a SHHRC Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant for her project, The Early Cult of the Virgin and the Hegemony of the Text. She also joined five other scholars in launching a new digital humanities initiative, Peopling the Past, a fun way to engage with the ancient world online! 

In addition to organizing this year's fourth annual Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture, featuring associate professor Harris Mylonas from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, assistant professor James Horncastle's work was published in Neutral Countries as Clandestine Battlegrounds, 1939-1968: Between Two Fires, September. The new book, published by Rowman & Littlefield, includes contributions from the Centre's late director, professor André Gerolymatos.

In September we also welcomed our second Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global postdoctoral fellow, Sergio Basso, a scholar, award-winning filmmaker, and screenwriter, to the Centre! Sergio is currently working on completing his book manuscript which which theorizes a new paradigm for the genesis of the “Barlaam and Ioasaph” hagiographic novel. 

Over the summer we shared the news that MA student, Neal Payne, was accepted to the University of Cambridge for his PhD program! During his MA, researched the impact of Roman colonization of the British diet and was supervised by assistant professor, Sabrina Higgins.

Last month, SNF Centre affiliated PhD student, Aurora Camaño, passed her comprehensive examinations! Aurora is also supervised by Sabrina. 

That's our round-up of 2020 highlights! We look forward to sharing more in the New Year!

Fall event recordings

Take a look at this previous news article of ours to learn how to access this fall's event recordings.

Event feedback survey

If you have a moment, we would love to collect your feedback on this fall's event programming. Please complete this six-minute survey to tell us how we're doing!

Holiday closure

The SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies will close on Friday, December 25th, for the holiday break but will reopen on Monday, January 4th, 2021!

Our upcoming plans for 2021

Spring Seminar Series

Our seminar series will return in January! Learn about the exciting line up of speakers we have planned for the Spring semester by reading our previous announcement.

Register open for "Clementine Literature: A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Christian"

Our first Spring Seminar Series event will feature our very own Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellow, Sergio Basso! Sergio will present his research on Clementine literature, by the end of his presentation, he hopes you will consider adding the 4th-century romance to your book collection!

Register now for this event taking place on January 15th, 2021 at 2:30 PM PST.

Fifth annual Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture

We are pleased to announce that registration has opened for our fifth annual Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture. This year's lecture, Is There a Future for 'The West'? European Security, the Transatlantic Alliance, and the Role of Values in the New World Disorder, will feature Dr. Roman Gerodimos, an associate professor of Global Current Affairs at Bournemouth University, and faculty member at the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change.

Register now for the event taking place on March 9th, 2021 at 1:00 PM PST.

COVID-19 news and resources

For more information and updates regarding COVID-19 and SFU operations please visit: SFU community frequently asked questions about COVID-19

Latest updates

Keep an eye on our newsroom for the latest and be sure to follow us on social media or subscribe to our email list so you never miss an update!

For more information about the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies and its programs, please visit our Media page.