Hellenic Studies welcomes new faculty member in refugee and population studies

As the fall semester gets underway and the weather gets cooler (and wetter), we are thrilled to be welcoming back our students, new and old, and the new perspectives that they bring to the classroom. At the same time, Hellenic Studies is also very pleased to welcome a new colleague to our team, Dr. James Horncastle, as the inaugural Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations.

Horncastle is a historian of Modern Greece who completed his graduate work at the University of New Brunswick (MA in 2011) and Simon Fraser University (PhD in 2017). His current research connects the Greek Civil War and the role that conflict played in population movements in the Balkans. Horncastle joined the faculty over the summer term and is officially taking up the duties of the professorship this month. The addition of a scholar with expertise in population movements and refugee studies places the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at the centre of these important policy debates in Greece, at a time when the number of migrants arriving in Lesvos from Turkey has risen once again.

"I am extremely excited to continue my research into population movements in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean here at Simon Fraser University and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies," Horncastle says. "SFU, through its mandate to engage the world, and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, as a leading site for Hellenic Studies in North America, make it an ideal place to conduct this research."

Look for Horncastle in courses starting this fall, as well as at info sessions for Hellenic Studies’ 2020 Greece Field School, which he will be leading this year as director. He will also be heavily involved in organizing the annual Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture, held every spring in downtown Vancouver. We look forward to announcing next year’s lecturer in the very near future.

The Edward and Emily McWhinney Professorship was made possible by gifts from the Edward and Emily McWhinney Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The Professorship was established to honour the memory of two long-time friends of Hellenic Studies at SFU: Professor Emeritus Edward McWhinney, QC, passed away in 2015 on his ninety-first birthday following a short illness. He was predeceased by his wife Emily in 2011.