TORONTO, October 16, 2003 -- More than 75 of the world’s leading scholars in modern Greek studies will join together at a three day conference hosted by York University, beginning today in Toronto.
The 2003 international symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) will focus on a diverse range of topics including the military dictatorship (1967 to 1974), the Civil War, the Greek Diaspora, and contemporary trends in Greek letters.
Leonidas T. Chrysanthopoulos, ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to Canada, will give the keynote address at a banquet capping off the conference in the newly renovated Canadian Court at the Royal Ontario Museum. He will discuss Armenian nation-building and diplomacy.
Further addresses include noted historian Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith on the 1896 Olympics and eminent constitutional lawyer and writer Nicos Alivizatos on Greek identity in contemporary Europe.
"York is pleased to be hosting this symposium, especially given that this marks the first time the conference is being held outside of the United States," said History Prof. Thomas Gallant, Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair of Modern Greek history at York and MGSA president. "York’s leadership role in this conference is a reflection of the new chair that has been established."
The MGSA is the professional association representing specialists in all academic fields relating to Hellenism, Greece and the Greeks from late Antiquity to the present.
Gallant will be presented with the Association’s Best Book Prize for 2003 for Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity, and Power in the British Mediterranean (University of Notre Dame Press). The prize is awarded to an academic book dealing with modern Greece or with a Hellenic theme.
The Symposium, which runs Thursday, October 16 to Saturday, October 18, takes place at the Sutton Place Hotel, with special evening events at the Design Exchange and the Royal Ontario Museum.
The Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History at York was endowed last year for $2 million by the Hellenic Heritage Foundation of Toronto, with a $500,000 contribution from York. It is the first endowed chair in Hellenic studies and inaugurates the only Hellenic studies program in Toronto. The new program will enable students, including more than 1,000 students of Greek heritage enrolling each year at York, to study Greek history, language and culture.
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For more information, including full Symposium program details and registration, visit the Symposium Website at www.arts.yorku.ca/hist/mgsa.
For further information, please contact:
Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, x22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/108/03
