King's College London

Professor Gonda Van Steen announced as next Koraes Chair

The Faculty of Arts & Humanities, the Department of Classics, and the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London are proud to announce the appointment of Professor Gonda Van Steen to be the next Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature. 

Professor Van Steen will also assume the Directorship of the Centre when she joins us on 1 September 2018. 

Career and publications

Professor Van Steen currently holds the Cassas Chair in Greek Studies at the University of Florida and is Executive Director of the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA). She is the author of four scholarly books, including most recently Stage of Emergency: Theater and Public Performance under the Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967-1974 (OUP, 2015). We look forward to welcoming Professor Van Steen to King’s, to the Department, and to her leadership of CHS. 

Professor Van Steen says: ‘I look forward to taking up the position of Koraes Professor starting September 2018. I hope to offer courses in reception studies, language, and literature, and I will also delve deeper into twentieth-century Greek social history.

‘I am excited to start working with postgraduate students and colleagues in the CHS, and I aim to build bridges across UK campuses, to Greece and the rest of Europe, and also to the USA. My current book project, entitled Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece, is taking me into the new, uncharted terrain of Greek adoption stories that become paradigmatic of Cold War politics and history.’

Re-endowment of the Chair

Thanks to the generosity of charitable and educational foundations and individuals in Greece, Cyprus and the UK, over £1.5 million was raised for the re-endowment of the Koraes Chair in Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, which will celebrate its centenary this year.

We are immensely grateful to the donors who have made this possible, not only through their financial support, but also with their time, influence and encouragement which helped lead to the success of this appeal. King’s College London is proud to go forward and build upon its world-leading position in modern Greek and Byzantine studies, in partnership with our dedicated and passionate supporters in the international Greek community and in the UK.

The Koraes Chair

The Koraes Chair was established in 1918, with generous support from the Greek business community, particularly in London, and the Parliament of the Hellenes. Ever since, it has become a focal point in the UK and beyond for the study of Greek history and culture from the end of antiquity to the present day. It is unusual in covering three academic disciplines (history, language, literature), as well as a chronological span of some 1700 years. 

The Chair has been since 2015 part of the College’s Department of Classics, the third largest in the UK, and the only one to offer teaching and to carry out research across the full range of Hellenic studies from prehistory to today, within a single academic unit. Dr Daniel Orrells, the Head of the Department of Classics says: ‘The Department is thrilled with Professor Van Steen’s imminent arrival. Her research has made important contributions to Ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, reflecting the depth and breadth of the strengths of our Department’.

For more information on the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's please visit our website.