Modern Greek Studies Association Celebrating 50th Anniversary
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June Samaras
Oct 11, 2017, 10:27:13 AM10/11/17
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https://www.thenationalherald.com/177743/modern-greek-studies-association-celebrating-50th-anniversary/
Modern Greek Studies Association Celebrating 50th Anniversary
NEW YORK – On December 27, 1968, a newly formed Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) held its first major meeting at the New York Hilton. Its members had an ambitious agenda: 1) to discuss and approve a constitution for the association, 2) to determine a theme and a discussion leader for the 1969 Modern Language Association conference, and 3) to establish a three-day international symposium focusing on Greek literature and civilization. Since that first meeting, the MGSA has grown from a handful of university scholars to a vast network of scholars and students from around the world who study contemporary Greek (and Cypriot) literature, history, and culture in the modern period. Today, the MGSA is the largest Modern Greek Studies organization in the world, providing an unparalleled opportunity for scholarly discussion among scholars and graduate students alike.
The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the MGSA, and this event will be celebrated at the 2017 biennial Symposium at Stockton University, New Jersey. A commemorative retrospective will be provided that will highlight the historical leaders of the organization and certain keystone events of the past fifty years. Since its inception, the MGSA has been at the forefront of scholarly debates. The first MGSA Symposium, held in 1969, had as its theme, “Modern Greek Literature and its European Background.”
Since then, the biennial conferences have expanded to include a wide range of academic disciplines. Historically, one of the major contributions of the MGSA has been to break the silence on topics that have/had not yet entered the public debate in Greece. For example, the MGSA Symposium of 1978 was the first international conference to examine the Greek Civil War, a subject that was not included in the curricula of Greek public schools or universities due to the politically charged nature of that conflict. Many of the papers presented at the 1978 Symposium were later published as books that are still considered landmark studies on the topic. Collaboration, resistance, minorities, and other topics are issues that continue to be debated. Today, the biennial Symposium covers Greek topics in most academic fields and emphasizes the period from the Greek War of Independence to the present. At the Stockton Symposium, among many other topics, scholars will also present on and debate the current refugee crisis.
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