What are your areas of study/research?
Modern Greek Literature, Culture, Comparative Literature
What is your hometown?
I was born in a small village in Macedonia, Greece and my family immigrated to Canada.
What degrees do you hold and from where?
I got my BA from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. I studied two years at the University of Bonn, in Germany and got my PhD from Birmingham University (UK) in Modern Greek Literature.
Why did you choose to study Classics and Modern Greek?
I studied Classics as an undergraduate because I was interested in becoming an archaeologist and traveling to distant sites. But later my interests changed to modern literature. I was an avid reader of novels and poetry and thought that literature possessed answers to metaphysical questions. I believed literature would save the world.
What do you like most about the Department of Classics?
It is one of the few departments in the country where students can study Greek language and Greek literature from Homer to today.
What kind of work or research are you doing now?
With my colleague, Yiorgos Anagnostou, I am writing a book on Louis Tikas (1886-1914), a Greek American labor activist, who led one of the most important strikes in American history. He was killed in 1914 in the struggle for better pay and more humane working conditions.
What advice would you give to students considering pursuing a major or minor in Classics?
Follow what your heart tells you and you will end up finding a job at the end. Don't listen to people who say the humanities have no value. Be different.
Take a gap year, work, make money and travel. Let the world change you. No one has ever regretted taking a trip of a lifetime.