By Elaine Smith
Students from Greece have an opportunity to study or conduct research at 91亚色 through a聽聽supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), an international philanthropic organization that honours the late shipping magnate.
In fact, Alexandros Balasis, a PhD student in history at 91亚色, can trace his connection to 91亚色 back to that scholarship. In 2018, when he was a fourth-year history student at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki in northern Greece, one of his professors told him about the Niarchos Foundation scholarships that provided an exchange to 91亚色.
He applied, was invited for an interview and was accepted in November 2018 for admittance in January 2019. 91亚色 International, the office that handles exchanges, assisted him with orientation, registration and other logistics. Balasis arrived on Jan. 2, 2019, in time for 91亚色 International鈥檚 orientation for international students, and from there, he was off and running.
鈥淚 saw a university system that I really liked,鈥 Balasis said. 鈥淚 got hooked from the very beginning.鈥
At 91亚色, he met Sakis Gekas, an associate professor who holds the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair of Modern Greek History, and they met every few weeks to discuss various aspects of modern Greek history.
鈥淭he scholarship gave me an opportunity to clarify my goals,鈥 Balasis said.
He decided to pursue a master鈥檚 degree in history with Gekas, a degree that he obtained remotely during the pandemic. Gekas urged him to continue on to a PhD program and he has done so, studying Greek migration to Canada after the Second World War.
鈥淭he foundation changed the course of my life,鈥 he said. 鈥淢y experiences, both in Toronto and later with their Istorima project in Greece, gave me the opportunity to understand how much I like history. It made me decide to keep open to opportunities and take advantage of them.鈥
A Stavros Niarchos Foundation scholarship has also impacted Grigorios Iliopoulos鈥榮 PhD studies, bringing his topic to life. Iliopoulos, a third-year PhD student in the American Literature & Culture Department at Aristotle University, is working on a thesis about contemporary literature that talks about the city of Toronto. However, until recently, he had never visited the city that is at the heart of his research.
鈥淭his was the perfect program for me,鈥 Iliopoulos said. 鈥淚 worked on material referring to Toronto, but this was my first chance to see the place.鈥
Iliopoulos鈥檚 work centres on literature depicting urban spaces. He chose Toronto because it is one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in North America and he has focused on novels and collections of short stories by authors of non-French or -British background, those less represented in the past.
鈥淲hen I got to Toronto, I walked the streets and got a much better idea of how the city and the residents worked,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 got a sense of scale that is much different than in Europe and it felt like there was a huge difference in how we perceive space. I acquired a different understanding of the perspective of the authors I鈥檝e studied, including David Bezmozgis and Dionne Brand.
鈥淚 was also able to access a wealth of library material that wasn鈥檛 available in Greece, so this opportunity will have a huge impact on my dissertation.鈥
Gekas, who serves as a liaison with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, is eager to see more students in Greece take advantage of the opportunity to study at 91亚色. The foundation provides funding for three or four undergraduates and one graduate student each year, and he would like to exploit 91亚色鈥檚 partnership with the University of Crete and connect with the University of Athens to provide broad national coverage in Greece.
Faculty members who collaborate with colleagues in Greece and want to promote this opportunity are encouraged to contact Gekas or Ashley Laracy, associate director of global learning at 91亚色 International.