[MGSA-L] job posting UIC

Saffo Papantonopoulou saffo at email.arizona.edu
Thu Dec 13 10:16:25 PST 2018


Dear All,

I agree with all of the criticisms expressed in this email thread, and I
would personally like to second the proposal that was advanced to draft
some sort of protest. I think it is really important to also bring up all
of the ideological problems behind such a job posting. The very assumption
that there is some sort of transhistorical essence called "Hellenism" that
can be traced from antiquity to the modern period is in and of itself a
nationalist ideological position. It seems the ghost of Paparrigopoulos is
alive and well in American universities and I think it would be worth
making a statement not just because of this individual posting but because
of the larger political stakes around Modern Greek Studies.

Not only does this kind of posting reify Greek nationalism but it also
reflects a kind of orientalism as well. I'm not terribly familiar with the
literature but I know there are many scholars who have worked on the links
between philhellenism and orientalism and I see the echoes of that here.
(After all, "Greece" was, up until the 19th century, considered part of the
"orient.")

For me, as a historical anthropologist who studies modern Greece as well as
the late Ottoman period, I find it particularly offensive the idea that a
scholar of modern Greece should be expected to know more about classical
antiquity than about modern Turkey or Bulgaria or any other country in the
Balkans or Eastern Mediterranean. (And I say that with no disrespect
towards scholars of antiquity!)

I think it would be worth it for MGSA to make a statement about the
legitimacy of Modern Greek studies in its own right, and not as some sort
of "postscript" to classical antiquity!

Best,


Saffo Papantonopoulou

Dual PhD Student
Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies
Graduate Student Affiliate
Institute for LGBT Studies
University of Arizona


On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 8:21 AM Gerasimus Katsan <
Gerasimus.Katsan at qc.cuny.edu> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
>
>     given the outrage so many of us have expressed here in the list-serve,
> I have to wonder why it is we are advertising the Florida and UIC jobs on
> on our own web page??!!
>
>
>     If nothing else, at least we can make one small gesture of protest by
> not aiding and abetting their misguided and malodorous machinations on our
> own site.   ​
>
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Gerasimus Katsan
>
> Secretary
> _____________________________
> Gerasimus Katsan
> Associate Professor, Modern Greek
> Queens College
> Dept. of European Languages and Literatures
> Queens Hall 200
> 65-30 Kissena Blvd.
> Flushing, New York 11367
> ------------------------------
> *From:* MGSA-L <mgsa-l-bounces at maillists.uci.edu> on behalf of
> Konstantina Zanou <czanou at yahoo.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:31 AM
> *To:* mgsa-l at maillists.uci.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [MGSA-L] job posting UIC
>
> EXTERNAL EMAIL: please report suspicious content to the ITS Help Desk.
>
> Dear all,
>
> There was a similar posting last year at the University of Cyprus. They
> were seeking a* specialist* in the period from the fall of Constantinople
> to the Goudi movement. Apparently, they found one.
> We all know quite well that all this, including the UIC posting, reflects
> specific ideologies around Greek history.
>
> My best wishes for your Christmas break,
> Konstantina
> ----------------
> Konstantina Zanou <http://italian.columbia.edu/people/profile/1546>
> Assistant Professor of Italian, specializing in Mediterranean Studies
> Director of Undergraduate Studies
> Department of Italian, Columbia University
>
> "Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800-1850: Stammering the
> Nation”
> <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/transnational-patriotism-in-the-mediterranean-1800-1850-9780198788706?cc=us&lang=en&>
>
>
>
> <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/transnational-patriotism-in-the-mediterranean-1800-1850-9780198788706?cc=us&lang=en&>"Mediterranean
> Diasporas: Politics and Ideas in the Long 19th Century”
> <https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mediterranean-diasporas-9781472576651/>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List-Info: https://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/mgsa-l
>
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