This summer, Professor Olga Levaniouk stepped into the role of Hellenic Studies chair. We recently sat down with Levaniouk to talk about her background in Hellenic Studies and her vision for the future of the program.
I fell in love with Greece when I first visited the county in 1997. During the same visit, it became very clear to me how much Greece today could teach me about my subject of research: ancient Greece. Since then, I have visited the country almost every year, learned some modern Greek (enough to have some amazing, if not quite, grammatical conversations — the native speakers are very forgiving!) and have come to feel that in some ways I belong to Greece more than any other place in the world. Hellenic Studies is a small but very active program at the University of Washington aimed at giving our students the chance to encounter Greek culture in all its varieties and to keep learning more about it through our courses and a study abroad program. As a chair, I hope to make the program (even) more visible and vibrant by offering more courses, bringing to campus interesting speakers, hopefully organizing conferences, and fostering our connections and collaborations with other departments and programs.