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Seferis and Robert Frost; she is now a Professor of English literature
at Rutgers and a distinguished poet and translator.
It was on this intellectual and institutional legacy that the Program
in Hellenic Studies was founded in 1979 with an endowment
set up by Princeton alumnus Stanley J. Seeger, Class of 1952, an
ardent philhellene and now a citizen of Greece. The Seeger Hellenic
Fund was created to “advance the understanding of Greece
and its influence . . . and to stimulate creative expression and thought
in and about modern Greece.” The Program, led successively by
W. R. Connor, Princeton Ph.D. 1961, Edmund Keeley, and now
by Alexander Nehamas, Princeton Ph.D. 1971, has focussed on the
development of a curriculum in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,
11 on strengthening Princeton’s connections to Greece and Greek
scholars and academic institutions, 12 and on a series of publications
in Modern Greek Studies. 13 Having built on a distinguished
tradition in Classical and Byzantine Studies, Princeton is now a
leading center for teaching and research on modern Greece, its
literary accomplishments, history, politics, and culture.
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As Princeton’s Hellenic Studies Program continues to grow, it attracts
and supports increasing numbers of graduate students 14 and
research scholars 15 from around the world. Developing research
11 Since 1985, the Program in Hellenic Studies has offered an undergraduate Certificate in
Hellenic Studies. Each year, more than fifteen classes are offered in Byzantine or Modern
Greek Studies. In 1996, a new graduate program in Classical and Hellenic Studies was
approved by the faculty.
12 The Program in Hellenic Studies maintains exchange programs with a number of Greek
institutions, including the University of Thessaloniki and the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens, and enjoys close scholarly ties with several other Greek institutions, such
as the Hellenic Research Foundation, the Gennadius Library, the Benaki Museum, and the
Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive.
13 The Princeton Modern Greek Studies series is jointly sponsored by the Program in
Hellenic Studies and the Princeton University Press. It includes fourteen titles in modern
Greek literature, history, and anthropology. Princeton University Press also publishes more
than sixty other titles in Byzantine or Modern Greek Studies.
14 Currently at Princeton there are more than twenty enrolled graduate students in several
disciplines whose work focusses on Byzantine or Modern Greek Studies. Many of these
students are supported by the Program in Hellenic Studies with graduate fellowships or
special prizes.
15 Every year, the Program in Hellenic Studies supports more than twenty-five visiting
research fellows or writers-in-residence from Greece. Most of these visitors make extensive
use of the collections in Firestone Library.
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