About Us

Wall painting, George Kordis

Hellenism through the Ages in Nature, Spirit, and the Arts

George Kordis
Acrylic on canvas.
Painted in George Kordis’ Athens studio in September 2014.

The artist and iconographer George Kordis created this painting in the autumn of 2014 for the Constantelos Hellenic Collection and Reading Room at Stockton University. The image represents Reverend Dr. Demetrios Constantelos’ vision of the continuity and contribution of Hellenism from Antiquity to the present. The scene is peopled with personifications and historical figures – both ancient and modern – that had special significance for Dr. Constantelos as leaders and representatives of the long and illustrious tradition of Hellenism.

In the background of the painting are (left to right) three inspirational mountains, personified: Mt. Sinai as a monk praying in his cave, Mt. Olympos as an old man pouring water into the sea, and Mt. Athos as a praying ascetic. The flowing water may be interpreted as providing life, knowledge, creativity, wisdom, and refreshment to mankind. In the foreground (left to right) are the philosophers Socrates (seated) speaking to the standing figure of Plato holding a scroll; Hypatia, the female philosopher of Alexandria, veiled and holding scrolls; and Plotinus, the Neo-Platonist philosopher, looking back toward those who were his inspiration. Above, high on the mountain, is St. Basil, patron of philanthropy, composing his theological treatise on the first six days of the Creation of the world – the Hexameron (labeled). Seated below him in imperial garb is the historian and intellectual Byzantine princess, Anna Komnena, who gestures and looks toward Hypatia behind her. Finally, in the lower right of the painting the opera singer Maria Callas keeps company with the poet Constantine Cavafy. The latter, clothed in a western suit yet sitting on an ancient column, communicates the coexistence and complexity of ancient themes and desires together with Modern Greek identities.

The work is typical of Kordis’ painting style and his conception of Modern Greek iconography. This is a spiritual vista. It looks back to Byzantine painting, where stylized figures accompany swaying, elongated trees in rough and rocky landscapes. Kordis’ use of bright pastels and voluminous individuals are reminiscent of the final flowering of this style of painting in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. But here there is a modern twist, visible in the image’s minute detail: Figures hold worry beads while tiny modern ships and a lighthouse inhabit distant seas. An undercurrent of optimism pervades the work, as education and remembrance of the past are vividly brought together through the artist’s brush.

—Amy Papalexandrou, Spring 2016

The Dean C. and Zoë S. Pappas Center for Hellenic Studies, originally established by the American Foundation for Greek Language and Culture (AFGLC) as the Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies, is housed in the School of Arts and Humanities.

With six endowed professorships, the Center’s focus includes the disciplines of Greek language and literature, history and culture, classical archaeology, art history, philosophy, politics, anthropology and Byzantine civilization and religion. Scholarly and artistic activities emphasize the diachronic range of Hellenism, and promote student enrichment through travel and university exchanges in Greece and Cyprus.

History of Modern Hellenism: Tom Papademetriou, Ph.D.

Executive Director of the Pappas Center for Hellenic Studies; Professor of History; Constantine and Georgiean Georgiou Endowed Professor of Greek History

Tom.Papademetriou@stockton.edu

609-626-6093 | E-213

History of Modern Hellenism: Tom Papademetriou, Ph.D.

Executive Director of the Pappas Center for Hellenic Studies; Professor of History; Constantine and Georgiean Georgiou Endowed Professor of Greek History

Dr. Tom Papademetriou is the Constantine and Georgeian Georgiou Endowed Professor of Greek History, and Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies at Stockton University. A graduate of both Hellenic College (BA, 1988) and Holy Cross School of Theology (M. Divinity, 1992), Dr. Papademetriou received his Ph.D. in 2001 from Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies in Ottoman History. He was awarded research fellowships by the Social Science Research Council and the American Research Institute in Turkey to conduct research in the Ottoman Archives and the Archives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey. His research focuses on the history of non-Muslims under Ottoman rule, and he is currently directing an international collaborative project called the Anatolian Churches Project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 1999 to 2000, he was in residence as a Junior Fellow at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Research Center and Library, Washington, DC and from 2000 to 2001 served as Lecturer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. As a member of the Historical Studies faculty at Stockton University since 2001, he is actively engaged in building a strong Hellenic Studies program in which he teaches courses on the history of the Tourkokratia, Modern Greece, the Balkans, and the Middle East. He lives in Linwood, NJ with his wife Dorrie, and two sons, George and Romanos.

Greek Culture: Katherine Panagakos, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Greek and Latin; AFGLC Endowed Professor of Greek Culture; Classics Honor Society Advisor and Co-Advisor of Hellenic Heritage Society

Katherine.Panagakos@stockton.edu

609-652-4618 | K-119

Greek Culture: Katherine Panagakos, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Greek and Latin; AFGLC Endowed Professor of Greek Culture; Classics Honor Society Advisor and Co-Advisor of Hellenic Heritage Society

Dr.Katherine Panagakos came to Classics by a long and winding road. After receiving her B.S. in Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior from Cook College, Rutgers University, Katherine changed career paths and returned to Rutgers to study Medieval History. During her studies, however, she was required to take Ancient Greek and Latin…and she never looked back. Can someone really enjoy grammar and syntax that much? YES!!! Katherine earned her M.A. in Classics from Tulane University (1996) and her Ph.D. in Greek and Latin from The Ohio State University (2004). During her graduate work, Katherine was a student at The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA, summer 1995) and was a field walker and camp manager at the Eastern Korinthia Archaeogical Survey (EKAS, summer 2000) and hopes to do more summer archaeological work soon. Before completing her dissertation, Katherine accepted a full-time teaching post and spent three years in a rotating position at schools in the Associated Colleges of the South (Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX; Furman University in Greenville, SC; and Rhodes College in Memphis, TN). A native of NY/NJ, Katherine never imagined she would be find a teaching position so close to where she grew up…but she did. Katherine arrived at Stockton in January, 2008, and teaches primarily Latin and Classics-related courses (such as Classical Mythology and Greco-Roman Film and Text) and serves as the advisor for the Classics Honor Society (Eta Sigma Phi) and co-advisor of the Hellenic Heritage Society. Regardless of whether she is in Latin class or Mythology, Katherine’s goal is to bridge the gap between the ancient and modern world and to bring the Greco-Roman world to life. Her research focuses on the role of fictional pirates, robbers, and other brigands in the ancient Greek and Roman novels, a topic that really is as fun and exciting as it sounds. In the coming years, she hopes to lead student trips to Greece and Italy as she has done in the past. “I love seeing my students actively learning, whether in the classroom or at an ancient site. Nothing can compare to seeing the excitement and understanding on their faces as they grasp a difficult grammatical concept or catch their first glimpse of the Acropolis.”

Ancient Greek Philosophy: Lucio Privitello, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Philosophy & Religion; Petros and Despoina Tsantes Family Professor of Greek Philosophy

Lucio.Privitello@stockton.edu

609-652-4630 | K-161

Ancient Greek Philosophy: Lucio Privitello, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Philosophy & Religion; Petros and Despoina Tsantes Family Professor of Greek Philosophy

Dr. Lucio Privitello is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Coordinator of the Philosophy and Religion Program (fall 2010 through spring 2014), Tsantes Endowed professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy, past President of the Classical Humanities Society of South Jersey (CHSSJ), (from fall 2010 to spring 2012), past Zeta Chapter faculty Advisor for the Philosophical Honors Society Phi Sigma Tau at Stockton, (2006-2010) and Fellow of the ICHS and The Examined Life, Lucio Angelo Privitello holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Villanova University (2003), an M.A. in Philosophy from Villanova (2001), an M.A. in Philosophy from Temple University (1986), and a B.F.A. in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (1981). In Italy he earned a Diploma Superiore in Ceramics and Design from the Art Institute of Grammichele, Sicily (1977), and was an apprentice in painting and sculpture for five years with Maestro Giuseppe Benassi in Parma, Italy.

It has always been a dream to share my cultural background to its fullest. In 1972, while living and studying in Sicily, I was introduced to my first text in the history of philosophy. The text was Plato’s Republic, Book VII and I was sitting with my uncle, Professor Gino Coppoletta, on the slopes of the volcano Etna. Through him my introduction to Plato, Empedocles, and the native Sophist Gorgias came alive amidst the backdrop of a mountain of lava where against so many odds plush vegetation breaks through and lives are lived against the shoulders of destructive and creative power. What an ideal classroom those slopes proved to be. It is the apprenticeship to such forces that I seek to create and share with my classes. I am convinced, as George Santayana put it, that “half of our standards come from our first masters, and the other half from our first loves”. I have been extremely lucky in both these departments, and work my standards because of their lasting lessons in an artistic-philosophical form of life. I have lectured and facilitated mini-seminars for The Examined Life series, entitled “Education and the Art of Teaching: The Apprenticeship in Ideals in Plato’s Socrates”, along with a presentation on Plato’s use of fables. I have also presented a lecture for the Classical Humanities Society of South Jersey, and spoke on Hesiod’s Theogony, entitled “In Union with Love: A Mytho-genealogy of Eros in Hesiod’s Theogony”. On March 26, 2011, I present a CHSSJ lecture entitled: “The Presence and Structure of the Classics in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time”. These venues are extremely productive due to the roots and fruits of having a community of friends committed to Hellenic Studies, and scholarship here at Stockton. I am happy to continue my relation with the CHSSJ, and continue to contribute as a faculty member and fellow of The Pappas Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies with ICHS Director Prof. Papademetriou, and ICHS colleagues, where I remain interested in proposing, organizing, and guiding a study trip to Sicily. My publications range from articles in classical American philosophy (Chauncey Wright), French philosophy and literature (Georges Bataille), Italian Cinema, Sicilian Literature, and French philosophy (Deleuze/Visconti/Lampedusa), along with International and National Conference presentations in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Pedagogy, Aesthetics, and Humor Studies, and classical American philosophy. Within the Philosophy and Religion Program I teach Ancient Greek Philosophy, History of Modern Western Philosophy, Introduction to Philosophy, and Senior Seminars, one entitled “Volumes and Edges in Contemporary Philosophy”, and most recently, “Parmenides: Philosophy and/as Law”. I have run, and continue to run Independent Studies (Hegel, Hobbes, Sade/Masoch, Creativity and Creations, Vico/Dilthey/Bourdieu and the Social Sciences, and Phenomenology and the Arts), as well as a specialty course on Nietzsche, and a course proposed on Leibniz. My General Arts and Humanities courses (GAH) are “The Ways of Love”, “Humor’s Logic and Laughter’s Wisdom”, “In the Animal’s Image”, and “Philosophies of Life and Death: : True Blood and Philosophy”. A few recent lectures and publications have been: “The Voluptuous Immobility of Sicilian Temporality: Il Gattopardo.” Lecture presentation for the Romance Language Department, University of Pennsylvania, and the Italian Consulate General (2010), “Teaching Marcuse: A Critical Pedagogy of Aesthetic Dimensions.” presented at the Marcuse conference, University of Pennsylvania (2012), the publication of “Josiah Royce and the Problems of Philosophical Pedagogy, (Part 2)” The Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society, Spring, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp.300-320 (2011), and “Josiah Royce and the Problems of Philosophical Pedagogy, (Part 1)” The Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society, Winter, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp.111-142 (2010). In 2011, and from the experience of teaching my GAH classes “Philosophies of Life and Death: True Blood and Philosophy”, I asked each student to focus on one paper that was perfected into a book chapter on the issues of life, death, immortality, love, and mythology and that used scholarly texts to unfold issues in the HBO series True Blood, and published the volume: Blood Type: Writ(h)ing In & On True Blood, Vol. 1. (Volume editor), (Margate, NJ: Comteq Publishing). Due to this publication we were in a feature article in Press of Atlantic City, July 30, 2011, Section B, pp. B1, B3. All sales went into a Stockton Scholarship Fund. There will be a second, and final volume of Blood Type: Writ(h)ing In & On True Blood, published in 2014.

Greek Language and Literature: David Roessel

Professor of Greek Language & Literature; Peter and Stella Yiannos Endowed Professor of Greek Language and Literature

David.Roessel@stockton.edu

609-652-4474 | H-202g

Greek Language and Literature: David Roessel

Professor of Greek Language & Literature; Peter and Stella Yiannos Endowed Professor of Greek Language and Literature

David Roessel has been teaching at Stockton for over ten years. He is very happy here.

Byzantine Civilization and Religion: A. Edward Siecienski, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Religion; Clement and Helen Pappas Endowed Professor of Byzantine Civilization and Religion

Edward.Siecienski@stockton.edu

609-626-6859 | K-122

Byzantine Civilization and Religion: A. Edward Siecienski, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Religion; Clement and Helen Pappas Endowed Professor of Byzantine Civilization and Religion

Dr. A. Edward Siecienski graduated from Georgetown University with a BA in theology and international relations, later attending St. Mary’s Seminary and University where he earned his M.Div/STB. In 2005 he received his PhD in historical theology from Fordham University, where he also worked as a post-doctoral fellow. In 2008, after two years teaching at Misericordia University in Pennsylvania, he came to Stockton where he is a member of the philosophy and religion program and part of the ICHS, specializing in Byzantine culture and religion. He has recently completed a book on the history of the Filioque, and continues to works on projects relating to patristic studies and East-West Christian dialogue. Ed lives in Haddonfield, NJ with his wife, Kiev, and his two children.