Encore: Stratos Constantinidis
Associate Professor
(Profile)

Current Research and Creative Activity

Stratos Constantinidis was on sabbatical this academic year, writing the first draft of his book on Greek Cinema. While on sabbatical, Stratos organized the 26th Comparative Drama Conference (see story page XX) and edited the 22nd second volume of Text & Presentation that was published in April 2002. The 204-page volume includes Stratos’s editorial remarks, a selection of fifteen papers and five book reviews. He also edited The 26th Comparative Drama Conference: Program and Abstracts (105 pages). He directed an M.A. thesis on a reappraisal of Maxwell Anderson’s plays by Shannah Campell who defended and graduated in December 2001; a Ph.D. thesis on Secular Messiahs and Nationalism in Polish and Irish drama by Eileen Krajewski who defended and graduated in June 2002; and he co-directed an M.A. thesis on Modern Greek and Turkish drama by Ipek Celik (Comparative Studies) who defended and graduated in June 2002.

Following the publication of Greece in Modern Times: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in English in Twenty-Two Academic Disciplines During the Twentieth Century (Scarecrow Press, 2000) the book reviews were very positive and the volume, which was described as “monumental,” and “impressive” (Choice, 2000, p. 499) was nominated in 2002 for an award. Stratos presented two papers, one on “Greek-American Director, Elia Kazan” and one on “Greek Shadow Puppets” as a guest speaker at the Middfest International in Middletown, Ohio, in October 2001. He also presented “Greece in Modern Times: Strategy and Planning for Volume 2” at the Symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association of America and Canada in Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., in October 2001, where he also chaired a panel, “Literature and the Nation: Comparative Perspectives” with the panelists from Brown University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Thrace.

As a member of the Executive Board the Modern Greek Studies Association of America and Canada, Stratos participated in the planning of the three-day symposium. He also chaired the E. C. M. Translation Prize Committee that reviewed many English translations of Greek works and selected the winner for the 2003 prize. Stratos also served on the Graduate Studies Committee of the Modern Greek Studies Association which awarded the Best Dissertation Prize ($1,000) to a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During this period, he also served as a consultant for Theatre Lab Company (London, England) and Teatro della Limonaia (Florence, Italy). In recognition for his long service to the field of modern Greek drama, Stratos was invited by the President of the Greek Playwrights’ Society to attend the Festival of Modern Greek plays to be held throughout the month of May 2003 in Athens, Greece. A select number of theatre professionals from each country that is participating in the 2004 Olympic Games, will be invited to this festival.