About Modern Greek Studies
Finis Greciae or the Return of the Greeks*
*Title of an article by George Prevelakis
Marilyn Rouvelas writes in her book "A Guide to Greek Traditions and Customs in America" (p.355):
For generations, seagoing Greeks told stories to their families of faraway places where their ships had docked. These stories invariably included meeting patriótes (fellow countrymen) in restaurants and at card tables in exotic places.
Years ago these chance encounters seemed wondrous. A Greek could travel halfway around the world and find a fellow Greek speaking the mother tongue and sharing common friends and relatives from a village or town in Greece.
These transplanted Greeks comprised the Greek Diaspora still thriving throughout the world. According to a Greek government ministry, "[M]ore than five million Greeks (or more than half of Greece's domestic population) live outside of Greece's borders."
Modern Greek is now offered at Monash University through the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics.
The units of this growing strand of study were introduced following a passionate student campaign and under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education. Students with no previous knowledge of Greek can opt for a sequence in Greek Beginners, while advanced learners are advised to enrol in post-VCE Greek.
Postgraduate Studies in Modern Greek are available for suitably qualified candidates.
For more information see: