Trip To London

This summer was again a time for traveling and participation in the conferences for the English Department at the Athens Campus. Romana Turina, an MA COMM student who graduated last June from the MA English program, participated in the Charles Chaplin Conference organized by the British Film Institute and the College of Communication of London. Romana presented the paper entitled “Dissolvance Phenomena: Charles Chaplin's influence on Modernism and vice versa”. The articulated discussion that followed enabled Romana to receive a positive feedback to her early formulation of the Theory of Dissolvance from the International gathering of Scholars drawn together in London. Applicable in Literature and Film Studies, Dissolvance bridges fields of studies that engage in Narratology and the exploration of the human perceptive evolution.

Participation to the Charles Chaplin Conference and Celebrations was the occasion for the Second Annual Trip of the English Department. This year the travelers faced the thread of a city, London, which seemed to be under siege. Our MA English students showed courage and firmly refused to cancel the planned trip after the first bombing. Traveling the very morning of the second violent intimidation, Dr. Michailidis and her students entered the city in a time when no metro was running, and the police was storming every corner of the capital. We did see police cars and ambulances respond to emergencies over the time we were in London.

However our MA English student Niki Stavrou's excellent organization of the trip permitted a smooth flow of pleasant happenings, as the museum, theater and historical sites visits. The first one was to the British Museum, which was founded 250 years ago, and its collections span all areas of the world from prehistory to the present day. Special interest was for “Greek Marbles from the Parthenon” which were brought to England by Lord Elgin in the early 19 th century. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington imposing cathedral-like architecture and its displays-whether of dinosaurs, of blue wale and its relatives, of gems or of human biology- was but the front door to an extraordinarily interesting and important journey into the scientific research. A visit to the museum on famous Baker Street where and how Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson lived for almost twenty-five years in Victorian time was a memorable experience.

In the well-known Globe Theater we were able to rediscover the spirit of the original relationship between actor and audience, which gave birth to Shakespearian plays. The highlights of the trip were two evenings at the famous London's theaters, The Phantom of the Opera mesmerized our Master students, and famous actor David Schwimmer's performance in Some Girl(s) offered a witty glance on the facts of life. As in every good story, after much walking and some adventures, they all came back home safe and happy.

News from the English Department

Both semester II and summer session were a busy time for the English Department of the University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus. Students and faculty had an opportunity to attend theatrical performances, poetry readings, and a celebration of American poets in Greece as well as to travel and participate in different International Conferences in England, Greece, and the United States.

The University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus was happy to host Dr. Toni Morris, Chair of the English Department of the University of Indianapolis. She taught two courses during the summer session for the M.A. English Program: "Short Stories Collection", and "Medieval English Literature". The Medieval English Literature class was composed of mainly graduate students, though it had a handful of undergraduates. According to Dr. S. Michailidis, " This was a great experience for our master students to have a professor from the main campus, and our students in Athens really enjoyed these courses."

Splitting time between the classroom and visiting ancient Greek archeological sites and theaters, Dr. T. Morris found her stay in Athens Campus helpful and interesting. In addition to teaching classes, Dr.T. Morris, together with Dr. S. Michailidis and other UIA professors and M.A. English students, visited the ancient Greek theater in Epidavros to see Euripides' play "Bacchae."

Members of the English Department in Athens-C. Harrison, J. Vasiliou and N.Ordenova- seemed to be equally enthusiastic about meeting Dr. T. Morris and exchanging ideas about future developments of our programs.

Our M.A English student, Niki Stavrou, completed a first draft of a movie script based on Nikos Kazantzakis's autobiographical novel Report to Greco. Her effort was well received by the director of the movie, and she was asked to write the second and final draft in Los Angeles this September.

The English Department has been confirmed as a member of the Inter-Universitary Center of Theoretical and Applied Ontology, which is located in Turin, Italy. The Center is directed by Professor Maurizio Ferraris, a former pupil and co-author of the famous philosopher Jacques Derrida. The Center of Theoretical and Applied Ontology gathers several European academic and educational institutions including recently accepted the University of Paris – IV Sorbonne, and the University of Padua as new members under the purpose of fostering the study of Contemporary Philosophy, as well as the formulation of new philosophical theories.

The International Association for Greek Philosophy and Culture organized the 17 l International Conference of Philosophy on the topic " The Philosophy of Culture in the Age of Globalization." The Conference took place at the beautiful Aegean island of Samos (Pythagorean) from August 1-7, 2005. Designed as a new landmark of international cultural events, philosophical and literary exchange, this Congress was held under the aegis of the President of the Hellenic Republic and directed by the International Academic Committee. Three professors of the English Department were invited to deliver their papers: Dr. St. Sfekas on "The Philosophy of Culture in the Age of Globalization," and Dr. P. Manouka prepared her paper on philosophy, culture and archetypes in the literary works of Latin American writers. Dr . S. Michailidis, Chair of the English Department, spoke about " Beauty and the Logic of Literature". The concepts of beauty and the logic of literature have been questioned not only by philosophy, literature and literary criticism but also by the process of globalization. Dr. S. Michailidis used theories from Western and Eastern Thought concerning these two categories to argue for a new model of aesthetic experience.

Annual conference 05

The English Department in cooperation with the Communication Department is organizing its Fourth Annual Conference entitled “Dissolvance: Constructing Literature, Culture and Communication of the Future through Imagination” to be held on November 19, 2005.

The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum of interdisciplinary and comparative research in Philosophy, Literature and Communication studies. Recent years have seen the notion of dissolvance discussed by several disciplines and notions of dissolvance are affected by aesthetic practice of postmodernism, and imagination in the fields of arts, literature, language, literary criticism, film and media production.

These issues are crucial to the understanding and practice of intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to postmodernist ideas.

Topics will include:

Imagination, Philosophy and Literary movements in The Postmodernist Era .
What's Past the Postmodern? Contemporary British and North American Fiction
Postmodern Culture, Communication and Literature
Identity, Imagination and Memory in Postmodernist Culture
Intercultural Communication in The Postmodernist Era
Multicultural Literary Imagination
Interpretation and Literary Imagination

8. Internet, Aesthetics and Imagination

9. Television, Aesthetics and Imagination

10.Interculturality, Imagination and Telecommunication

11.The Role of Media and Imagination in the Development of Education

A libre-rian sets you free

“Hell is the others,” Sartre used to say but for a researcher/student sometimes hell is the place where he or she is destined to look for what he looks for. The tragedy of the student in a library is obvious to those who have been students, but the tragedy of the librarian always goes untold.

Probably very few people have ever dealt let's say with a student who is looking for the exact saying, he/she vaguely remembers a famous philosopher whom he/she cannot name. In case you are the librarian destined to help this poor student, who is looking for the lucky deceased, you'll probably look at him/her quite perplexed thinking that today's topology of the planets of the zodiac is the least favourable for your sign. But this is not true about Georgia Vellioti, University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus librarian.

In the time she needs to re-arrange the sunglasses on the top of her head, she will have already planned the path of research on the library index and the Internet. In a few moments, she will have solved the student's problem and the student will walk out with calmness written upon his/her face, ready to put the final sentence on his/her paper. On the other hand, the philosopher looking from the “other side” will be happy to notice that the impact of his work remains untouched by the shallow knowledge of the younger generations, who can luckily count on good librarians to solve the mysteries of life. That's why they say, “A libre-rian sets you free.”

The MA English students