Hellenic Studies Minor

Students who wish to do systematic work on modern Greek culture, including language, literature, history, and politics, may pursue an interdisciplinary minor offered by the Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies. The study of modern Hellenic society and culture provides students with an appreciation of the history of modern Greek language and literature and an understanding of how the Greeks have shouldered their classical, Byzantine, and Ottoman historical and political experiences and have translated them into the modern era. It also focuses on such political issues as how modern Greece has reconciled its geographical situation in Europe's Western, Eastern, and Mediterranean regions with its proximity to the Middle East, and it provides students with an understanding of how small nations face the challenges of democracy, development, and modernization while under a variety of constraints.