Anna Stavrakopoulou joins our Byzantine Studies department as we forge ahead with expanding access to resources, augmenting outreach to scholars and students, increasing funding opportunities for Byzantinists, and growing the body of scholarship in the field. She will work with the director and the committee of senior fellows in Byzantine Studies to sustain an array of activities that have grown over the past decade to include, in addition to an international program of residential fellowships, new short-term research awards and predoctoral residencies. Dumbarton Oaks supported 25% more Byzantine Studies academic-year fellowships in 2017–2018 than in 2007–2008. Thanks to expanded and improved residential facilities, we have broadened our support of students at all career stages through postdoctoral appointments with our archives, museum, and publications; teaching fellowships at local universities; and undergraduate internships. Over the same period, the resources available to scholars at Dumbarton Oaks have increased through acquisitions, such as the purchase of two Byzantine manuscripts (including the “Benton Gospels”), and the gift of Charles Fleischmann’s collection of rare Byzantine coins and seals. The Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives have received numerous collections, including more than nine thousand slides of sites in Syria.
Stavrakopoulou earned a PhD in modern Greek studies from Harvard University after studying philology at the University of Crete and theater at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle–Paris 3 (Institut d’études théâtrales). She has taught at Harvard University and New York University, and initiated courses on ancient and modern Greek while teaching at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul). After serving as deputy executive director of the Onassis Foundation (USA), she held visiting faculty appointments at Yale University and the University of Crete. Since 2003, she has been on the faculty of the School of Drama at Aristotle University (Thessaloniki), where she is associate professor of theater studies. Stavrakopoulou is a founding member of the Harvard study abroad program in Greece and continues to serve on its faculty; she also served as the associate director of the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece (2010–2018). She has published books and articles in both English and Greek on modern Greek theater and literature.