
Professor Gonda Van Steen
Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature. Director, Centre for Hellenic Studies
Research interests
- Languages
- Literature
Biography
Gonda Van Steen earned a BA and MA degree in Classics in Belgium and a PhD degree in Classics and Hellenic Studies from Princeton University. Her research and teaching interests include Greek language and literature through Byzantine and Modern Greek, Western travelers to Greece and the Ottoman Empire, nineteenth and twentieth-century receptions of the classics and especially of ancient theatre, and modern Greek intellectual and social history.
Van Steen holds the position of Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature in KCL’s Centre for Hellenic Studies and Department of Classics. Formerly, as the Cassas Chair in Greek Studies at the University of Florida, she taught courses in ancient and modern Greek language and literature and served as president and subsequently as executive director of the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA, www.mgsa.org).
Van Steen is the author of five books: Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece (2000); Liberating Hellenism from the Ottoman Empire (2010); Theatre of the Condemned: Classical Tragedy on Greek Prison Islands (2011); and Stage of Emergency: Theater and Public Performance under the Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967-1974 (2015).
Her latest book, entitled Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo? (2019), has taken her into the new, uncharted terrain of Greek adoption stories that become paradigmatic of Cold War politics and history.
Research interests and PhD supervision
- Modern Greek history and politics
- Ancient through Modern Greek language and literature
- Reception Studies
- Adoption Studies
Teaching
- Modern Greek history and politics
- Ancient through Modern Greek language and literature
- Reception Studies
- Study abroad programs
Expertise and public engagement
Media appearances related to my work on the adoptions of Greek children in the postwar and Cold War era.
Consultant on documentary film project related to the above topic.
Publications
Book publications
- The Battle for Bodies, Hearts, and Minds in Postwar Greece: Social Worker Charles Schermerhorn in Thessaloniki, 1946-1951 (London: Routledge, 2024).
- Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo? (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press (2019)
- Stage of Emergency: Theater and Public Performance under the Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967-1974 (Oxford: OUP, 2015)
- Theatre of the Condemned: Classical Tragedy on Greek Prison Islands (Oxford: OUP, 2011)
- Liberating Hellenism from the Ottoman Empire: Comte de Marcellus and the Last of the Classics (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010)
- Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece (Princeton: PUP, 2000)
Refereed journal articles and chapters in books (selection)
- “Inglorious Barbarians: Court Intrigue and Military Disaster Strike Xerxes, ‘The Sick Man of Europe.’” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus, edited by R. F. Kennedy, 243-269 (Leiden: Brill, 2018)
- “Comedy and Tragedy in Agon(y): The 1902 Comedy Panathenaia of Andreas Nikolaras.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes, edited by Ph. Walsh, 240-262 (Leiden: Brill, 2016)
- “Arthur W. Pinero and Cavafy the Dramatist: The Parallel Quest for the Quality Play.” Studies in the Literary Imagination 48, 2 (Fall 2015) 73-106
- “Snapshots of Aristophanes and Menander: From Spontaneous Reception to Belated Reception Study.” In The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy, ed. M. Revermann, 433-450 (Cambridge: CUP, 2014)
- “Sin and the City: A Mid-Fifteenth-Century Lament for the Fall of Athens to the ‘Persians.’” In Re-imagining the Past: Antiquity and Modern Greek Culture, ed. D. Tziovas, 229-251 (Oxford: OUP, 2014)
Research

Centre for Hellenic Studies
The Centre for Hellenic Studies is a unique grouping of academics with interests and expertise covering more than three millennia, from Aegean prehistory to the history, language, literature and culture of Greece, Cyprus and the worldwide Greek diaspora today.

Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies
Interdisciplinary centre for the study of late antique and medieval history, languages, philosophy, religion, literature and music in western and eastern Europe.
News
Classics students visit Athens as part of the 2023 Rumble Fund Trip
Students from the Department of Classics went on a fully funded five-day visit to Greece, made possible by the generosity of the Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund.

New book uncovers lost stories of Greek adoptees
Oral histories of Cold War international adoption are released today in new book, Voices of the Lost Children, based on research by Professor Gonda Van Steen.

Adoption Reckonings and Understanding Life Histories
Professor Gonda Van Steen, Director, Centre for Hellenic Studies, is researching the silenced stories of the 3,200 Greek adoptees who were sent to the USA...

Professor Gonda Van Steen announced as next Koraes Chair
Professor Gonda Van Steen has been appointed as the next Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King's College London.

Events

Child Adoption in and from Greece
This event will focus on the topic of international adoption, its effects on adoptees and their descendants, and the search for roots.

Fifth Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Lecture: 'Life before Birth'
Join us for the fifth Niki Marangou Annual Memorial Lecture: Professor Kypros Nicolaides
Please note: this event has passed.
Research

Centre for Hellenic Studies
The Centre for Hellenic Studies is a unique grouping of academics with interests and expertise covering more than three millennia, from Aegean prehistory to the history, language, literature and culture of Greece, Cyprus and the worldwide Greek diaspora today.

Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies
Interdisciplinary centre for the study of late antique and medieval history, languages, philosophy, religion, literature and music in western and eastern Europe.
News
Classics students visit Athens as part of the 2023 Rumble Fund Trip
Students from the Department of Classics went on a fully funded five-day visit to Greece, made possible by the generosity of the Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund.

New book uncovers lost stories of Greek adoptees
Oral histories of Cold War international adoption are released today in new book, Voices of the Lost Children, based on research by Professor Gonda Van Steen.

Adoption Reckonings and Understanding Life Histories
Professor Gonda Van Steen, Director, Centre for Hellenic Studies, is researching the silenced stories of the 3,200 Greek adoptees who were sent to the USA...

Professor Gonda Van Steen announced as next Koraes Chair
Professor Gonda Van Steen has been appointed as the next Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King's College London.

Events

Child Adoption in and from Greece
This event will focus on the topic of international adoption, its effects on adoptees and their descendants, and the search for roots.

Fifth Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Lecture: 'Life before Birth'
Join us for the fifth Niki Marangou Annual Memorial Lecture: Professor Kypros Nicolaides
Please note: this event has passed.