In view of a
recent conversation about ways to enhance the public presence of Greek/American
authors and scholars I share this preliminary outline of cultural trends, prospects
and challenges associated with the question of visibility and resonance. This is a
tentative mapping of course, that I hope will be expanding via your input.
This conversation
will benefit from the insights of all – academics and non-academics, authors,
artists, translators, and the public, Greeks and “non-Greeks,” students and
non-students – who care about the cultural and political direction of Greek
America. It values, it goes without saying, the perspectives of students and
the youth.
A host of questions
drive this writing: How to join forces (sharing of ideas, collaborations across
disciplinary, intellectual and artistic lines, etc.) to create a vibrant and
politically responsible conversation about the present and future of Greek
America. How to enhance the visibility of Greek American letters and arts, and
its public resonance. To
what end?
Please take the
time to share a position, an idea, a proposal, a thought; to ask a question or
two, offer experiences, register reservations, provide new angles of inquiry.
• Media
Transnational
media are
increasingly receptive, and in fact inclined to promote the conversation on
Greek America (Chronos, Dialogos
Media, Greek News Agenda).
They offer options in writing in English, and are open to new and critical
ideas.
Prospects: Explore the possibility with their
editors about Special Issues dedicated to Greek America (“Issues in Greek
America,” “Literary Voices in Greek America,” “Identities” etc.
Challenges: A host of media are self-labelled or overdetermined
as “leftist” and may not reach widely into Greek America.
Academics
learning how to translate ideas for a wider audience.
Popular media contributes to Greek American memory and
circulate knowledge and ideas (The Pappas Post, for instance and its
promotion and marketing of the documentary Pallikari).
Popular media also publish editorials and position papers by scholars (The
National Herald).
Prospects: Scholars, authors and intellectuals may
wish to place key essays in these venues.
Challenges: There is the question of the range of
critical ideas that could be accommodated. What is more, these venues do not
pay (or pay very little) for intellectual labor.
National online
venues in
conversation with the youth (Got Greek), particularly on issues of
leadership, shaping identities. A dream essay of mine, Humanities and Leadership in Geek
America.
Challenges: How receptive are these venues to new
ideas; we would not know until we try.
Local media produce and disseminate ideas and
knowledge (oral histories for example) of local interest (for an example that
uses multimedia see, Greek
American Heritage Society of Philadelphia).
Prospects: Scholars and authors contributing work
to local cultural initiatives (magazines, blogs, oral history projects, etc.).
Challenges: No material compensation for authors,
translators and scholars. How to write for a diverse public, how to present
complex, potentially ideologically loaded issues for public consideration.
Note: Local venues
(Chicago-based, The Greek
Circle) and national literary initiatives (Voices of Hellenism) have ceased publication. In the
academic front, the Journal of
the Hellenic Diaspora and
Pella publishers have closed.
Online media: There exist numerous social media venues
and blogs. Authors may wish to serve as guests to relatively well-known blogs.
Prospects: A collaborative blog that features views
of Greek/American authors, artists, poets, scholars, etc.
Challenges: Material compensation for this kind of
labor for those who maintain the blog and the contributors.
• Venues for Greek
Studies Scholarship and other Writings
The Journal of Modern Greek Studies and the Journal of Modern Hellenism continue publishing scholarship on
Greek America. The AHIF Policy
Journal features essays and
other items of interest. A new online venue, Ergon
Greek/American Transnational Arts and Letters has been announced to promote the
arts, scholarship and letters to both academic and non-academic audiences
(forthcoming Fall 2017).
• Scholars and
the “Community”
There is a dearth
of ethnographic work, and despite some valuable oral history projects and
scholarship we have a long way to go before understanding the social experience
of Greek Americans across class, gender, age, region, sexuality, etc.
Similarly, there
is limited community-based scholarship that addresses issues that Greek
Americans face; there is little theoretical work on how we build communication
with the communities, how we collaborate or make interventions in a language
that is understood by the community, how we enter in conversation to establish
a common ground, how we negotiate hegemonic narratives (other than critiquing
them).
Greek American
studies per se do not present themselves as a valuable career option. Many
accomplished scholars in Greek studies display no interest in it. Several
scholars who have published magnificent work have moved away from this subject
matter (there are numerous examples in Greece and Europe of this “brain
drain”).
All-in-all there
are very few Greek Americanists in relation, say, to the number of scholars
writing about modern Greece.
Prospects:
Scholars with a
Greek/American focus continue making the case for the intellectual and critical
relevance of Greek American studies to scholars outside the field.
Scholars in modern
Greek studies contributing to Greek American studies on a part time basis
(essays, position papers, articles, monographs).
Scholars in
established disciplines (history, film studies, cultural studies, sociology,
ethnography, etc.) also tapping into transnational Greek/American topics that
speak to their wider interest.
Collaborations
among scholars. How viable is this given overloaded work schedules, and
with institutions often
privileging the lone author model.
Initiatives
from Greece
Greece-based
scholars, journalists, and documentary makers have been exhibiting interest in
Greek America.
Prospects: Exciting cultural production, produce
knowledge about “forgotten” or marginalized topics.
Challenges: These cultural makers often frame their
rhetorical angle to speak to a Greek not a Greek American audience.
Limited Funding:
Whenever it may exist, the ideology of the donors may mediate the meaning of
the product. They may neglect scholarship or facts that are inconvenient to
their agendas.
Journalists and
others who have received funds to document Greek America must produce work that
justifies their funding.
Authors,
writers, poets, journalists, and translators
This is a great
resource, authors, writers, poets, journalists, and translators who place their
work in reputable venues “outside” Greek America. Novels, poetry, and translations
building on Greek/American material earn national attention.
Prospects: Incorporate Greek America as a subject of
reflection in venues within but also beyond “Greek America” whenever these cultural
producers see it fit (intellectually, politically, literally, etc.).
Have authors and
scholars speak with each other, enter into a conversation.
Challenges: Limited funding (a wider issue, see
below).
Overall
Challenges Regarding Intellectual Production
Limited Resources,
including limited career opportunities for Greek Americanists both within and
outside the academy.
How we position
ourselves to have our ideas reach and resonate with a wider audience. There is
a vast divide between the dominant way Greek America understands its identity
(mostly through the lens of personal struggle and success, a belief that
informs the political prism through which Greek American interpret political
issues) and scholars who focus on the ways in which history and social
structure shape experience and ideology. There is evidence to suggest that a
sector of the Greek American public lacks interest in the sociological
understanding of the society. How true is this?
Anti-intellectualism
in American society.
Greek Americans:
Is there interest in reading scholarship, fiction, essays? Many Greek American
write to produce popular history, ethnography, and fiction. But what is the
overall intellectual engagement of Greek Americans and how is it expressed?
How do we envision
the Greek/American public? How does the public may enter into this conversation
so that we avoid speaking amongst ourselves? What is the experience of scholars
and authors who have been interfacing with the public?
What can we learn
from other cultural and academic networks (Italian Americans, Asian Americans)
about interconnections between communities, networks, knowledge, letters, and the
arts?
Please consider
contributing to this discussion.
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Yiorgos Anagnostou
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