Ergon: Five-Year Anniversary

This October, Ergon: Greek/American Arts and Letters celebrates its five years of operation. Ergon started as a joint project, launched in collaboration with Martha E. Klironomos whose ideas and vision have left an indelible imprint in the journal. The conversation started in 2014, and the fist essay was posted on October 30, 2017. Her intellectual presence is still with us.

Since then, we have published a total of 188 postings under a variety of categories ranging from archive building to book review essays, tributes to translations, and essays to editorials among others.

Ergon is vested in sustaining a space hospitable to non-normative voices, critical analysis and reflective appreciation of scholarship and the arts. It does so in a multitude of genres––essays, blogs, interviews, memoirs, book reviews, articles, visual culture, editorials, and translations. We believe it offers an important platform for empowering diaspora studies and asserting a critical presence, sorely needed, in public life. Though the initial focus has been Greek America we will soon be expanding our scope to incorporate conversations across intellectual and academic networks in the Greek diasporas. The new title, Ergon: Greek/American & Diaspora Arts and Letters will reflect this broadened purview.

In our endeavor we have enjoyed immense support from scholars who have worked tirelessly as book review and poetry editors. (Christopher Bakken, Frank Hess, Neovi Karakatsanis, Gerasimus Katsan.)

Academics working within the broader U.S. modern Greek studies as well as Greek Australian and Greek Canadian studies have responded to our invitation, contributing editorial and critical insights, book reviews, essays, articles and blogs for us. For this we express our deepest appreciation.

Greek American studies involves a relatively small demographic of practitioners. But this community intersects with U.S. modern Greek studies in our shared transnational orientation involving the signifier “Greek.”

We hope that the support we have received will continue, even increase, to further our joined interests. We call on modern Greek studies scholars in film and cultural studies, anthropology, foodways, literature, and the arts, in particular, among other fields and disciplines, to contribute to our mission. A quality blog, an insightful essay, or a thoughtful book review essay from scholars who operate “outside” diaspora studies but are positioned to engage with diaspora matters can make a world of difference. We have enjoyed this kind of contributions and fully recognize their value. Sophisticated work functions as a springboard for further research projects.

Throughout the years, Ergon has received generous grants from the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) and the Ohio State University. We have also enjoyed financial support from friends and individuals. For this, we thank you. Given that we operate as an open access platform with a limited budget, we ask you to take a moment on this occasion and consider supporting our project.

Visit us at https://ergon.scienzine.com/page/about

My hope is that health and the availability of resources will enable us to celebrate our tenth anniversary, in 2027.

Yiorgos Anagnostou