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Supporting Greek studies around the world

The Onassis Foundation supports Greek studies programs in Europe, USA, Canada, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia

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The financial support encompasses the teaching of ancient and modern Greek, Greek Philology, Literature, History, Philosophy, Archaeology and Greek Civilisation.

From the program of Ancient Greek Studies in New York’s New School to the one of Modern Greek Studies in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Onassis Foundation supports university chairs and educational foundations worldwide, in order to promote Greek studies. The financial support encompasses the teaching of ancient and modern Greek, Greek Philology, Literature, History, Philosophy, Archaeology and Greek Civilization. The Onassis Foundation also supports classical primary and secondary schools across Europe and the USA, where ancient Greek is taught. Up until today, the Foundation has supported more than 100 educational foundations in 40 countries across Europe, America, Africa, Australia and Asia.

A new collaboration with the Newnham College of the University of Cambridge

In 2021 the Onassis Foundation launched a collaboration with Cambridge University, offering Newnham College and its Faculty of Classics a fellowship to create a permanent teaching position of classical studies, named “The Onassis Classics Fellowship at Newnham College”. Over time, the Onassis Foundation sets up the conditions for the emergence of opportunities aiming at the financial aid of students and the development of new scientific work. Dr Shushma Malik is the first Onassis Classics Fellow. She studied Classics and Ancient History at the University of Bristol, where she completed her PhD in 2013. Since then, she has lectured in Roman History and Latin at the University of Manchester, the University of Queensland, the University of Roehampton, and the University of Cambridge.

In 2023 the Onassis Foundation expanded its partnership with the Newnham College with a further donation, establishing a postgraduate scholarship programme being offered to Newnham students only who are of the highest academic merit. Newnham College decided to use this donation to establish the first postgraduate scholarship of the scholarship programme for international Postgraduate Classics students, or those in Classics related subjects, at Newnham College, to be known as the “Onassis Special Scholarship Programme for Women in Humanities”. The first “Onassis Special Scholarship Programme” scholar would be awarded in October 2024.

Newnham College is an acclaimed women’s college, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary throughout 2021 and 2022. Through this partnership, Onassis Foundation aims at the strengthening of classical studies and the widespread dissemination of their timeless values by creating new depositories at a time when this is of critical importance for the future of classical education. This also strengthens women’s role in academia, enhancing diversity and equal treatment.

Philosophy and Tragedy in New York, USA

With the support of the Onassis Foundation, the Department of Philosophy of the New School for Social Research continues its study of ancient Greek Philosophy and Drama, with courses focusing on the pre-Socratic era, the Greek Tragedy, Plato and Aristotle, financially supporting PhD students, a program under Simon Critchley, member of the board of directors of the Onassis Foundation. Gwenda-lin Grewal, the Onassis Lecturer in Ancient Greek Thought and Language, has a joint PhD in Philosophy and Classics from Tulane University. The study of Ancient Greek Thought, Ancient Greek Drama, Political Theory and Philosophy have been in the center of the Department of Philosophy’s activity for many decades. Continuing the tradition, the Department of Philosophy offers numerous courses focusing on the pre-Socratic era, the Greek Tragedy, Plato and Aristotle.

Research for the diaspora in Oxford, UK

Through a program that seeks the ways in which the Greek diaspora can help the reshaping of Greece, the Onassis Foundation supports important researchers who study the relation of Greece and the Greek diaspora. More specifically, the Department of South East European Studies of the University of Oxford focuses its research on the European unification, the politics and the economy of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. The Onassis Foundation chose to collaborate with this department since 2016 supporting financially the research program "The Greek diaspora: Homeland ties in times of crisis", where important academics and researchers study the relation between Greece and the diaspora, seeking ways in which the Greeks living abroad can have a positive influence on the social and financial reshaping of the country. Among them is Manolis Pratsinakis as an Onassis Research Fellow.

Bayes Business School - City, University of London, UK

The Onassis Foundation continues the partnership with London’s Bayes Business School (formerly known as Cass Business School) – one of the leading business schools in the world. The Onassis Foundation is fundimg a teaching fellowship – in Shipping Analytics, Finance and Fintech – at the school, for four academic years (2019-2020 until 2022-2023) and serves the postgraduate MSc Shipping, Trade & Finance program. The position has been taken up by Dr Ioannis Moutzouris, who will also be undertaking research work alongside his teaching duties. The Onassis Foundation continues to support the Financial, International Trade and Shipping sectors, in which Aristotle Onassis himself excelled.

The program for the support of Greek studies around the world – among dozens of other university chairs and educational institutions – included until recently “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; the Arsakeio Greek-Albanian College in Tirana, Albania; as well as the University of Padua, Italy.

  • Modern Greek Philology and Enlightenment in the Sofia University and "St. Cyril and St. Methodius" University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

<br> The collaboration of the Onassis Foundation with the University of Sofia was launched in 2016, by organizing a common action program promoting Greek studies. This collaboration included scholarships to students of outstanding performance, the purchase of technological equipment and education material, the support of the professors for their academic development (participation in conferences) and the organization of educational trips to Athens for the students. Also, the Onassis Foundation has approved the financing of courses of comparative teaching of the Greek Enlightenment and the Bulgarian Renaissance of the University of Veliko Turnovo St. Cyril and St. Methodius, while it supported the function of the Center of Greek Language and Civilization of the University, through the purchase of books and technological equipment.

  • Greek in Tirana

The Onassis Foundation has supported through the years a number of primary and secondary education institutions all over the world where ancient and modern Greek language and civilization are taught through language courses, theater classes and participation in cultural events of Hellenic interest. The Foundation has supported the operation of numerous schools by donating educational material and technological equipment of all sorts and according to specific needs. The Foundation has partnered with Arsakeio Greek-Albanian College in Tirana, providing 30 scholarships / cash prizes for students based on their outstanding performance and excellent conduct.

  • University of Padua, Italy

The Onassis Foundation has supported the Chair of Modern Greek Language and Literature at the University of Padua for the academic years 2019-20, 2020-21 & 2021-22. This is the second oldest Chair of Modern Greek Studies in Italy. Founded at the end of the 1950s, it has been for many years a flourishing center of Modern Greek Letters for Italian and Greek students. Τhe University of Padua has always had an eminent position among Greeks and Cypriots who have been coming to study at Padua in great numbers and for many centuries - since the Fall of Constantinople up to the Foundation of the Modern Greek State. Thanks to this uniqueness, the English historian David Brewer, in his recent book, Greece, The Hidden Centuries, is talking about the University of Padua as "the Alma Mater of Hellenism during the years of Ottoman rule". Recently the University of Padua has awarded the Chair of Modern Greek a 2-Year Research Program entitled Padua, the First University of Modern Hellenism (1453-1821). The Research Fellow, selected by the University Evaluation Committee with a very high score (94/100), is Dr. Francesco Scalora. His contract has started in March 2019, creating a new opportunity for the Chair of Modern Greek to recommence and acquire more students.

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