Οnassis Foundation at the New School for Social Research in New York

Since 2015, the Onassis Foundation Fellowship at The New School for Social Research (NSSR) has provided funding to PhD students in the Philosophy department who are focusing their studies on ancient Greek drama, philosophy, political theory, history, and poetry. Earlier this year, the foundation made a generous renewal grant — the only funding for graduate student work it provided in 2019.

The fellowship gave Yi Wu, PhD Philosophy ’18, Teresa Casas Hernandez, PhD Philosophy ’20, and Angelica Stathopoulos, PhD Philosophy ’20, three years’ funding, including stipends, tuition scholarships, and travel funds that enabled them to spend time in Greece.

Speaking about the importance of the funding, Casas Hernandez said, “It gave us a space — there had been no identified space for ancient Greek studies. It helped identify this current and made it visible and gave visibility to work that was somehow not getting lost but not being properly seen. The Onassis Foundation funding gives an opportunity to students like myself. I would never have been able to do my thesis without it.”

During her stay in Greece, Casas Hernandez conducted research at the Onassis Stegi Theatre in Athens. She was given access to the theater’s extensive archives and to an array of working theater professionals, including well-known artists such as Euripides Laskaridis and Prodromos Tsinikoris, whom she interviewed for her research.

The three scholars expressed gratitude for the assistance of their advisors and professors at The New School, Casas Hernandez compared meeting with Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy and member of the Board of Directors of the Οnassis Foundation, to “visiting the oracle” of ancient Greece. She says he gave suggestions that lead her work in a direction that she ultimately wanted but didn’t know how to formulate.

“The ancient Greeks hold a mirror up to us,” says Critchley. “Their struggles and crises are extraordinarily relevant to those of our times. The Onassis Foundation has fundamentally changed the lives and academic careers of our first six fellows, who are drawing innovative connections between ancient and 21st-century thought. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to lead this fellowship for four more years and for the foundation’s ongoing support of this new generation of emerging scholars.”