CHS Visiting Scholar | Gonda Van Steen, Professor of Classics at the University of Florida

This week, Dr. Gonda Van Steen, Andronicos Nicholas Cassas Chair in Greek Studies and Professor of Classics at the University of Florida, will be staying at the CHS and using the library. While at the CHS, Dr. Van Steen will be researching themes marked in Sophocles Theban Plays for a new book project in the making. This project will be a study of the interactions of biopolitics and adoptee trauma of Greece during the postwar and Cold War periods and analyze their relationship and connection to the Theban Plays’–specifically Oedipus and Antigone– handling of child victim’s loss of identity and reconstruction of public and private self. Thus the research done by Dr. Van Steen will bridge the gap between classical narratives of an adoptees pursuit to understand themselves and the modern interpretations of the Greek adoptee’s ambiguous identity.  Dr. Van Steen looks forward to sharing and discussing these themes of identity and sense of self with our current fellows at the CHS, who are like-minded in intellectual and scholastic pursuit.
Dr. Van Steen is visiting under a grant, awarded to scholars around the world that could benefit from access to the Center’s library resources and from consulting and working with fellows on a short-term basis. The CHS is currently accepting applications for visits from January 27th to May 29th, 2016. To learn more, visit the CHS website.

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