Professor emerita of Modern Greek Studies, Comparative Literature and Literature in English, served as Director of the Center for Modern Greek Studies at San Francisco State University
Dr. Martha Klironomos, professor emerita of Modern Greek Studies, Comparative Literature and Literature in English, served as Director of the Center for Modern Greek Studies at San Francisco State University, a position she held with distinction and dedication for twenty years. Martha assumed the role in 1996 and carried on the mission of the Center with great commitment and enthusiasm. Under her leadership, Modern Greek Studies offered a minor in modern Greek literature, language, and culture, presented many innovative courses, held public events for the broader community, and curated an impressive library collection including the Greek Oral History Project. On the national level, Martha served as an officer of the Executive Board of the Modern Greek Studies Association. In addition, Martha was Associate Editor of the Journal for Modern Greek Studies.
Martha held a Ph.D. from Ohio State University in English with a specialization in modern Greek literature and literary theory. Her scholarship focused on writers of the Modernist era in Greece and on British women writers who traveled to Greece, including Virginia Woolf. She taught Modern Greek classes such as “Biography of a City: Athens,” “Greek and Roman Myth and Modern Literature,” “Literature of Exile and Migration,” and “Greek American Literature.” Her work often focused on the representation of one culture in the literary imagination of another and was thus a pioneer in the areas of migration, hybridity and memory.
Her final scholarly publication was a brilliant piece, fittingly focused on the namesake of the Endowment that funded the work of the Center for Modern Greek Studies: “Nikos Kazantzakis’ Odysseia: The Epic Sequel in Modern Greek Poetry and Classical Reception” (Ch. 10 in Brill’s Companion to Prequels, Sequels and Retellings of Classical Epic, ed. Robert C. Simms 2018).
“In addition to being a widely respected and admired scholar, Martha was known as an excellent classroom teacher who cared deeply for her students and who was profoundly committed to the mission of the program she led for so many years,” according to the President of the Modern Greek Studies Foundation, Chris Gus Kanios. “She had a fiery passion for her work along with a genuinely kind and caring heart.”
Martha’s skill, creativity, and compassion in teaching earned the love of many students—including first generation descendants of immigrants like herself. Students praised her ability to take them deep into the analysis of literature.
“Among friends, students, and even people she did not know, she was ready to share her love of poetry, art, and music. Subterranean emotions sometimes surfaced when talk turned to stories of the diaspora,” recalled Professor Artemis Leontis, C.P. Cavafy Professor of Modern Greek & Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan, a colleague in the field of Modern Greek Studies.
Martha was a shining light. Her memory is alive and filled with her grace and explosive humor.