Professor of Theatre Studies
Anna Stavrakopoulou studied philology at the University of Crete and theatre at Université Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle (DEA, Institut d’Etudes Théâtrales) and at Harvard University (PhD, 1994). She taught at New York University, at the University of Bosporus in Istanbul (where she initiated courses on ancient and modern Greek, with the support of the Onassis Foundation) and at Harvard University (1996-1999). She served as Deputy Executive Director of the Onassis Foundation (USA) (1999-2001) and taught as a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Crete (2001-2002). She has been teaching history and theory of theatre at the Drama Department (AUTH) since 2003. Furthermore, she is a founding member and part of the faculty team of Harvard Summer Program in Greece (which has been in operation from 2002 to the present) and has served as Associate Director of the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies-Greece (2010-2018).
She has received grants from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, Ilex Foundation and Bogliasco Foundation. She has served as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors at the National Theatre of Northern Greece (2011-2013). Recently, she served as Program Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (2018-2021). She was the Chair of the Evaluation Committee on Theatre Subsidies of the Greek Ministry of Culture (2022 and 2023) and she is currently a member of the International Ibsen Committee (2024-2028).
Books and edited volumes
- Τhe Reception of Ibsen in Greece: Gendered Perspectives and Translational Approaches, Kapa Ekdotiki, Athens 2023 [in Greek].
- Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Beyond, edited by Dimitri Kastritsis, Anna Stavrakopoulou and Angus Stewart, Center for Hellenic Studies Trustees for Harvard University Washington, DC, Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England 2023.
- Female and Male Servants: Historical Subjects and Artistic Representations in the Greek Speaking World (19th-20th century), Panayiota Mini, Konstantina Georgiadi and Ioulia Pipinia, Anna Stavrakopoulou, eds, Papazisis, Athens 2021.
- Acta of conference on Performance in Post WWII Theatre: Continuities and Discontinuities, Aristotle University Press, Thessaloniki 2014; Co-editor with Andreas Dimitriadis and Ioulia Pipinia.
- Alexandrovodas the Unscrupulous by Georgios N. Soutsos, Translation and Introduction, The Isis Press, Istanbul 2012.
- Modern Greek Literature: Critical Essays; co-editor with Gregory Nagy, Routledge, New York 2003.
Her research interests revolve around comedy (popular and erudite), theatrical translation and the reception of Ibsen in Greece.
Select articles and performance reviews:
- «Henrik Ibsen, Emperor Julian, and the crisis of faith in modernity», co-authored with Brad Boswell and Matthew Crawford, Classical Receptions Journal, τμ. 15, τχ. 2 (2023), σ. 151-171.
- «‘Ten feet by ten feet by ten feet’: Endgame’s confinement and devastation on the Greek stage (2009-2017)» στον τόμο Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Beyond, edited by Dimitri Kastritsis, Anna Stavrakopoulou and Angus Stewart, Center for Hellenic Studies Trustees for Harvard University Washington, DC, Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England 2023, σ. 191-202.
- “Belisarius in the Shadow Theater: The Private Calvary of a Legendary General”, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After, D. Cairns, ed., Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2017, 390–411.
- “Noh/Nekyia: Homer Recited in Japanese in an Ancient Greek Theatre”, Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques, Issue 13 (June 2016) https://www.critical-stages.org/13/nohnekyia-homer-recited-in-japanese-in-an-ancient-greek-theatre/
- “Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca”, Theatre Journal, Vol. 67, 2 (May 2015), 326–328.
- “Translation as Geographical Relocation: Nineteenth-Century Greek Adaptations of Molière in the Ottoman Empire”, Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, eds. Sahar Bazzaz, Yota Batsaki, Dimiter Angelov, CHS–Harvard University Press 2013, 207–223.
- “Ottoman Karagöz and Greek Shadow Theater: Communicational Shifts and Variants in a Multi-ethnic and Ethnic Context”, Ruse and Wit, The Humorous in Arabic, Persian and Turkish Narrative, ed. Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, Ilex Foundation Series, Harvard University Press 2012, 146–157.
- “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac translated by Pantelis Soutsas (1876)”, Paradosi kai eksynxronismos sto neoelliniko theatro: apo tis aparches os ti metapolemiki epochi (Praktika tou Tritou Panelliniou Theatrologikou Synedriou) [Tradition and innovation in modern Greek theatre: from the beginnings to the post-WWII era (Acta of the Third Panhellenic Theatre Symposium)], Antonis Glytzouris – Konstantina Georgiadi, eds., Crete University Press, Herakleion 2010, 43-50.
- “Mise Kozis (1848): multi-ethnic night-strolls in Ottoman Constantinople,” Zitimata Istorias tou Neoellinikou Theatrou – Meletes afieromenes ston Dimitri Spathi [Studies in the History of Neohellenic Theatre – Essays Dedicated to Dimitris Spathis], Nikiforos Papandreou-Effie Vafeiadi, eds., Crete University Press, Herakleion 2007, 67-81.
Office: Exadaktilou Building, 5th Floor Phone: 2310 992156
Email: stavrak@thea.auth.gr
Contact hours: Tuesday 5-8 pm; please, make an appointment by email.
