Our American Studies Resource Portal
Author: Mosaiko EditorPosted on: Jan 14th 2011
Greek text 
Mosaiko.gr met with Zoe Detsi and Tatiani Rapatzikou, Portal Directors, and discussed their inspiration and plans for the American Studies Resource Portal.
What is the purpose of the American Studies Resource Portal? What content do you choose to post on your site and who is responsible for selecting and posting?
The purpose of the American Studies Resource Portal (ASRP) is to promote the research and study of American literature and culture in Greece. This online platform sets out to map new areas of research and stimulate new interests in the younger generation of students and future scholars who wish to explore the multiple meanings of American literature and culture within a globalized context. More specifically, the ASRP:
Provides links to academic departments in Greece (University of Athens, Panteion University, University of Macedonia, Democritus University of Thrace) that include courses on American culture, literature, and politics, as well as the course outlines and the bibliographical information that accompany these courses. This way the users will have a comprehensive view of the courses offered on American Studies.
Offers an online registry of the M.A. theses and Ph.D dissertations that have been conducted in Greece in the field of American Studies, mapping in this manner the various areas of research that have been covered and developed.
Provides access to other online research and teaching resources about American literature and culture, covering the areas of American fiction, poetry and drama, American art, architecture, history, urban spaces, environment, film and popular culture, newspaper archives, author interviews, podcasts, university and public library archives and digital collections etc.
Enhances the profile of the Department of American Literature and Culture and enriches its existing curriculum with new courses as well as promote the interdisciplinary potential of the existing ones by offering access to digitally-supported material.
Promotes creativity with its online magazine, Echoes, which provides access to essays written either by undergraduate students who have attended the Creative Writing Workshop or graduate students who have worked on a particular theme relating to the M.A. in American Literature and Culture that our department offers. This magazine contributes to the portal’s main objective, which is to encourage cross-cultural exchange between Greece and the United States as well as foster creative thinking and editorial practice for the students themselves. Our magazine’s inaugural issue entitled Staging Ourselves features the pieces that our undergraduate students wrote and performed in Spring 2009 under the guidance of the Fulbright playwright in residence Catherine Rogers.
The Project Directors are responsible for enriching the portal sitemap and for selecting, assessing, and posting the relevant research/teaching material that are made available by the ASRP.
What was the inspiration behind the portal? Was there a particular need that drove you there and how easy an endeavor is it?
The ASRP has been conceptualized and designed by the Department of American Literature and Culture of the School of English at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. It involves the creation and maintenance of a virtual learning environment for the transfer of knowledge in a multimedia world. Being aware of the need to conceive of American Studies as complexly situated within a multinational and transnational context in which Europe has come to play a significant political, economic and cultural role, the Department has envisioned an online project that places American Studies in dynamic relation to other areas of study (Social Sciences and Cultural Studies) and that is informed by the latest trends in IT technologies and New Media Literacies.
The idea for this project originated from:
The imperative need to keep pace with the most recent developments in e-learning and research which have been lately implemented in a number of European and U.S. Universities, and
The Department’s dedication to better reflect the range of sources and information available to students and educators of American Studies in Greece.
This is the first time that an online project like this has been launched in Greece. Its importance for the advancement and transfer of knowledge in the university and the wider community lies in the new ways of incorporating electronic technologies into teaching and learning methods as well as in the creation of a user-friendly online environment for the dissemination of copyright free information which is going to be accessible to all.
This was a demanding project that developed through different phases in the period between 2009-2010:
Phase 1. Evaluation of library holdings: In October 2009, with the help of the U.S. Embassy, Mark Woodhouse, the Head of Technical Services at Garnett-Tripp Library in Elmira College, NY, visited the School of English and spent 15 days at the library evaluating our American Studies holdings. He contributed significantly to the development of this project with his suggestions regarding the location of primary texts, newspapers, and other digitized databases.
Phase 2. Web-site construction: Our computer engineer, Tasos Paschalis, worked many hours on the construction of this portal.
Phase 3. Data-input: Our librarian, Fotini Stavrou, has been a great help as she has gathered all the M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations in the field of American Studies completed in Greece. Also, our graduate students’ (Vinia Dakari, Vasilis Harisis, Manto Karambela) help with the data-input process has been invaluable.
Phase 4. Maintenance and updating: the launching event of the portal took place on May 31st, 2010. Such a project requires on-going effort for its constant updating.
We have a long way to go because this is a long-term project with far-reaching possibilities.
What are your plans for ASRP and future projects?
Our ASRP plans are threefold:
To collect, secure and digitize the manuscripts of Greek or Greek-American writers who live in Greece or in the U.S. respectively and write about the U.S. or Greek scholars who have written about the way American writers have viewed Greece.
To provide an overview of the various Fulbright scholars who have visited and taught at our Department since the beginning of its operation. This is going to be a joint project between our Department and the Fulbright Foundation which will be carried out in Spring 2011. With the support of the Fulbright Foundation in Greece, scholars from the U.S. have been regular guests at the School of English, thus enriching our curriculum with an array of subjects deriving from the field of American Studies.
To liaise with local museums, libraries, TV and Radio stations, environmental organizations, and publishing houses via our Internships Scheme through which we intend to offer students the opportunity for specialized training actions which will take learning outside the classroom space.
More information about each one of the above projects will be made available via our ASRP site.
As for our future projects, we are currently working on the development of two ASRP-assisted areas of research:
- Greek-American political/historical relations.
- New Media Literacy and Textual Practice.
As regards the first project, there’s graduate work that is being carried out in the area of 19th century Greek-American relations, aiming to explore the impact of the American Revolution on the Greek War of Independence as well as the formation of a Greek national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As regards the second project, this will lead to the gradual introduction of project-related courses that will focus on new media literacy and hands-on practice in an attempt to encourage students to proceed with the media-enhancement of literary texts.
Projects of this kind highlight the educational and interactive impetus that the online platform offers since it will lead to new creative forms of expression.
All the projects described above will keep us busy for a very long time. What this online portal will help us achieve is the implementation of new pedagogical and collaborative models of learning, teaching and researching. We are hoping that this portal will provide students, researchers, faculty and community members with a new tool for learning as regards American Studies by providing free access to information that comes from a variety of sources and will lead to many other cross-cultural activities. The ability to access and use constantly updated material will increase the users’ level of new media literacy and will encourage them to appreciate the dynamic role that online technologies can play in terms of interactivity, transference of ideas, information and news in addition to the enhancement of creative skills in a globalized context.
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