American Hellenic Institute Foundation Fellows

WASHINGTON, DC—The American Hellenic Institute Foundation (AHIF) is pleased to announce its’ Fellows for 2009: Professor Van Coufoudakis, Chair, Professor Constantine Hatzidimitriou, Dr. Christos P. Ioannides, Professor S. Victor Papacosma, Professor Speros Vryonis, Jr., Ambassador Clay Constantinou (ret.), and Professor Andre Gerolymatos.

Dr. Van Coufoudakis, Chairman of the Fellows, is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also served on the Graduate Faculty of Indiana University. From 1968 to 1995 he served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. He is also Rector Emeritus of the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. He is the author of three books, the co-editor of four books and the author of over ninety five academic journal articles and book chapters published in the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. His research focuses on the politics and foreign policies of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as post-WWII American foreign and defense policy with particular emphasis on Southeastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. He has lectured in major universities in the U.S., Great Britain, and Greece and at institutions such as the Foreign Service Institute (Washington, D.C.), the NATO Defense College (Rome, Italy), The Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security (Ottawa), and the Istituto Affari Internazionale (Rome, Italy). He served two terms as president of the Modern Greek Studies Association. In September 1995 Dr. Coufoudakis established the Foundation for Hellenic Studies. He also served on the AHEPA Educational Foundation. Over the years Dr. Coufoudakis served as Director of the Indiana University Center for Global Studies and as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Cyprus for the State of Indiana.

Professor Constantine Hatzidimitriou earned a Ph.D. in Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek history from Columbia University in 1988. He is currently an adjunct professor at St. John's University in New York. He was a Gennadeion Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Fulbright Representative for Northern Greece at the U.S. Consulate in Thessaloniki, and a faculty member at Anatolia College. He has published in a wide variety of scholarly publications and participated in numerous conferences in the fields of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. His book, American Documents and Eyewitness Accounts of the Turkish Destruction of Smyrna in 1922 was published in 1999.

Dr. Christos P. Ioannides is Director of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College, City University of New York. Prior to coming to Queens College, Dr. Ioannides was Dean of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at the University of Nicosia, in Cyprus. From 1989 to 2001, he was at the Vryonis Center for the Study of Hellenism in Sacramento, California. He served as Director of the Vryonis Center for 8 years and Chairman of Faculty for 5 years. Professor Ioannides received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, specializing in Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Affairs. He has written extensively on Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus dispute, Middle Eastern affairs, Greek politics, and Greek American politics.

Dr. S. Victor Papacosma is Professor of History and Director of the Lemnitzer Center for NATO and European Union Studies at Kent State University. He received his A.B. from Bowdoin College his M.A. (1966) and Ph.D (1971) from Indiana University. Professor Papacosma has published extensively on Modern Greek, Balkan, and NATO issues. Among his publications are The Military inGreek Politics: The 1909 Coup d'État (1977) (also in Greek translation, 1981) and Politics and Culture in Greece (1988). He has co-edited Europe's Neutral andNonaligned States: Between NATO and the Warsaw Pact (1989), NATO after FortyYears (1990), NATO in the Post-Cold WarEra: Does It Have a Future? (1995), NATO and the European Union:Confronting the Challenges of European Security and Enlargement (1999) and NATOafter 50 Years (2001). Dr. Papacosma co-edited, Limiting Institutions? The Challenge of Eurasian Security Governance (Manchester University Press), published in September 2003.  Papacosma recently co-edited EU Enlargement andNew Security Challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean and contributed a chapter to that volume published in September 2004.

Professor Speros Vryonis, Jr., is one of the most eminent Byzantinists of his generation. After a distinguished career at UCLA, he became the founding director of the Alexander S. Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies at New York University, from which he retired as emeritus Alexander S. Onassis professor of Hellenic civilization. Prof. Vryonis’s extensive work on the history and culture of the Greeks from Homer to the present, and on their relations with the Slavic, Islamic, and New Worlds, includes the seminal The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century; Byzantium and Europe; Studies on Byzantium, Seljuks and Ottomans; Byzantium: Its Internal History and Relations with the Islamic World; and Studies in Byzantine Institutions and Society. He has also edited, among other volumes, Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change (with Henrik Birnbaum); Essays on the Slavic World and the Eleventh Century; Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages; Individualism and Conformity in Classical Islam (with Amin Banani); and Islam’s Understanding of Itself (with Richard G. Hovannisian). Professor Vryonis is a Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Medieval Academy of America, and the American Philosophical Society.

Ambassador Clay Constantinou (ret.) is an Attorney at Law and international consultant. Currently, Ambassador Constantinou serves as Senior Advisor to the U.S. District Court-appointed Liquidating Trustee, where over $250 million has been recovered thus far for the benefit of defrauded shareholders. He served as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1994 to 1999. Following his appointment to Luxembourg, he served for six years as the founding Dean of the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. Prior to his diplomatic service, Ambassador Constantinou practiced law in New Jersey. He has been active in national politics, spearheading the New Jersey Presidential campaigns of Governor Michael Dukakis, Governor Bill Clinton and Senator John Kerry. Ambassador Constantinou has earned an LL.M from NYU Graduate School of Law, a JD from Seton Hall University School of Law and a B.A. from New Jersey City University. In addition, he has received the Gold Medal for Exceptional Services (Republic of Cyprus' highest distinction bestowed by President Clerides), 1999; and the Gold Medal of Saint Barnabas the Apostle (Orthodox Church of Cyprus' highest distinction bestowed by Archbishop Chrysostomos).

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For additional information, please contact C. Franciscos Economides at (202) 785-8430 or at pr@ahiworld.org. For general information regarding the activities of AHI, please view our Web site at https://www.ahiworld.org.