The University of Athens Slavic Studies Department will be renamed Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies. A special ceremony to honor the department’s expansion will be attended by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Russian Education Minister Olga Vasilyeva will address the event that is viewed as an exciting time for the university that will offer Greek students a chance to study the Russian masters of literature in a curriculum that includes works by Dostoyevski, Tolstoi, Chekhov and other important names.
The department had first opened its doors to Greek students interested in Slavic studies in 2008. Now, it has 100 students per annum and a total of 458 students in the department, which is expected to grow thanks to the new initiative.
This is the first time that a Greek educational institution is focusing on Russian literature as well as Slavic studies and comes in the Greek-Russian year aimed at forging closer cultural and economic ties between the two countries.
Athens University Dean Thanos Dimopoulos, Philosophy School head Eleni Karamalengou and Department head Eleni Stergiopoulou will welcome Pavlopoulos and Vasilyeva at 7 p.m. on Friday at the university’s Hall of Ceremonies at Propylaia.
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