ISSN: 2241-6692

NEWS

Guest editor: Tonia Kazakopoulou, University of Reading, UK

Olympia Dukakis (1931 – 2021) has been a prominent cultural agent of the Greek/American diaspora. Her work in film, television and theatre has garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards. Her feminist activism, in the USA and Greece, is noteworthy and has informed her career in significant ways. Dukakis was keenly aware, and critically dismissive, of the limitations imposed on her as a performer by her ethnicity and her gender, both by American cultural industries and the Greek-American community.

This tribute issue seeks to highlight some of Dukakis’s work in film, theatre and television, particularly, but not exclusively, in light of her diasporic ethnic identity and gender. Articles may focus their analysis on specific texts (films, TV programmes or plays), or explore wider issues relating to Dukakis’s life, activism and oeuvre more generally. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Diasporic discourses/Dukakis as a (Greek) diasporic figure
  • Dukakis and politics of ethnicization
  • Gender and performance
  • Performing motherhood (motherhood and gender; motherhood and ethnicity, etc.)
  • Dukakis as a feminist (Greek/American) advocate on and off screen and/or stage
  • Dukakis and body image/somatic discourses; white ethnicity and gender
  • Dukakis as a documentary subject
  • Self-representation, autobiography

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words, 4-5 keywords and a short bio of 100 words to toniakazakopoulou@gmail.com by 3rd October 2021. Please use ‘Dukakis tribute issue’ in your email subject line. Selection will be completed by 17th October.

Selected full articles must be submitted by 20th December 2021. Articles must be between 2000 – 3000 words, and written in an approachable language for a wider, non-specialist audience, while maintaining analytical and critical rigour, adhering to Ergon’s mission statement ( https://ergon.scienzine.com/page/about ).

Ergon: Greek/American Arts and Letters, is a peer-reviewed journal that promotes the arts, letters, and scholarship of Greek America. Its scope, however, both includes and extends beyond ethnicity. Ergon is an open public forum, free of charge, featuring exceptional quality work written in a language that aims to reach a public beyond strictly academic and artistic circles. The aim is to produce public scholarship and arts where scholars and readers interface fruitfully.