Rate My Professor Elsa Amanatidou

Elsa Amanatidou is Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Modern Greek Studies and Director of the Modern Greek Studies program in the Department of Classics at Brown University. She joined the Classics Department in 2001 as Lecturer, advancing to Senior Lecturer from 2008 to 2018, and to her current title in 2018. From 2008 to 2015, she directed the Center for Language Studies. Previously, she served as Deputy Head and Head of Modern Greek Studies at Hellenic College of London (1997–2001), Teacher Trainer in Modern Foreign Languages for Norfolk County Council (1993–1995), and Modern Greek Instructor (1984–1995). Her academic background includes a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Linguistics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1981), MA in English Literature from University of East Anglia (1982), RSA Diploma in Teaching Foreign Languages from Bell School of Languages and University of Edinburgh (1992), and MA in Modern Greek Studies from King’s College London (1995).

Amanatidou's research specializations include second language acquisition, foreign language and literature teaching methodology, multiliteracies, engaged and inclusive pedagogies, testing and evaluation, integration of literature and arts in foreign language curricula, critical literacies, technology-mediated language learning, and cultural narratives such as advertising, TV, humor, and graffiti for developing proficiency and interculturality in Modern Greek learners, including heritage speakers. Key publications comprise “TV and Advertising as Authentic Cultural Narratives” in The NECTFL Review (2017), the chapter “Anagnostakis revisited and revised: The politics of Reading and Re-reading” in Manolis Anagnostakis, Poetry and politics, Silence and Agency in Post War Greece (2012), and forthcoming “Dangerous things? Cavafy in the Modern Greek language classroom” in MLA Approaches to Teaching C. P. Cavafy (2023). She received the President’s Service Excellence Award (2020) and numerous grants, including from Mellon Foundation (2022), C.V. Starr Foundation, Onassis Foundation, and Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning. Elected multiple times to the Modern Greek Studies Association Executive Board, she currently chairs its Undergraduate Studies Committee and previously served as Executive Director of the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (2016–2019). She is Pearson’s chief examiner for Modern Greek in the UK and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors.