Graduate Students

Spencer Cook (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He holds a BSFS in Culture and Politics from Georgetown University and an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Spencer’s dissertation project is a historical ethnography of trade, conflict, and borders in Cyprus since the 1960s. Following everything from sheep and goats to halloumi to craft beer, it explores how economic exchange becomes entangled with the contested politics of division and reunification on the island. As Graduate Student Representative, Spencer hopes to strengthen graduate student participation in all facets of MGSA and to support the growing network of scholars interested in modern Greece and Greek topics—including Cyprus and other, lesser-studied areas of the Greek-speaking world. He has found a warm and encouraging community in MGSA and would love to support its work as Graduate Student Representative.

Grace Monk: I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at Princeton University, where I’m writing a dissertation about shipwreck in Greek and Latin American contexts and the ways that shipwreck prompts us to think about the past. More generally, I study Greek and Latin American literature and culture of the 20th-21st centuries. I first became interested in Modern Greek Studies as an undergraduate, and before graduate school I worked at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki. At Princeton, the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies is my home base. I’m involved in the graduate reading group, and I’ve run the Modern Greek language table for several years. I also help out with concerts and our annual graduate conference, and over the summer, I’ve worked with undergraduates in Greece and Cyprus. I’m currently on Princeton’s graduate student governance committee (part of the admin’s shared governance model), and I’ve worked in governance and programming at the Modern Language Association. I would enjoy getting to know the broader graduate community involved in Modern Greek Studies and supporting graduate involvement in the field. It was a pleasure to present at MGSA in the fall of 2024 and to see everyone here on campus. I look forward to the upcoming Symposium, and I’m deeply appreciative of this scholarly community.

Chloe Tsolakoglou (MFA, MA, MPhil) is a poet, translator, and scholar based in New York City. Originally from Athens, she is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where she has also completed certificates in Comparative Literature and Psychoanalytic Studies. Her dissertation, Soma and Riotous Archē: The Role of the Queer Body in Revolutions, examines how the body functions as a site of political struggle and a mode of theorizing revolution across literary and political archives. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in Diacritics, Chiasma, Ergon, and elsewhere. She recently translated Marios Chakkas’ The Commune (dist. MIT Press), which brings an important modern Greek text to new audiences. As a scholar working between Greek and international literary traditions, she is committed to strengthening connections across disciplines and supporting emerging scholars in Modern Greek Studies. She would be honored to serve as Graduate Representative and to advocate for graduate students while helping expand MGSA’s intellectual and collaborative networks.