Dr. Anastasia Giannakidou

Anastasia Giannakidou is the Frank J. McLoraine Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. She is the founder and director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at the University, where she also co-directs the Center for Gesture, Sign and Language. She studied Classical Philology and Linguistics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and received her PhD in Linguistics from University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Prof. Giannakidou studies the Greek language from antiquity to today, and emphasizes the relation between language, truth, and meaning. She is also interested in bilingualism, and has done comparative work on Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Basque, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. In her work as the Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Prof. Giannakidou wants to show how relevant Hellenic ideas can be today, and how engaging with them can invigorate public dialogue and offer better understanding of pressing issues in the world today. She has published numerous books and articles.