Nina Papathanasopoulou is a Professor of Classical Studies specializing in Greek drama, mythology, and its reception. She joined the Classics faculty at College Year in Athens in January 2020, where she teaches Ancient Greek mythology, religion, and literature courses and runs field trips all over Greece for US students who are studying abroad.
Nina completed her PhD in Classics at Columbia University in 2013 and her BA in Classics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2003. From 2013 to 2019 she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Connecticut College, where she taught Greek, Latin, Classics and Theater courses and was deeply involved in outreach programming for Classics. At Connecticut College she also served as academic advisor both for Classics majors and for first-year students navigating their transition to college.
Nina’s dissertation and early research focused on Aristophanes’ treatment of space and use of myth, while her current research explores the role of Greek myth in the work of the revolutionary 20th century choreographer, Martha Graham. She has published on Martha Graham’s reimagining of the myths of Medea, Ariadne, Oedipus, and Clytemnestra, and is currently working on a book project tentatively titled Martha Graham and Greek Myth: The Ancient World in Modern Dance. Nina’s book, under consideration by University of Michigan Press, explores Martha Graham’s Greek-inspired dances in comparison to the ancient literary texts, vase paintings, sculptures and other ancient material that served as her inspiration.
Ιn addition, Nina collaborates with numerous institutions and programs, including Columbia University, New York University, the University of Chicago, Smithsonian Journeys, the Medical Education Academy (MedEA), the Hellenic American Union and Pyrna Cultural Center, offering in-person, virtual, and onsite lectures in various venues in Greece and abroad.
Since January 2019 Nina also serves as the Public Engagement Coordinator for the Society for Classical Studies, where she oversees their new initiative, “Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities” (formerly Classics Everywhere). This initiative encourages interdisciplinary collaborations between Classics and other fields, and supports programs that engage individuals, groups, and communities in critical discussion of and creative expression related to the ancient Mediterranean. In this role Nina co-organized with James Ker, Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania, a public performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company, which took place at the joint annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies and the Archaeological Institute in America on January 2-5, 2025 in Philadelphia.
