English Studies Department

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Research vision

The English Studies Department conducts innovative research in the fields of Linguistics, Education, Literature and Translation aiming at having a significant impact on society and the region. To this purpose, we disseminate our findings through journal articles, books, and conference presentations, as well as through public seminars and workshops. Moreover, our research-led teaching practices ensure that all of our students are informed about the most cutting-edge research in their field.

Research clusters

The research activities of our staff members fall into the following research clusters:

Applied and Theoretical Linguistics

The Applied and Theoretical Linguistics research cluster engages in research activities examining theoretical linguistic frameworks and their application. The Research Cluster includes the following thematic areas:

Bilingualism and Multilingualism
Critical Discourse Analysis
Phonetics and Phonology
Pragmatics
Psycholinguistics
Second Language Acquisition
Semantics
Sociolinguistics
Syntax
Text/Corpus Linguistics

Foreign/Second Language Teaching

The Foreign/Second Language Teaching research cluster focuses primarily on research exploring language teaching methodologies, approaches and practices. The Research Cluster includes the following thematic areas:

Current Methods and Approaches in Language Teaching
Foreign Language Teacher Education
Autonomy and the Language Learner
Learning Technologies for Foreign Language Teaching

Literary Studies

The Literary Studies research cluster engages in research activities examining literary theory and practice. The Research Cluster includes the following thematic areas:

20th and 21st American Literature
Adaptation Studies and Trans-media Storytelling
American Popular Culture
Narratology and World-building

Translation and Interpreting

The Translation and Interpreting research cluster engages in research activities exploring translation and interpreting theory and practice. The Research Cluster includes the following thematic areas:

Audio-Visual Translation
Culture and Ideology in Translation
Interpreting
Literary Translation
Sociological Approaches to Translation

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‘Explicit vs. Implicit Pronunciation Teaching to Greek children: the case of the acquisition of English vowels’

(. Selected papers from the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 2011) Papachristou Vicky

The paper discusses the effectiveness of pronunciation teaching of English to Greek state school students aged 16 years old. More specifically, it examines the production of English vowels by Greek learners of English in an English Foreign Language (EFL) context. Two different teaching methods were implemented, which resulted in having two different experimental groups; an explicit vs. an implicit one. The former received explicit teaching of English pronunciation through a variety of activities while the latter was taught implicitly via the use of recasts. The results showed that Greek students of both experimental groups experienced difficulties in producing the target vowels. As regards vowel quantity (duration), it was found that the implicit and control groups produced some target vowel values which were consistent with those of native speakers. Keywords: explicit – implicit pronunciation teaching, vowel production, vowel duration, second language learning
). ‘The Use of Songs, Lyrics and Poetry in EFL Teaching and in SLA: Students’ and Teachers’ Views’

(LIF – Language in Focus Publications, 2019) Kanonidou Evanthia and Papachristou Vicky

This paper presents results of a study which assessed students’ and teachers’ views on the use of songs, lyrics and poetry in foreign language teaching. Previous studies have shown that these media can help learners improve English language skills irrespective of age; however, in Greece, no relevant studies have been conducted. This study focuses on Greek learners of English, between 8 and 17 years old, and English language teachers. Data were collected through questionnaires which were disseminated both digitally and in person. They examined whether songs, lyrics and poetry can improve English language skills, whether age plays a role in learning via these means, the possible factors that could encourage or discourage teachers from using them and whether teaching experience would influence their use. The findings revealed that these means could help learners acquire foreign language skills and that they are more widely used by less experienced teachers. Keywords: poems, songs and lyrics, music, EFL, second language acquisition
Teacher identities: A study in the construction of the Teacher-self in Greece

(LIF – Language in Focus Publications, 2019) Sachpazian Maria-Araxi and Papachristou Vicky

Teaching, a career choice many make when they are still young, seems an easy professional solution, traditionally suited to women and affording a ‘’convenient’’ lifestyle. This description of teaching reflects an antiquated idea of what being a teacher actually entails. Likewise, the identity of teachers has changed and keeps shape-shifting, so it is in constant and growing need of redefinition. Therefore, teachers seem trapped in a perpetual vicious circle in which certainties become doubts and doubts hopefully lead to more self-reflection and new certainties. This paper aims to present the findings of an ongoing research into how EFL teachers in Greece construct their own identity (what being a 21st century language teacher means to them), how the construction of this identity is related with their studies (retrospective connection), and/or their development. Finally, insights will be shared in terms of the potential changes that may need to be implemented in teacher education. To this end, a digital research based on a questionnaire has been conducted via social media and a google form. The preliminary results revealed that EFL teachers in Greece are clearly aware of what is required to be an expert in the field, yet they hesitate to characterise themselves as such; age and years of experience are more important than teacher education in constructing their identity, and the most experienced teachers view construction of identity as highly significant in terms of their professional development, thus investing consistently in it. Keywords: EFL Teacher, Teacher Identity, Teacher Education
Joy Katzmarzik, Comic Art and Avant-Garde: Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” and the Art of American Newspaper Comic Strips

(European Association for American Studies, 2019) Katherine Marazi

Some people do not appreciate the seriousness of newspaper comic strips, the fact that they contain cultural knowledge and can in fact be a serious and critically comment on our society. When one hears the word comic strips one usually thinks: funnies, entertainment, humor, cartoons, low art and appropriate for children (see Garfield, Peanuts, Marmaduke, etc.). In the academic sphere, apparently comic strips “fly under the radar” and “remain neglected” (Katzmarzik 12). This comes as no surprise if one were to consider how some people still view and treat comic books and graphic novels. Fortunately, in the academic sphere thanks to research such as that of Joy Katzmarzik on newspaper comic strips, and the research of other scholars on comic books and graphic novels attitudes towards these media are changing. Katzmarzik informs that so far, when approached and examined, newspaper comic strips are considered from a socio-scientific viewpoint, a media studies viewpoint, a pedagogical studies perspective, a comprehensive historical approach, within the context of popular culture and, finally, in relation to humor studies.1 Regarding newspaper comic strips in particular, there are some scholars who aim at establishing the connections between newspaper comic strips and avant-garde art thus demonstrating the shift from silliness to significance that such media can attain. Joy Katzmarzik is one such scholar whose study, Comic Art and Avant-Garde: Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” and the Art of American Newspaper Comic Strips (2019), focuses on newspaper comic strips as an avantgarde art form and questions the label of low art that is usually attributed to them (11). The overall intent of her thesis is to “disentangle the interdependence of commerce, humor, and art in newspaper comic strips” and her focus is specifically on Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes (1985-1995).
Media Franchises, Brand Identity and Fidelity Reconsidering the book-to-film debate in the Brand Context

(ESSE, 2019) Katerina Marazi

Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan have noted that fidelity may now reside in the fringes of Adaptation Studies, “but it dominates popular reviews and fan sites alike’” (qtd. in Brooker 45). I believe that this is true to a certain extent; Adaptation Studies may realize the fallacy of fidelity – that it does not pose as the end in itself anymore – but it continues to appear in academic publications all the same. What is more, mediumspecificity discourses fall back on fidelity as well. Robert Stam emphasizes that the notion of fidelity “gains its persuasive power from our sense that (a) some adaptations are indeed better than others, and (b) some adaptations fail to ‘realize’ or substantiate what we most appreciated in the source novels” (14). It appears that if fidelity is still an issue it is due to this notion of persuasive power whereby value is attached to a particular meaning, or range of meanings, which if accepted by the audience awards both creator and product with value. Unlike cultural studies which, according to Stam, are “less interested in establishing vertical hierarchies of value than in exploring ‘horizontal’ relations between neighboring media,” thus rendering adaptation forms as part of a flattened out and newly egalitarian spectrum of cultural productions” in essence deeming them just another text, the very treatment of an intellectual property as a brand or franchise entails the notion of value and vertical hierarchies. Hence, this paper adopts a cultural perspective when examining Adaptation and more specifically the book-to-film debate by considering the context of production and more so the trend of branding intellectual properties. It argues that mainstream media franchise culture seeks the branded treatment at both the horizontal and vertical level of its intellectual properties including adaptations. Therefore, the branding of entertainment appears to take precedence over the notion of fidelity where the idea of faithfulness and loyalty is established between concrete extended and abstract core identity and fidelity prompts a dialogue of meaning-making and power play.
Jesús Blanco Hidalga, Jonathan Franzen and the Romance of Community: Narratives of Salvation

(European Association for American Studies, 2019) Thomas Mantzaris

Jesús Blanco Hidalga contributes to the critical scholarship on Jonathan Franzen’s work by proposing the concepts of salvation and redemption. Examining Franzen’s fiction with this theoretical lens, Blanco Hidalga suggests a metanarrative quality that relates the characters in the novels to the author himself. By integrating “usually separated formal and ideological perspectives” (ix), Jonathan Franzen and the Romance of Community: Narratives of Salvation departs from established scholarly criticism, offering a fresh interpretive reading against which Franzen’s work can be approached and reconsidered.
Seasoning the Novel: Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar

( 2020) Thomas Mantzaris ; Katherine Marazi

The present article examines Mark Z. Danielewski’s book series The Familiar (2015- ) by drawing upon the affordances of TV series and the practices of multimodal literature that the author has adopted in the creation of his novels. The scale of the project and the breadth of experimentation with verbal and non-verbal elements on the surface of the pages leads to a reconsideration of literary production not only in terms of the final outcome, but also in terms of the process employed. The launching of Danielewski’s ambitious 27-volume enterprise coincides with a moment in TV production that features a turn towards fewer episodes per season, signaling an alteration in TV practices that, together with other factors such as the pursuance of audience engagement and the literacy skills that the terrain of the novels requires, have led The Familiar to a pause.
Mack Hagood, Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Contro

(European Association for American Studies, 2020) Katherine Marazi

In an age of overwhelming information, consider the impact of noise-cancelling headphones, or white noise machines that, similarly to the case of Orpheus, drown out the “sirens” around us allowing us to “remain unaffected in changeable, stressful, and distracting environments,” creating a “hear no evil, fear no evil” effect (Hagood 3). In his book, Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Control, Mack Hagood raises awareness towards these types of media technologies and their orphic dynamics and goes beyond the mere experience of sound and silence. Rather, “orphic media foreground a deep desire for control as freedom, a desire that motivates the use of nearly all electronic media today” whereas understanding their function and mediation provides insight to “how we allow ourselves to resonate, especially where the vibrations of others are concerned.” This, in turn, can have integral sociopolitical potentials into areas of the public/private spheres, “media echo chambers, urban noise, online noise, fake news, trigger warnings, and safe spaces” (4). As Hagood highlights, the reason why examining such media dynamics is important is because, on the one hand, when information is overwhelming this fosters a “hear what you want” a tendency that could lead to sensory and political intolerances, but it also substantiates the need for guarded listening in order to preserve one’s sensory and emotional self-care. Consequently, “sensitive listening” becomes a central issue and “begins with changing our notions of what media are and what they do” (4). Drawing on the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (1970) and similar theorists, Hagood argues that the essence of media use is not the transmission of information, but the attempt to control the affect – “the continually changing state of bodies that condition their abilities to act and be acted upon”
You’ve Become Part of a Bigger Universe. You Just Don’t Know it Yet: Adaptation, Intertextuality and the Case of Total Branded Entertainment

(Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, 2020) Katerina Marazi

Storytelling in the 21st century demonstrates a blurring of boundaries, fluid texts, intertextual relations, media convergence, and transmedia storytelling. Power dynamics between producers/consumers are becoming more prominent due to higher audience interaction and engagement. More importantly, as this paper argues, there is an overwhelming presence of texts in Pop Culture whose stature is influenced and affected by branded entertainment in the context of total branded entertainment. Adopting a cultural studies approach, this paper attempts to theoretically combine concepts, such as chronotope (Bakhtin 1981), intertextuality (Fiske 2001), paratexts (Mittell 2014), fluid texts (Bryant 2013), and adaptation (Hutcheon 2006) in order to examine the dynamics of the branded text/context, in the origin stories of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Phase One, and consider how total branded entertainment is achieved. The reason why it is important to consider the intersection of brand entertainment, adaptation, and intertextuality, is that, although they primarily demonstrate a power struggle between producers and consumers, in which the former appear to dictate the way the latter consume and interpret, alternative ways of experiencing a text are revealed in total branded entertainment. Ultimately, it is not just a narrative experience but a brand experience.
Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, Kári Driscoll, Jessica Pressman, eds. Book Presence in a Digital Age

(European Association for American Studies, 2020) Thomas Mantzaris

In the midst of changing literary landscapes, Book Presence in a Digital Age brings together scholars, authors, and artists who shed light on, and contribute “to a comparative literature hovering between art, media, and literary criticism” (2). Editors Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, Kári Driscoll, and Jessica Pressman have structured the volume in three main parts that comprise a total of thirteen chapters. As each part ends with an interview piece, the structure employed provides ample space for varied perspectives while it blends scholarly contributions and creators’ voices, signaling awareness of the complexities and interdisciplinary nature of contemporary literary production.
Interpreting Conflict: A Comparative Framework

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2021-03) Marija Todorova ; Lucia Ruiz

This edited book examines the role of interpreting in conflict situations, bringing together studies from different international and intercultural contexts, with contributions from military personnel, humanitarian interpreters and activists as well as academics. The authors use case studies to compare relevant notions of interpreting in conflict-related scenarios such as: the positionality of the interpreter, the ethical, emotional and security implications of their work, the specific training needed to carry out work for military and humanitarian organizations, and the relations of power created between the different stakeholders. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of translation and interpreting, conflict and peace studies, as well as conflict resolution and management. Marija Todorova is a Visiting Scholar of the RCPCE at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University American College Skopje, North Macedonia. She is Editor of New Voices in Translation Studies, and a member of the Executive Council of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Lucía Ruiz Rosendo is Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She has published in a number of journals, including The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Armed Forces & Society and Translation Spaces, and also co-edited the special issue 'Interpreting in Conflict Situations and in Conflict Zones Throughout History’ for Linguistica Antverpiensia in 2016.. Todorova, Marija & Ruiz, Lucia. (2021). Interpreting Conflict: A Comparative Framework. 10.1007/978-3-030-66909-6. This edited book examines the role of interpreting in conflict situations, bringing together studies from different international and intercultural contexts, with contributions from military personnel, humanitarian interpreters and activists as well as academics. The authors use case studies to compare relevant notions of interpreting in conflict-related scenarios such as: the positionality of the interpreter, the ethical, emotional and security implications of their work, the specific training needed to carry out work for military and humanitarian organizations, and the relations of power created between the different stakeholders. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of translation and interpreting, conflict and peace studies, as well as conflict resolution and management. Marija Todorova is a Visiting Scholar of the RCPCE at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University American College Skopje, North Macedonia. She is Editor of New Voices in Translation Studies, and a member of the Executive Council of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Lucía Ruiz Rosendo is Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She has published in a number of journals, including The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Armed Forces & Society and Translation Spaces, and also co-edited the special issue 'Interpreting in Conflict Situations and in Conflict Zones Throughout History’ for Linguistica Antverpiensia in 2016.
Theorising translation as a process of ‘cultural repatriation’: A promising merger of narrative theory and Bourdieu’s theory of cultural transfer

(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2021-07) Kalliopi Pasmatzi

This article scrutinises instances where translation corresponds to what I call ‘cultural repatriation’, through the examination of two Anglophone novels about the Greek civil war and their transfer into Greece. Translation as repatriation concentrates on works which are, effectively, repatriated into their original context and made vulnerable to its aesthetic and socio-ideological encounters. The translation of Gage’s Eleni (1983a) and de Bernières’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1994) into Greek constitutes cultural repatriation as cultural representations in the works are constructed through a ‘foreign gaze’ and rendered problematic upon transfer. Within this context, I examine how specific strategies in the promotion, translation, and consumption of these works challenge or reinforce hegemonic versions and narrative modes of the historical narrative and lead to a renegotiation of the cultural categories constructed in them. Methodologically, the article combines Bourdieu’s sociology and narrative theory creating a robust framework for the study of cultural repatriation.
Theorising translation as a process of ‘cultural repatriation’ A promising merger of narrative theory and Bourdieu’s theory of cultural transfer

(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2021-07-13) Kalliopi Pasmatzi

This article scrutinises instances where translation corresponds to what I call ‘cultural repatriation’, through the examination of two Anglophone novels about the Greek civil war and their transfer into Greece. Translation as repatriation concentrates on works which are, effectively, repatriated into their original context and made vulnerable to its aesthetic and socio-ideological encounters. The translation of Gage’s Eleni (1983a) and de Bernières’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1994) into Greek constitutes cultural repatriation as cultural representations in the works are constructed through a ‘foreign gaze’ and rendered problematic upon transfer. Within this context, I examine how specific strategies in the promotion, translation, and consumption of these works challenge or reinforce hegemonic versions and narrative modes of the historical narrative and lead to a renegotiation of the cultural categories constructed in them. Methodologically, the article combines Bourdieu’s sociology and narrative theory creating a robust framework for the study of cultural repatriation.
English loanword use in Greek online women's magazines: The construction of the female identity

(Cambridge University Press, 2022) Zoi Tatsioka

Owing to the extensive spread of English around the globe, English words have penetrated the lexicon of many languages. Modern Greek has been no exception as various English loanwords are used daily by its native speakers. The present paper discusses the use of English loanwords on the Greek web and more specifically in three online women's magazines. The focus, however, is not on all types of borrowings, but solely on what Myers–Scotton (2002: 239) calls core borrowings, which are defined as ‘words that more or less duplicate already existing words in the L1’. Essentially, core borrowings do not serve genuine communicative needs as they do not fill any lexical gaps in the speakers’ native language (Bybee, 2015). Nonetheless, they are borrowed as a result of the cultural pressure exerted by the more prestigious and dominant donor language (Myers–Scotton, 2006). On the other hand, cultural borrowings are words used for new objects and concepts for which there is no equivalent in the recipient language. It should also be noted that the loanwords examined in this paper have not been morphologically or orthographically assimilated into the Modern Greek language, but maintain their distinctive foreign features.

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