An accomplished and prolific scholar, Dr. Katsikas has made significant contributions to the literature.
CHICAGO, IL, April 25, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Stefanos Katsikas, PhD, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Since 2018, Dr. Katsikas has been the associate director of the Center for Hellenic Studies and a senior instructional assistant professor at the University of Chicago. In this dual role that merges the responsibilities of an administrator and educator, he collaborates with students and colleagues to share his expertise in the modern and contemporary history of Southeastern Europe and to advance the scholarly conversation on nation-building, ethnic and religious minorities, minority-state relations, the coexistence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, religious conversion at the age of nationalism, state diplomacy and foreign policymaking in the Cold and post-Cold War periods, and post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice in nascent democratic environments.
Dr. Katsikas boasts impressive academic achievements, including a Bachelor of Arts in history from Ionian University in Corfu, Greece, which he earned in 1998. In 2000, he finished a Master of Arts in Southeast European studies from the acclaimed School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London (UCL) and subsequently pursued a PhD in modern and contemporary history of Southeastern Europe from SSEES at UCL. After gaining valuable experience as a graduate teaching assistant and completing the PhD in 2006, Dr. Katsikas received a post-doctoral fellowship from the John S. Latsis Foundation (Athens, Greece) in 2009 for participation in the research project entitled From Religious Communities to Minorities: The Greek Orthodox Minority in the Ottoman Empire/Turkey and the Muslim Minority in Greece, 1830-1940 at the Department of History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
In 2012, Dr. Katsikas immigrated to the United States (and became a US citizen in December 2022) to accept the position of director and lecturer of the Program in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2016 he was promoted from lecturer to Research Associate Professor and retained his role as director of the Program in Modern Greek Studies until 2018, when he left the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the University of Chicago. He previously held visiting and full-time academic appointments as lecturer in history at several universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Nottingham and Goldsmiths College at the University of London. In addition to higher education, while in London Dr. Katsikas also worked as part-time high school teacher of the Cyprus Educational Mission in London and taught in Greek community schools of London until 2012. In addition, he taught part-time as a lecturer, teaching Modern Greek as a foreign language at the Hellenic Center in London from 2002 to 2010.
An accomplished and prolific scholar, Dr. Katsikas has made significant contributions to the literature. A selective list of his publications includes the books Proselytes of a New Nation: Muslim Conversions to Orthodox Christianity in Modern Greece (Oxford University Press, 2022), Islam and Nationhood in Modern Greece (1821–1941) (Oxford University Press, 2021), and Negotiating Diplomacy in the New Europe: Foreign Policy in Post-Communist Bulgaria (I.B. Tauris, 2011), which received a Scouloudi Publication award from the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. He is also the sole editor of Bulgaria and Europe: Shifting Identities (Anthem Press, 2010), co-editor of State-Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, Greece and Turkey: Orthodox and Muslims (1830-1945) (Routledge, 2012) and guest editor of European Modernity and Islamic Reformism among Muslims of the Balkans in the Late Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Period (1830s-1945), a special issue of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 29 (4) (December 2009). Dr. Katsikas is currently holding a contract from Oxford University Press to edit the first [Oxford] Handbook of Modern Greek History. He serves on the advisory editorial board of the journal European History Quarterly and from AY 2018-2019 to AY 2020-2021 Dr. Katsikas served on the Fulbright U.S. Student Program National Screening Committee.
A commitment to civic service pervades Dr. Katsikas' projects, and he is also proud to have accumulated critical administrative experience as well as expertise in program building and resources management. Additionally, he has raised funds in support of the Program in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Center for Hellenic Studies at the University of Chicago. Dr. Katsikas also partners with various charities organized by the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek community across Chicago to cooperate in community outreach and public engagement activities.
Numerous commendations have marked the many milestones of Dr. Katsikas' productive career; for example, he was a two-time scholarship recipient of the Lilian Voudouris Foundation, and he earned a financial award from the Institute for State Scholarships based in Athens. At Goldsmiths College, he was recognized as a Peake Learning and Teaching Award Nominee in 2012. His university courses have always been popular and attracted many students, and he has been frequently valued highly ("excellent" and "outstanding" teacher) by his students in the regular student evaluation forms.
Dr. Katsikas is especially proud of his role in building academic programs that promote Hellenic and Modern Greek Studies in the Midwest, and he remains eager to promote community engagement activities that provide valuable insight into modern Greek history, literature and culture. Looking toward the future, he plans to continually progress in his diverse projects, including the publication of his [Oxford] Handbook of Modern Greek History and a duograph on post-civil war transitional justice in Greece and Cyprus, of which he is a co-author. He will look forward to seeing additional articles through to publication in peer-reviewed academic journals. Ultimately, Dr. Katsikas aims to return to Greece to be close to family and make meaningful contributions in the context of his home country's society, political and academic arenas.
In his free time, he enjoys reading, traveling, theater, cinema, the arts and music.
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