Nina Papathanasopoulou joined the Classics faculty at College Year in Athens in January 2020. She specializes in Greek drama, mythology, and its reception. Her 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 extensively on Martha Graham’s reimagining of the myths of Medea, Ariadne, Oedipus and Jocasta, 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 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. In 2022 Nina founded the public-facing project “Martha Graham & Greek Myth” and started producing a series of performance-presentations on Graham and Greek Mythology that integrate engaging talks, classical philology, and live dance. The project aims to bring Nina’s academic research to the public at large.

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 heavily 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.

Since January 2019 she also works as the Public Engagement Coordinator for the Society for Classical Studies, where she oversees their new initiative, “Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities” (formerly Classics Everywhere) and organizes public-facing events for the SCS/AIA Joint Annual Meeting in January. 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 January 2025 Nina co-organized with James Ker, Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania, a public performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company in Philadelphia, while in 2026 she co-planned a performance of We Players’ Odyssea in San Francisco. For 2027 in Boston, she is co-organizing programming related to Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated Odyssey. More information about these events can be found at the SCS website and on her blogs here, here, and here.

Nina sees teaching as the heart of her work. She uses her passion and enthusiasm for the material and for the dynamics of education, and she strives to spark her students’ curiosity and desire for learning. In class she tries to create a comfortable environment where students are encouraged to voice their opinions freely, while fostering intellectual rigor and creativity. Nina believes that studying the Ancient Greeks – their literature and culture – can help us understand human nature and human difference, gain a deeper appreciation of ourselves and others, and think deeply about the way we operate and co-exist in our societies. She is driven by her goal of teaching the Ancient Greeks to elicit sympathy and compassion for human beings across time and across the globe in order to help students become responsible citizens of the world.

Read more about her thoughts on the value of teaching Classics in the 21^st century in her piece Awakening Compassion Through the Greeks.

All her publications, academic and non-academic, can be found on her academia webpage: https://cyathens.academia.edu/NinaPapathanasopoulou

Select Publications

Monograph

forthcoming | Martha Graham and Greek Myth: The Ancient World in Modern Dance (under review, University of Michigan Press).

Articles and Book Chapters

2027 | “State of Play: Dance.” American Journal of Philology 148.2, Johns Hopkins University Press (forthcoming).

2026 | “Martha Graham’s Radical Reception of the Women of Greek Tragedy.” Humanities Journal, Special Issue “Receptions of Women in Ancient Greek Literature” (forthcoming).

2026 | “Χορεύοντας τους Αρχαίους Ελληνικούς Μύθους: Δίκη και Λύτρωση στην Clytemnestra της Μάρθα Γκράχαμ” (“Dancing Greek Myth: Justice and Redemption in Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra”). Proceedings of a Conference on “Dance, Ancient Drama, Myth,” University of Athens (forthcoming).

2025 | “Martha Graham’s Medea: Sexual Jealousy and the Limits of Human Nature.” original in Greek «Η Μήδεια της Μάρθα Γκράχαμ: Σεξουαλική Ζήλια και τα Όρια της Ανθρώπινης Φύσης»), Parabasis 20.1: 334-62.

2024 | “The Politics of Violence in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis and Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra” (in Greek) in Politics of Life and Politics of Violence in Ancient Theater: from the fifth century BCE to the twenty first, edited by A. Markantonatos and K. Diamantakou, Hellenic Foundation of Culture, 605-27.

2023 | “Jocasta’s Last Hours: Identity, Responsibility, and Violence in Martha Graham’s Night Journey.” Classical Receptions Journal 15.1: 57–84, Oxford University Press.

2021 | “Serpent Heart: Animality, Jealousy, and Transgression in Martha Graham’s Medea.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 28.2: 159–182.

2020 | “Strong Household, Strong City: Exploring Space in Aristophanes’ Acharnians” in Aristophanes and Politics, edited by H. Foley and R. Rosen, Brill.

2019 | “Tragic and Epic Visions of the Oikos in Aristophanes’ Wasps.” Classical World 112.4: 253–278.

Academic and Theater Reviews

2026 | Review. Papathanasopoulou, Nina, Okite, Sophie, Piteris, Alex and Stacey, Olivia. “Sophocles’ Electra at Poreia Theatre examines question of injustice and power,” Athens Insider, March 31.

2022 | Review. “Michael Ewans’ Medea. Translation and Theatrical Commentary.” Routledge. The Classical Review, 1-3. Cambridge University Press.

2022 | Review. “Poreia Theatre’s Prometheus Bound,” Didaskalia: The Journal for Ancient Performance 16.05.

2019 | Review.  “Martha Graham’s Greeks,” Didaskalia: The Journal for Ancient Performance 15.15.

Online Essays

2026 | “Awakening Compassion Through the Greeks,” Streaming Museum.

2026 | “Αφυπνίζοντας τη συμπόνια μέσα από τους Αρχαίους Έλληνες,” Frear Literary Journal, vol. 17.

2025 | “We Players Bring the Odyssey to Life at the AIA/SCS in San Francisco,” SCS Blog (October 1).

2024 | “Medea and Ariadne Reimagined: Honoring Martha Graham’s Deep Engagement with Greek Myth,” SCS Blog (October 28).

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