York University will expand the Greek Canadian History Project thanks to a generous $1.4-million donation over five years from the Hellenic Heritage Foundation (HHF). In recognition of this gift, the Greek Canadian History Project will receive a new name: starting September 22 the project is known as the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archives.
The archives are a collection of items, such as documents, newspapers, books, images, audio and videotapes, and files that catalog the experiences of Greeks immigrating to Canada after the Second World War. It is designed and committed to identifying, acquiring, digitizing, preserving, and providing access to primary source materials that reflect the experiences of Canada’s Greek immigrants and their descendants.
The new funding will help expand the existing physical archive and establish a digital archive to be housed at York University — providing a framework for the study of Greek diaspora around the world. The collection will enable researchers to tell the story of newcomer life in Canada and will lead to knowledge mobilization of the history of other communities in Canada and beyond.
The collection will be expanded, establishing a searchable public portal where newly cataloged exhibits and oral histories (captured through interviews) can be viewed.
This additional support will build on the work that began in 2012 under the leadership of then-graduate student Christopher Grafos and his supervisor, Professor Sakis Gekas, HHF Chair of Modern Greek History, in York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. At the time, Grafos and Gekas began collecting memorabilia and important records documenting the history of a diversity of Greek immigrants to capture and preserve the record of their experience in Canada. Now the Project’s Director, Dr. Grafos has built the collection into a remarkable anthology of the immigrant experience in Canada. The new funding will build on this by helping to process, organize and digitize the collection, and make it widely available for researchers and students — including the development of a new course on the history of Greeks in Canada.
These stories and materials will be a valuable resource for those teaching and learning about immigration and the rich-and-diverse set of experiences and values newcomers bring to Canada.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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