Prof. Alexander Kitroeff Collection
In June 2021 Alexander Kitroeff, Professor of History at Haverford College, donated nearly 1,000 select volumes from his library and his professional archive to the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection.
Born in Athens and educated in the United Kingdom, Kitroeff received his doctoral degree in modern history from the University of Oxford. Before joining the faculty at Haverford College in 1996, Kitroeff taught at the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College CUNY; the Hellenic Studies Program at Princeton University; the Center for Hellenic Studies at New York University; and more recently at College Year in Athens and the American College in Greece.
“I am honored that my personal and professional archive and many of my books are being made available through the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection,” said Kitroeff. “I feel this is very appropriate because Professor Speros Vryonis Jr. was a mentor and friend and Professor Katerina Lagos, formerly my student, is now a colleague and friend with whom I have collaborated on several projects. Also, I have benefited greatly from the growth of Hellenic Studies in Sacramento, through a six month stay at the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection's forerunner, the Vryonis Center, and from visits to the Collection.”
Kitroeff’s research focuses on identity in Greece and its diaspora. The author of five books and numerous articles & chapters in edited volumes, his most recent books are The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt (2019) and Greek Orthodoxy in America: A Modern History (2020). Kitroeff has collaborated with film director Maria Iliou as historical consultant on several documentary films including The Journey: The Greek Dream in America; Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a Cosmopolitan City; and Athens between East & West, 1821-1896, the first of a 5-part series on the city’s modern history. Kitroeff is currently writing two books: a history of AHEPA, the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, to mark the organization’s centenary in 2022; and a history of Greek-owned diners and restaurants in America.
The books and journals deal principally with Modern Greek history since independence, with main areas of strength being the dawn of independent Greece under King Otto (1832-1862), Asia Minor, and the period of the 1930s-1974. There are also significant materials on Modern Greek politics, including the Macedonian Question, communism, and foreign policy during the 20th century, rounded out with publications on literature, culture, and the Olympic Games. Notable among the journals is a run of approximately 40 issues of Neos Kosmos, a rare periodical published by Greek communists in exile in the 1960s-1970s. Additional books, featuring a collection on the Greeks of Egypt, will be donated in the near future.
Kitroeff’s manuscript material (ca. 15 linear feet) consists of research files on the Greek Orthodox Church in America, the Greeks in Egypt, the modern Olympics and sport, and correspondence with Greek and American scholars, including in his role on the editorial board of the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora.
We are most grateful to Prof. Kitroeff for this valuable addition to the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection.