Hellenic Canadian Academic Association of Ontario
Executive Board
Meet our Executive Board Members
President - Dr. Athanasios (Sakis) Gekas
I am an Associate Professor and the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History and Hellenic Studies at York University. I have served on the HCAAO board since 2010 when I moved to Toronto. I grew up in Veria and studied in the Ionian University and the University of Essex. I teach Modern Greek History - including a popular summer abroad course in Greece - and the history of Greek migration and diaspora in the 20th century. My research contributes to the economic and social history of Modern Greece, British colonialism and the 1821 Revolution, and the history of Greeks in Canada. More information about research and teaching are available here https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/agekas/ and when you get a chance, please also check the HHF Greek Canadian Archives, and the fantastic research team I am fortunate to be working with!
Secretary - Dr. Panagiotis Peter Milonas
I currently teach communications and digital media studies at Ontario Tech University. Previously, I taught social sciences at York University, where I earned my Ph.D. in Social and Political Thought. My academic journey began in Greece, where I completed my first undergraduate degree in Business Administration. I later pursued further studies in Canada, earning degrees in Hellenic Studies, a Master’s in Journalism, and an MA in Political Science.
I have taught various courses, including Critical Studies of Social Media, Political Communication, Digital Media and Democracy, and Critical Issues in Journalism. Alongside my academic work, I have experience as a journalist in both television and radio, having worked with Odyssey Television Network and CHTO AM 1690 in Toronto, Canada. I am the Secretary of the Hellenic Canadian Academic Association of Ontario (HCAAO). I am passionate about exploring how media, politics, and technology interact and understanding these rapidly changing fields.
Vice President - Dr. Phil Triantafilopoulos
I am a Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. My research is in the area of immigration politics and policy, in Europe and North America. I am especially interested in debates over immigrant integration and multiculturalism, citizenship, and migration control. I teach courses in the fields of public policy, Canadian politics, and comparative politics (including a course on history and politics of the modern Greek state). My parents immigrated to Canada from southern Greece (Sparta and Patra) in the 1960s. Both came from small villages. They built a new life in Canada and, in the process, helped build Canada. I went to Greek school twice a week and forced my kids to do the same. We’re all glad we did! More information about my research and teaching is available here https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/polisci/phil-triadafilopoulos and here https://utoronto.academia.edu/PhilTriadafilopoulos.
Vice Secretary - Dr. Myrto Grigoroglou
I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Toronto. I am also the director of the Toronto Language and Cognition Lab. My research focuses on the study of meaning in natural language; how it is acquired by children during development, how it is achieved in conversation, and how it interacts with non-linguistic cognition. I teach courses on child language acquisition, language and communication, and language and thought. Born and raised in Athens, I completed my undergraduate degrees at the University of Athens, before moving to the USA for a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Delaware. I first arrived in Toronto in 2018 as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto (OISE). Being in the HCAAO allowed me to meet interesting people I have a lot in common with and participate in various academic and cultural events that made me feel very at home.
Treasurer - Dr. John Simoulidis
I am an Associate Professor (Teaching) in the Business and Society Program in the Department of Social Science at York University in Toronto. I teach courses on food and business and coordinate a social economy practicum. I am involved in a number of sustainability and fair trade initiatives at York. I supervise a composting program at two campuses that are attached to local community gardens. I serve on the board of Green Campus Cooperative which sells sustainably produced fair trade clothing to schools, Universities and organizations that share our values of sustainability and trade justice. I am also the president of the Canadian Association for Studies in cooperation, having a particular interest in worker-run cooperatives. My parents immigrated to Toronto from a village near Kavala, Greece in 1969 and I grew up in the Ossington and Bloor area. Two of my grandparents were Pontic refugees from the Trabzon region of present-day Turkey, one from Batum, Georgia and the other from Gerolimenas, Mani, Greece. I appreciate the work the HCAAO does in organizing events related to Greek history, politics and culture, particularly music.
Student Representative -
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