Our mission has four components: teaching, research, events, and collections:

TEACHING is the first, essential component of our mission. Through a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, we aim to provide a broad, liberal arts education for undergraduates and research training for graduate students. Our courses explore the Greek world from late antiquity to the present, with special emphasis on Greek society of the past 200 years. We offer classes in Greek on language, literature, and culture; classes in English introducing students to Greek culture, travel literature about Greece, Greek literature in translation, and diaspora experiences including the Greek American, all of which fulfill distribution requirements for undergraduate degrees; and graduate courses in a variety of fields. The program draws on the valuable expertise of distinguished affiliated faculty. An active commitment to comparative, interdisciplinary and methodological inquiry is evident in course offering and graduate supervision.

RESEARCH is the second component. When it comes to the comprehensive study of Hellenism in all its length and variety, the University of Michigan faculty excel above others. We pursue our own scholarly research, actively participate in conferences, serve as editors and on editorial boards of journals, and regularly publish our work. We are also committed to bringing to the University of Michigan eminent scholars from other institutions who are active in the field, so that they can present to the academic community the results of their research.

EVENTS are the third component. Each year we organize lectures, roundtable discussions, film screenings, and readings of Greek literature in a variety of venues, including amphitheaters, libraries, museums, and bookstores. Our audiences includes not just students and faculty, but people of all ages from the surrounding community. Standing-room only crowds conversed with Yorgos Chouliaras and Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou during their roundtable discussion, "Those Controversial Greeks" at the Michigan Union in December 1999. Author Edmund Keeley and poet Nicholas Samaras each read to audience standing room only crowds at the Shaman Drum bookstore in March and November 2000. We also make a point of visiting groups and communities in the area, to share our work and exchange ideas.

COLLECTIONS are the fourth component. What is a research institution without documents, newspapers, films, archives? The University Library has budgeted a significant amount of money annually for purchasing books and other materials to develop a collection of modern Greek sources and add to an already rich collection of English language books on Greek society, history, and the arts. We are also finding rich resources in the surrounding community of collectors. The "Pyrros Papers," a collection on the anti-junta struggle dealing with the colonels' coup, the dictatorship in Greece from 1967-1974, and efforts to affect U.S. policy, are a real treasure. They were donated by James G. "Jim" Pyrros to the Labadie Collection of Social and Political Protest Literature, University of Michigan Hatcher Graduate Library Special Collections on December 19, 2000.  Other recent donations have included rare books, magazines, records, cassettes, and posters.