ELENI KEHAIDOU-HAVIARA

Born and raised in Egypt until the age of 17, and a fluent speaker of English, Greek, French and Arabic, Eleni Kehaidou-Haviara graduated with a degree in theatre from the Pelos Katselis Drama School, while at the same time obtaining her BA in English and Greek Language and Literature from the University of Athens. She worked as an actress and playwright, often in collaboration with many prominent cultural agencies, such as the Northern Greece State Theatre. Upon completion of her graduate research at Cambridge University, in the UK, she returned to Greece to gain her doctoral degree from the Faculty of English at the University of Athens, of whose teaching faculty she became a member in 1973, with a specialization in American Literature and Creative Writing. She taught highly popular under- and post- graduate courses on American theatre, gender studies (particularly in the context of the interdepartmental programme on Issues of Gender and Equality—THE.FYL.IS.), and creative writing centered on playwrighting (2005). Her scientific interests include: American drama, feminist and post-colonial studies, and theoretical approaches to culture. Until 2008, when she retired with a full professorship, she had been a formative force in the organization of the Department of Literature and Culture and a member of the committee that created the online literature and culture journal Synthesis (in whose editorial committee she continues to serve). Her works include two internationally acknowledged plays she co-authored with Dimitris Kechaidis, Laurels and Oleanders (1979) and With Power from Kifissia (1991), which have been translated in several languages (for English see: Contemporary Greek Theater, Vol. 1, London: Arcadia Books); two critical monographs on American theatre, Acting by Gender: Women in Arthur Miller’s Dramaturgy (1991) and American Women and Drama: Practices of Freedom (1997); and a multitude of articles published in Greece and abroad. Her latest book is in the area of postcolonial theory and it analyses plays by award-winning contemporary American playwrights August Wilson and David Henry Hwang.