modernity; historical avant-garde; poetry; postcolonial/decolonial thought; urban studies; comparative literature; Pre-Columbian and early modern studies; Mexico; Argentina; Byzantine and Modern Greek studies; critical and cultural theory; transcultural studies; Environmental Humanities; interdisciplinarity.

BA (Hons), University of Cyprus; MPhil, University of Cambridge; PhD, University of Cambridge

Eleni's research examines modernity across different periods, disciplines, and cultures and has taken the form of several monographs, an edited volume, and over a dozen refereed articles, among others. She enjoys adopting novel interdisciplinary approaches by bringing together literature and a range of artistic media as well as by exploring new comparative avenues in transcultural projects on Nahuatl and post-Byzantine poetry, twentieth-century Argentine and Greek cultures, Pre-Columbian and Byzantine civilizations, and Environmental Humanities.

Her latest work, The Open Veins of Modernity: Ecological Crisis and the Legacy of Byzantium and Pre-Columbian America (Cambridge University Press, 2024), sits at the intersection of environmental studies, Byzantine Studies, early and late modern studies, and decolonial/postcolonial studies. The short monograph is part of the series Cambridge Elements in Environmental Humanities. The unusual comparison of Byzantium and America builds on her award-winning monograph The Conquered: Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity (see below). 

Eleni's AHRC-funded monograph on cultural modernity and urban space with the title Buenos Aires Across the Arts: Five and One Theses on Modernity, 1921-1939 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022; series "Pitt Illuminations: Cultural Formations of the Americas") looks at the interaction between modernity and modernism in literature (poetry and prose), photography, film, and painting in Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s. The book is available from the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Her monograph, The Conquered: Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity, which inaugurated the Dumbarton Oaks series "Extravagantes" (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2020), is available from Harvard University Press. The Conquered rehistoricizes the conquests of the Byzantine and Mexica empires and their role in modernity’s self-imagining by probing collective memory and cultural trauma in laments (threnoi and icnocuicatl) for the fall of Constantinople and Tenochtitlan, composed soon after the conquest of the imperial cities in 1453 and 1521 respectively. Listen to the “New Books Network” podcast episode – Ethan Besser Fredrick speaking with Eleni Kefala about The Conquered. You can also listen to her conversation with Prof Anthony Kaldellis for the podcast series "Byzantium and Friends" and read about the book's conception on the website of the Greek Studies Now Cultural Analysis Network. The Conquered won the Edmund Keeley Prize, which is awarded biennially by the Modern Greek Studies Association. The Conquered was published in Greek (Οι κατακτημένοι: το Βυζάντιο και η Αμερική στο μεταίχμιο της νεωτερικότητας, trans. Panagiotis Soultanis) by Crete University Press in December 2024. 

Eleni’s earlier published work includes an edited volume on cultural identity in Spanish America since 1492 (2011) and a comparative monograph on crosscurrents in Argentine and Greek literary modernisms, never before studied together (2007). She has published extensively in professional journals, translated poetry and short stories from the Spanish and English, and authored three poetry books.

Her debut poetry collection Memory and Variations (Μνήμη και παραλλαγές, 2007) was shortlisted for the prestigious Diavázo Literary Awards in Greece (First Book Award), while her second book Time Stitches (Χρονορραφία, 2013) received the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus. Her third poetry book Direct Orient was published in Greek by Perispomeni Publications in June 2024.

Time Stitches, translated by Peter Constantine, was published in English by Deep Vellum/Phoneme in November 2022. The book was  a New York Times "Globetrotting" pick and featured on the list of "8 Poetry Collections in Translation to Read in 2022" by Words Without Borders. Peter Constantine's translation of Time Stitches won the 2022 Elizabeth Constantinides Prize. Constantine's German translation of Time Stitches will be published by Freigeist Verlag, with the title Zeitflechten, in spring 2025.

Eleni's poetry has been translated into English, Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish. She has participated in international literary festivals, most recently in Mexico, representing Cyprus as part of the EU delegation of authors at the 2023 International Book Fair of Guadalajara.

Eleni contributes to all levels of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the Department of Spanish and the School of Modern Languages. She offers classes on a range of disciplines (literature, photography, painting, film), national literatures (Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay, Chile), and genres (poetry, short story, novel, essay).

Visit Eleni's page on Academia.edu: 

https://st-andrews.academia.edu/EleniKefala

Links

Navigating Liquid Geographies

Lucy alumna Dr Eleni Kefala, winner of the 2022 Edmund Keeley Prize, shares her journey as a writer

Readings by the 2022 Neustadt Prize Jury

Playing Hopscotch in the Gaps of History: A Conversation with Eleni Kefala

Dumbarton Oaks Interview - "The World Upside Down" 

Voix Vives Poetry Festival, 2015 

State Prize for Poetry 2014

Book launch of Time Stitches (Greek) at Ianos Bookstore, Athens

Eleni Kefala holds an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and a BA from the University of Cyprus. She has been Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, Early Career Fellow of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK, and Dumbarton Oaks Fellow at Harvard. Her monograph The Conquered won the 2022 Edmund Keeley Prize. She is also the recipient of the State Prize for Poetry in her home country for the book Time Stitches (available in English from Deep Vellum) and served on the jury of the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.