Study UK Alumni Award awarded to Professor Sophia Xenophontos#
On 4 February 2026, Professor Sophia Xenophontos MAE, Member of the Classics and Oriental Studies Section of Academia Europaea since 2024, was awarded the Study UK Alumni Award 2026 in Greece, in the category ‘Culture, Creativity and Sport’. The Study UK Alumni Awards recognise the achievements of international UK alumni, who have made an outstanding contribution to their professional fields and to society. The award was presented by His Excellency Matthew Lodge, Ambassador of the UK to Greece, at a dedicated ceremony held at the Stelios Foundation Conference Hall in Plaka, Athens.
In her acceptance speech, Prof. Xenophontos highlighted the broader value of Classics for today’s debates and challenges:
“I would like to thank the British Council Greece for this generous recognition. I feel pleased and deeply grateful. Pleased because this is a significant acknowledgement of my work and its impact. Grateful because this award takes me back to my time as a student in the UK and reminds me of the invaluable skills and experiences I gained there, all of which have shaped me both professionally and personally.
For me, though, this award means something more. It affirms the broader value of the field I serve. Classical and Byzantine literature are often seen as distant from modern life, but my research shows quite the opposite. It demonstrates that premodern texts written in Greek can speak powerfully to the present, shaping how we think about mental health, ethical responsibility, our relationship with animals, and the ways we imagine care and community.
This award gives me the strength to keep working hard to ensure that the humanities remain a living form of knowledge, not just a record of the past. Thank you very much again for this huge honour”.
For me, though, this award means something more. It affirms the broader value of the field I serve. Classical and Byzantine literature are often seen as distant from modern life, but my research shows quite the opposite. It demonstrates that premodern texts written in Greek can speak powerfully to the present, shaping how we think about mental health, ethical responsibility, our relationship with animals, and the ways we imagine care and community.
This award gives me the strength to keep working hard to ensure that the humanities remain a living form of knowledge, not just a record of the past. Thank you very much again for this huge honour”.
