Modern Greek Section
The Catherine Grigoriou-Theocarakis Prize 2010
The first Catherine Grigoriou-Theocarakis Prize for excellence in Modern Greek Studies has been awarded to Richard Thompson, of Churchill College, who has achieved a First in Part II of the Modern and Medieval Languages Tripos. Richard offered the two language papers and the oral in Modern Greek, a year abroad dissertation on the Language Question, and an optional dissertation on the writer Kostas Tachtsis, together with papers in Linguistics. Richard's distinguished undergraduate career has included a First in Spanish and a II.1 in Modern Greek in Part IA, and a First in Part IB. He spent his year abroad in Athens, attending lectures at the University.
The prize was established by Dr Nikolaos Theocarakis in memory of his late wife Catherine Grigoriou-Theocarakis. It forms part of a generous benefaction of £100,000 made by Dr Theocarakis to the University in 2009, to support the advancement of Modern Greek Studies. Both Dr Theocarakis and his wife studied at Cambridge. Catherine, who died in 2009, was a member of Girton College. After studying French and Linguistics at Athens University, she came to Cambridge to take a postgraduate course in Strategic Studies, graduating with an MPhil in 1987. She was an exceptionally talented linguist and an accomplished poet in both Greek and English.
