Stathis Gauntlett

Biography

Stathis Gauntlett was born and raised in Pontypool, Wales.  He read Medieval and Modern Languages at Oriel College, Oxford University, taking first-class honours in 1970 and a DPhil on the poetics and performance of Greek Rebetika songs in 1978. Appointed to the foundation lectureship in Modern Greek at the University of Melbourne in 1973, he inaugurated Modern Greek studies at tertiary level in Victoria.  He served as President of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (1995-98) and contributed to the regulation of the interpreting and translating profession in Australia as an inaugural member of National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI).  In 1998 he was appointed foundation Professor in the Dardalis Chair of Hellenic Studies at La Trobe University, from which he retired in 2006.  Elected to the Academy in 2007, he was head of the European Languages and Cultures Section from 2010 to 2013.  His principal research interests are in the oral traditions and popular culture of Greece and the Greek diaspora.  His work on Rebetika (Greek urban blues) has been described as seminal, his publications having been copiously cited in scholarly works and dissertations on the genre, as well as serving as prescribed texts in Greek university courses.  He has also published annotated English translations of significant works of modern Greek literature.