This award, established in 1993 and endowed by Loyola Marymount University's devoted benefactor, is bestowed on the faculty member whose dedication to teaching, research and the University Community exemplifies academic leadership. The recipient is nominated by his/her peers and chosen by a faculty committee. Professors from all colleges and schools are eligible, but the recipient's devotion to "education of the whole person," both in practice and in life, transcends a specific field of study.

2018 President's Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award

The Society for Classical Studies (SCS) was founded as the American Philological Association in 1869. It is the principal membership organization in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures, history, material culture and the relationship of Greek and Roman culture to the broader ancient Mediterranean and beyond. This is the highest SCS teaching excellence award at the College and University level bestowed upon one to three recipients per year nationally.

2023 Award for Excellence in Teaching Classics at the University Level

Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens, Greece

Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, Director of Education

Nelly's Iconography of Greece

Postcards from Metaxas' Greece: The uses of classical antiquity in tourism photography

Hellenism

Funerary Ritual, Aeschylus' Eumenides and Sophocles' Antigone

Sophocles and the West: the Evidence of the Fragments

The Rock of the Nightingale': Kinship Diplomacy and Sophocles' Tereus

For list of publications

Hellenisms: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity

This book is a study of the Ion of Euripides. Produced in a period of intense political crisis at Athens in 412 BC, this play went to the heart of Athenian self-perception but also highlighted the violent divine grace of Apollo, the intense emotional suffering of Kreousa, and Ion's insistent search for truth despite divine concealment. 

Converging Truths

An adaptation of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" by Michael Cacoyannis

Blessings and Vows

Loyola Marymount University is a top-ranked national university by U.S. News and World Report, which places LMU among the top six Jesuit universities in the country and in the top six private universities in California. Founded in 1911, LMU is a Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount university with more than 7,100 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. LMU offers 56 undergraduate majors and 56 minor programs, along with 46 master’s degree programs, three doctorate programs and 12 credential/authorization programs. LMU’s intercollegiate athletics teams compete in the West Coast Conference with 14 Division I varsity sports.

LMU news and events are found at: www.lmu.edu/news.

Loyola Marymount University

CLAR 2210 Greek Tragedy in Performance

CLAR 2220 Greek Comedy in Performance

CLAR 2240 Ancient Greece

CLAR 3220 Greek and Roman Religions

CLAR 4220 Classical Hellenism, Race & Ethnicity

CLAR 4230 Ancient World and Film

CLAR 4240 Greek Cinema

CLAR 4250 Anne Carson: Classic Iconoclast

CLAR 4270 Representations of Greece: Ancient and Modern

Katerina Zacharia is a Professor of Classics and Chair of Classics & Archaeology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. 
Her academic and professional work explores classical antiquity in visual and performance culture, and in Greek ethnic identity formation. She is the author of "Converging Truths: Euripides’ Ion and the Athenian Quest for Self-Definition" (Brill 2003), and editor and major contributor for "Hellenisms: Culture, Identity and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity" (Ashgate 2008/Routledge 2016), and articles on Greek tourism, Greek cinema, and cultural politics. 
Prof. Zacharia is an award-winning educator with expertise in inclusive pedagogy, and cross-cultural exchange in local and global partnerships. She produced theatrical performances and workshops for the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens (2006-present), and the Stanford Repertory Theatre (2012-18). As Director of Education for the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, she has created a vibrant student internship program (2014-present). She wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning short documentary "Blessings and Vows" (2018), and has collaborated on the writing of documentaries, fiction, and VR games. She co-created "Enthralled," a new conversation game for higher education (2022). 
Her work has been supported with fellowships from the A.S. Onassis Foundation, A.G. Leventis Foundation, Heritage Management Organization, Stanford University. She is the recipient of innovative teaching awards, including the 2018 President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award from Loyola Marymount University, the 2019 Teacher Eddy Award from the LAX Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles, the 2023 Society of Classical Studies for Excellence in Teaching Classics at the University level, and the 2024 inaugural Excellence in Teaching LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Award.
She served in the Executive Board as Treasurer and Chair of Fundraising and Long-Term Planning for the Modern Greek Studies Association in North America (2020-23). She served as Council Chair for the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (2023-24). Currently serves as the Director of the Classics & Archaeology Learning Community Series (2022-present).

Classics and Archaeology

Classical Reception

Greek drama

Greek Cinema

Greek ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity

Cultural and Critical Theory

Visual Studies

Representations in the Media

Tourism and heritage studies

Katerina Zacharia's Publications

Katerina Zacharia's Athenoe Productions

Greece vs Hellas: The Semantics behind the country of many names

Radio Interview on my life and career

"Nelly's Iconography (1924-1939): A reconsideration of Nelly's connections with Metaxas' pro-fascist regime"

"A Greek Journey": Tribute Presentation to filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos

"Remembering Michael Cacoyannis"

Interview for Greek Diaspora series (in Greek)

"Athens Dialogues" conference

Electra

Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient World

Ancient Drama: Influences and Modern Approaches

Postcards from Greece: The uses of antiquity in Tourist Brochures and popular Culture (1929-2009).

The uses of classical antiquity in Greek Tourism

Representations of black slavery and Greco-Roman involvement in the slave trade from Africa

Channeling Grace through Art: Devotional Practices across spiritual traditions

Greek Tragedy in Performance

Classical ‘Hellenism’, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity from Antiquity to the Present

Ancient Greece

Professor of Classics, Chair of Classics & Archaeology

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