The event, to be held in the Seven Hills Conference Center on campus, is hosted by SFSU's Center for Modern Greek Studies and the Modern Greek Studies Foundation of San Francisco. It is a fundraiser for the center.

Associate Professor Martha Klironomos, director of the Center for Modern Greek Studies, said the Petris lecture series intends to highlight U.S. public-policy issues that are relevant to Greek Americans in the Bay Area. She said Dukakis, a second-generation Greek American, was selected as this year's speaker because his research focuses on national healthcare reform and he is active in the Greek American community.

Dukakis teaches political science at University of California, Los Angeles, and Northeastern University.

The Nicholas C. Petris Lecture is made possible by funding from the Modern Greek Studies Foundation and the Nikos Kazantzakis Chair, the only endowed professorship of modern Greek literature in the CSU system. The lecture began in 2001 with keynote speeches by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and assemblypersons Elaine Kontiminos Alquist and Lou Papan, saluting former state Sen. Nicholas C. Petris, D-Oakland, for his achievements in public service to both California and the Greek American community. Petris founded the Modern Greek Studies Foundation and was its first president. He served in the California Senate from 1967 to 1996.

The Center for Modern Greek Studies, based in SFSU's College of Humanities, was established in 1981. The center promotes the study of modern Greek language, literature, history and culture in relation to its Byzantine and earlier Hellenic history and cultural achievements. It is the largest program of its kind in the United States.

Dukakis' lecture follows a reception and dinner. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $65. For details, call (415) 338-1892 or e-mail modgreek@sfsu.edu.

--Student Writer Lisa Rau with Matt Itelson
Photo: Courtesy of Northeastern University