We, the Trustees of the Landscape Research Group mourn the death of our dear friend, colleague, and Chair Professor Theano S. Terkenli. ‘Dear’ is a word we do not use lightly: indeed, it was Theano’s word. In conversation and communication she would address us all as ‘dear’, and that was a hallmark of the depth of feeling with which she participated and collaborated and celebrated our associations and the wonderful work of landscape research. Theano stepped up as Chair of LRG in September 2024 after many years of active LRG membership, full of excitement and enthusiasm for the role, but then health issues and subsequent treatment followed quickly. She expected to recover and held onto the reins. In December she organised an event that was a showcase both for great landscape research and of her influence. ‘Landscape Leaders in an Intergenerational Dialogue’ included the participation of Professor Marc Antrop, Dr Margherita Cisani, Professor Tim Ingold, Dr Amy Strecker and Professor Tim Waterman. Helping to usher in the future of landscape research was a life’s work for her. She certainly also had an eye on the past, and she had a key role in organising an LRG panel as part of our ‘Landscape and Goodness’ events to honour her mentor, Yi-Fu Tuan, for his 90th birthday in 2020.
Theano was a pillar of the landscape research community, and has made a lasting impact through her publications, her interactions with landscape actors and most importantly on her students. Landscape, for her, was a calling and a passion as well as a career. She taught geography, mainly human and cultural geography, at the University of the Aegean in Greece, where she was a founding member of her department from 1994. Her specialism was in culture, landscape, and tourism. Outside her academic pursuits, she sought to build public understanding and awareness of landscape through involvement with communities, civil society, interest groups, and policy development. This last included important work to develop the European Landscape Convention in the Mediterranean context. She represented Greece in Council of Europe initiatives and served as the scientific expert in the governmental Landscape Committee of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy (2010-present), for the purpose of the implementation of the ELC. Theano’s work was instrumental in the ratification by Greece of the ELC. Theano represented Greece and Greek interests not only in her home country but in landscape events all over the world.
Theano was exceptionally well travelled, as befits a geographer and landscape scholar with a specialism in tourism. Of all the landscapes she came to know, her greatest love was of the Greek islands—she studied their landscapes and worked with their communities, spent many holidays there. She loved the beaches and swimming in the deep sea. Her joy in dance, music, and cooking connected her in further intimate ways with these landscapes. When Theano was in the room she always brought with her a breath of this great landscape goodness—a breeze from the islands. Her memory will always enrich us with her grace, her gentleness, her care, concern, deep learning, and rich scholarship, and remind us of her abundant confidence in the power of landscape ideas to transform people and places for the better.
In honour of Theano’s remarkable legacy, we have established a fundraising campaign to support the charity’s Sudden Opportunity and Emergency Fund. This fund enables LRG to act quickly and decisively when urgent needs or unexpected opportunities arise for landscape researchers and practitioners – a fitting tribute to Theano’s responsive, people-centred and globally minded leadership.
