Edith Hall: 21st-Century Responses to the Homeric Iliad British School at Athens 2026-09-17 | Edith Hall: 21st-Century Responses to the Homeric Iliad
Revolutionising the archives: BSA George Finlay collection, Greek Revolution & the digital condition British School at Athens 2023-07-21 | To what extent can the digital transformation of an archive enhance, or even change, our understanding of Philhellenism and its relationship to the Greek Revolution of 1821? What new ‘ways of seeing’ historical phenomena such as Philhellenism does such a transformation offer? And more generally, does the digital turn go hand in hand with the transnational/global turn—as some scholars seem to suggest? This lecture will address such questions by reflecting....
Joshua Whitaker, ‘Acid History‘ British School at Athens 2023-07-13 | ‘Acid History’ is neither a record of psychedelic culture nor a catalogue of LSD experience. ‘Acid’ is deployed within the seminar, as Jeremy Gilbert has theorised it, as an adjective— a term that is both mystical in its practice and adamant in its materialism 1 . It suggests a methodology of history which employs ‘weirdness’ (in its oldest sense, of controlling fate, becoming, and bending) to radically rethink theconditions of the past, and produce a future which escapes neoliberal politics. The seminar will link; St Paul, the Delphic oracle, fate, the Weird Sisters, puppets, collective joy, dance, and a ‘spirit of place’ using film, music, performance, and the conventions of a traditional lecture, as Avery Gordon puts it, ‘to consider a different way of seeing, one that is less mechanical, more willing to be surprised, to link imagination and critique, one that is more attuned to the task of up the appearances of something that [is] absent
Looking at Byzantium through materials: the case of stucco (ca 850-1453) British School at Athens 2023-05-08 | In 1890, Robert W. Schultz and Sydney Barnsley spent two months at the monastery of Hosios Loukas, documenting the byzantine remains of the monastery on behalf of the newly established British School at Athens. Their notes and drawings produced the first documentation of the stucco cornices from the katholikon monastery and other monuments in Greece. In the following decades, the need to write the history of Byzantine art led scholars to focus on material traditionally associated with Byzantium.....
Roads and resources on Archaic/Classical Samos British School at Athens 2023-05-08 | By the end of the sixth century BC, and particularly under the tyrant Polykrates, the island of Samos had grown into one of the most prominent naval powers in the East Aegean region. Ancient historians tell us that through maritime activities, Samos connected itself to all sorts of networks —Aegean, Anatolian, Egyptian— exporting into the wider region products like olive oil, wine and timber. Archaeologically, work on the island has naturally been centred on monumental sanctuary of Hera, with over 100 years of detailed and important work undertake..
Revisiting ancient ceramic production in N Peloponnese: the ceramic landscapes of Corinth and Sikyon British School at Athens 2023-05-08 | The northern Peloponnese provides evidence of prolific ceramic production from all periods and across the entire region, documented in the excavated ceramic assemblages and by the growing number of confirmed production centres and kiln sites. The region stands out as an area that has continuously attracted a large amount of science-based work on archaeological ceramics.
In Search of the Greek and Roman agricultural economies in Epirus during the early Imperial period British School at Athens 2023-04-13 | In the ancient world different farms and country houses existed. Some have held the spotlight, like villas that proliferated in Roman times, and as a result became linked to so-called “Roman” agricultural practices. Large-scale production sold in far-away markets, and luxuriously self-indulgent country lifestyles became synonymous with villas, and with the way that aristocrats managed land in the Roman Empire. Villas, however, were not alone.
Postcards from Greece: This Afterlife British School at Athens 2023-04-13 | Alicia (A. E.) Stallings will read and discuss work from her four published collections of poetry gathered into her new selected poems, This Afterlife, poems that explore Greek mythology, classical reception, ancient and modern Greece, and the diachronic strata of the city of Athens, as well as translations of modern Greek poems engaged in classical reception
A.A. Pallis, from Greek abroad to Greek in Greece British School at Athens 2022-12-21 | The talk will introduce the life and work of A.A. Pallis, son of the Alexander Pallis whose translation of the Gospels caused such scandal. A.A. Pallis described himself as a Ξενιτεμενος Ελληνας.
Digital News Consumption in Greece British School at Athens 2022-12-21 | Greece is a global outlier in digital news consumption. Trust in legacy news organizations is very low while Greeks online rely heavily on alternative sources like social media for their news. Dr Kalogeropoulos will present qualitative and quantitative data that address how Greeks navigate the digital news landscape, their motivations for using social media to get news, as well as the ways Greek news organizations have adapted their news distribution strategies in the current media environment.
New Evidence for Thera Eruption Tsunamis at Çeşme – Bağlararası in western Anatolia British School at Athens 2022-12-21 | Disasters, whether natural or anthropogenic, can be drivers of landscape and cultural change. The Late Bronze Age Thera eruption was one of the largest natural disasters witnessed in human history. Its impact, consequences, and timing, has dominated the discourse of ancient Mediterranean studies for nearly a century. Despite the eruption’s high intensity and tsunami-generating capabilities, associated tsunami deposits are reported from relatively few locations. Even more surprising is the lack of human remains linked to this event.
BSA x GPSG Research Seminar | 21 November 2022 British School at Athens 2022-12-21 | This event is part of a series on Modern Greek Studies co-organised by the BSA and the Greek Politics Specialist Group (GPSG). Organised by Eirini Karamouzi (University of Sheffield) and Lamprini Rori (University of Exeter) and hosted by the British School at Athens.
Nativism in Herodes’ Sophistic Attica: Rural Heroes, Hellenic Purity and the Bust of ‘Sauromates British School at Athens 2022-12-01 | Dr Antti Lampinen (Finnish Institute at Athens), “Nativism in Herodes’ Sophistic Attica: Rural Heroes, Hellenic Purity and the Bust of ‘Sauromates'”ABSTRACT: That some second-century figures under the broad umbrella of Second Sophistic entertained nativist conceptions of Hellenicity is not news as such. Dio of Prusa was not only a fairly outspoken critic of the Roman rule, but saw the utility of using physiognomic readings as a tool of invective; his pupil Polemo of Laodicea doubled down on this physiognomical chauvinism, going as far as picking only the ‘purest Greece’ as his pupils, if Philostratus is to be believed. Polemo clearly presented himself as being able to distinguish a morally superior, physiognomically distinct ‘Hellenic’ type, and he seems to have been similarly explicit about this category having become vulnerable to intermixture for a variety of reasons. My paper will first discuss the nativist rhetoric and ethnically expressed essentialism in some of the sophistic works that formed Polemo’s circle, as well as the curious anecdote about the rural demi-god Agathion that Philostratus quotes from Herodes Atticus’ letters. Finally, I will focus on a portrait bust at the Acropolis Museum of Athens, conventionally attributed to a Bosporan king, possibly Sauromates II, though not on particularly strong grounds. I will suggest a possible alternative interpretation of the piece, which might in this reading be connected to the Marathonian ‘Heracles of Herodes’ (Philostr. VS 552-554).
Tokens in Late Classical and Hellenistic Athens British School at Athens 2022-10-26 | Dr Mairi Gkikaki (University of Warwick / The Open University of Cyprus), “Tokens in Late Classical and Hellenistic Athens”AbstractAlthough, symbola, the Greek term for tokens, are first attested in the Archaic Period in the context of hospitality, in Athens of the mid-fifth century BC a remarkable transition may be observed from the private to the public sphere. And while the question on the public and/ or private uses of Athenian tokens, is hotly debated among scholars, research on the uses of the Athenian tokens may provide the appropriate framework for investigating the issue of authority. Who issued tokens in Athens and to whom were the tokens addressed? How is authority communicated on tokens and in what ways is that different than money? How doesthe absence of any meaningful sign of authority align with the establishment of communities and the creation of collective identity? Our knowledge mainly derives from the impressive large repertory of figural devices. But the inscriptions the tokens carry and their find spots may enhance our understanding not only of these enigmatic objects but may also offer insights to Athenian ideology and politics of the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods.
Kouphovouno and the story of Lakonia 6000-1600 BC British School at Athens 2022-10-25 | BSA Friends’ LectureProf. Bill Cavanagh, “Kouphovouno and the story of Lakonia 6000-1600 BC”Abstract: Early farmers settled at Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, around 5,800 BC, one part of the great neolithic peopling of Europe. The site was occupied, on and off, over some 4,500 years. The new excavations have revealed the houses they lived in, how they worked the land, their contacts with the wider world. Over this immense span of time there were many transformations of Lakonian society and these will be illustrated through the finds from the excavations.
Knossos 2025 Virtual Flythrough British School at Athens 2022-08-16 | A flythrough of the architectural plan for the renovated BSA Knossos Research Centre.After almost a century of activity, the BSA Knossos Research Centre needs urgent renovation and updating to meet the needs of 21st-century researchers. In close collaboration with the Greek authorities, the BSA has developed an ambitious plan: the Knossos 2025 Project will transform the Knossos Research Centre by providing world-class facilities for future generations of researchers, ensuring the best possible storage and conservation conditions for the precious archaeological materials, and attracting new academic and local audiences.
Historical and Contemporary Archaeology in Greece British School at Athens 2022-07-28 | BSA Friends’ Lecture SeriesProf. Thomas Gallant (University of California, San Diego), Historical and Contemporary Archaeology in GreeceAbstract: The fields of Historical Archaeology and Contemporary Archaeology are well-established globally, yet they have only recently begun to gain traction in the study of the Greek world. In this illustrated talk, Thomas Gallant assesses their state-of-play by examining recent publications in both fields. His central claim is that, though currently underdeveloped, Greece holds the potential to be an important site for historical and contemporary archaeological research. He develops this argument through an examination of a selection of cases studies dealing with the archaeology of Greece over the last five centuries. After describing the current situation including both positive and negative aspects, he suggests possible ways forward.
Periodical publishing: processes of constructing, performing and (re)claiming the nation British School at Athens 2022-07-27 | Dr Mary Ikoniadou (University of Central Lancashire / BSA, Early Career Fellow), “Periodical publishing: images, texts and materiality in processes of constructing, performing and (re)claiming the nation in Cold War Greece”AbstractThis presentation looks at the entangled relationship between periodicals, politics and ideas about the nation, with regard to Greece during the Cold War. More specifically, it will discuss the ways that printed matter intervened in the formation, dissemination and performance of a Greek national cultural identity and imaginary in the period. Cold War scholarship has expanded its geopolitical boundaries and methodological approaches to include research that transcends bipolar conceptions of the period — particularly, beyond the East-West (and at times North-South) divides. Cultural production in the period has also been the subject of growing academic interest. However, the role of images and printed matter and, more specifically, the aesthetic, cultural and political agency of periodical publishing, continue to be sidelined topics. Through the analysis of the visuality, intertextuality and materiality of selected publications, I will discuss some of the ways that periodicals challenged official state narratives of nationhood for their readership.
How to make a Linear B tablet British School at Athens 2022-06-20 | Dr Anna P. Judson speaks about her research at the British School at Athens on how the clay tablets, used to write records in the Linear B writing system in Bronze Age Greek palaces, were made. Suitable for use by teachers with the accompanying activity sheet for students to make and write their own Linear B tablet. Greek and English subtitles available/με υπότιτλους στα ελληνικά και αγγλικά.Worksheet: How to make a Linear B tablet -- bsa.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Worksheet_How_to_make_a_Linear_B_tablet.pdfΑσκήσεις: Πώς να φτιάξετε μία πινακίδα σε Γραμμική Β -- bsa.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Worksheet_How_to_make_a_Linear_B_tablet_Greek.pdf
Culture Wars? Affective Polarisation and Emerging Political Cleavages in Crises-Ridden Greece British School at Athens 2022-06-16 | Georgios Karyotis (University of Glasgow), “Culture Wars? Affective Polarisation and Emerging Political Cleavages in Crises-Ridden Greece”Discussant: Manos Matsaganis (Polytechnic University of Milan)Research series on Modern Greek Studies organised by the British School at Athens and the Greek Politics Specialist GroupOrganisers: Eirini Karamouzi (University of Sheffield) and Lamprini Rori (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)AbstractRecent polarising events and protest movements in Greece’s modern history, such as the 2015 referendum, the Prespes agreement with the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, or the measures introduced by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicate that novel political conflicts have emerged among the Greek public, paralleling developments elsewhere. Often, these conflicts are claimed to represent groups of citizens with antagonistic worldviews, pointing towards a broader cultural conflict fuelled by appeals to emotions and group identification. The impact of these on political behaviour and the extent to which the politicisation of cultural social identities is re-aligning the ideological and political landscape has received scant attention in Greece due to a paucity of available public opinion data. This paper analyses original and historical survey evidence to situate developments in Greek public opinion since the early 1990s, focussing on how cultural issue cleavages have realigned around new partisan identities, in the context of the economic, refugee and pandemic crises – and its implications for political behaviour.
Self-sufficiency in Aristotle and others: what’s so good about Autarkeia? British School at Athens 2022-06-15 | Professor Lesley Brown (University of Oxford), “Self-sufficiency in Aristotle and others: what’s so good about Autarkeia?”AbstractSelf-sufficiency – autarkeia – is a familiar Greek cultural value, and one of the hallmarks of the best life according to Aristotle. But what makes a life self-sufficient? I probe his claim that the life of philosophical reflection is most self-sufficient because it can be solitary.This event is in partnership with the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens.The lecture will take place in a hybrid format, with limited in-person attendance and via zoom link. Both will require registration and places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.
Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Renaissance British School at Athens 2022-05-26 | Dr John Sellars (Royal Holloway, University of London)The Renaissance saw the rise of a group of intellectuals, interested in a wide range of subjects, often labelled ‘Humanists’. These figures have sometimes been derided by historians of philosophy as not serious philosophers at all. This talk will try to reassess the philosophical standing of some of these figures by approaching them in the light of Pierre Hadot’s notion of philosophy as a way of life.
Scribal Training in Mycenaean Pylos British School at Athens 2022-05-24 | Dr Anna Judson (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, British School at Athens)At least 30 people are known to have written administrative documents in the Mycenaean palace of Pylos immediately before its destruction c.1200 BCE. These “scribes” are, however, entirely anonymous: they did not sign their texts, and so are identified only by differences in their handwriting; similarly, none of the texts refer to scribal work or training and no school texts are preserved. This seminar explores ways in which studying two aspects of the Mycenaean scribes’ writing practices – orthography and handwriting – can shed light on the methods by which they were trained to write and keep records using the Linear B writing system.
Sons of Albyn, Daughters of Greece British School at Athens 2022-04-14 | Sons of Albyn, Daughters of Greece: Scottish Tales and Greek Continuities Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni (University of Glasgow) Abstract: Twenty years after his controversial involvement in the Greek political scene in the immediate aftermath of the War of Independence as the new state’s first Public Prosecutor, and having resigned his posts in the Greek Supreme Court and the new Athens University to take up the Chair of New Testament and Ecclesiastical Greek at the General Assembly’s College in Belfast, the Aberdonian Philhellene Edward Masson (1799-1873) continued to promote the Greek cause as ‘one of the most interesting social and Christian movements of modern times’. As sole editor of and main contributor to a number of Philhellenic journals, Masson published views on the Eastern Question, reports on the ‘friendly intercourse between Protestants and the Oriental clergy’, as well as his own translations of Scottish and English poetry into the ‘living literary language of the Greeks’ and vice versa. Taking its cue from Masson’s claim that ‘by far the greatest part of Britons who have displayed an ardent and persevering adherence to the cause of Greek independence’, were ‘fervid Scots, either of Albyn or Erin’, this talk will trace elective affinities between Scottish Philhellenism and the emergent discourses of Scottish and Greek exemplarity, drawing attention to the medium of translation as cultural mediation and co-adoption of tropes sourced from the Philhellenic and late romantic repertoire. Recurrent parallelisms in accounts of landscape, lore in the form of the ancient pedigree of recalcitrant types such as the Highlander and the klepht, as well as the continuity between Celtic and Greek bardic traditions, are some of the elements which shape this tale of Scoto-Greek mutuality in the mid- and late nineteenth century. More specifically, alongside Masson, I briefly feature the work of Glaswegian classical scholar and ‘Scottish patriot’ John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), who defeated Masson in the ‘tough contest’ for the Edinburgh Chair of Greek in 1852, and the Aberdonian writer, educator and activist Isabella Fyvie Mayo (1843-1914), whose edifying tale, A Daughter of the Klephts or a Girl of Modern Greece (1897), casts in the form of the historical romance a uniquely Scottish (and womanly) understanding of Greece’s freedom-fighting legacy.
Reframing Metapolitefsi - Transitions and Identity British School at Athens 2022-04-13 | Professor Dimitris Tziovas (University of Birmingham)AbstractThe event aims to offer a new perspective on the period from junta to crisis based on the new book by Dimitris Tziovas, titled Greece from Junta to Crisis: modernization, transition, diversity The recent economic crisis in Greece has triggered national self-reflection and prompted a re-examination of the political and cultural developments in the country since 1974. While many other books have investigated the politics and economics of this transition, the book turns its attention to the cultural aspects of post-dictatorship Greece. By problematizing the notion of modernization, it analyzes socio-cultural trends in the years between the fall of the junta and the economic crisis, highlighting the growing diversity and cultural ambivalence of Greek society. With its focus on issues such as identity, antiquity, religion, language, literature, media, cinema, youth, gender and sexuality, this study is one of the first to examine cultural trends in Greece over the last fifty years. Aiming for a more nuanced understanding of recent history, it offers a fresh perspective on current problems.Discussant: Irene Martin (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid)Organisers: Eirini Karamouzi (University of Sheffield) and Lamprini Rori (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)Host: John Bennet (Director of the British School at Athens)Research webinar series on Modern Greek Studies organised by the British School at Athens and the Greek Politics Specialist Group
Athens - City of Wisdom British School at Athens 2022-04-06 | Abstract: Author, Journalist and Lecturer, Bruce Clark discusses his latest book with Prof. Bettany Hughes (Historian, Author and Broadcaster) and Dr John Kittmer (Former British Ambassador to Greece). In the words of the publisher, “[Athens: City of Wisdom is] a sweeping history of Athens, telling the three-thousand-year story of the birthplace of Western civilization, from Runciman Award winner Bruce Clark. Each of the book’s twenty-one chapters focuses on a critical ‘moment’ in the city’s long history, from the reforms of the lawmaker Solon in the sixth century BCE to the travails of early twenty-first-century Athens, as a rapidly expanding city struggles with the legacy of a global economic crisis. Bruce Clark has a rich and revealing sequence of stories to tell – not only of the familiar golden age of Classical Athens, of the removal from the Acropolis of the Parthenon marbles by agents of the 7th Earl of Elgin in the early nineteenth century, or of the holding of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896; but also of the less fêted later years of antiquity, when St Paul preached on the Areopagus and neo Platonists refounded the Academy that Sulla’s legions had desecrated. He also delves into Athens’ forgotten medieval centuries, unearthing jewels gleaming in the Byzantine twilight, and tales of Christian fortitude and erratic Turkish governance from the four centuries of Ottoman rule that followed.”
Home to an Original and Distinctive Form of Hellenism British School at Athens 2022-03-24 | "Home to an original and distinctive form of Hellenism”: Athenian exports and Black Sea burials Dr Jane Rempel (University of Sheffield / BSA Visiting Fellow) Abstract: In an overview of the Greek cities in the Black Sea, Stanley Burstein (2006:150) described the region as “…home to an original and distinctive form of Hellenism.” Of the many factors impacting the development of poleis in the Black Sea, the role of Athens is one that has long received attention due to the rich evidence for trade, diplomatic and cultural exchanges between the two regions, particularly in the late Classical period. This paper presents ongoing research into the evidence for import and consumption of Athenian goods in Black Sea burials, especially highly decorated and plastic pottery vessels and sculpture. In particular it will present the evidence for Attic and ‘Atticizing’ grave stelai in the Black Sea and establish their context and patterning (iconographic, chronological, geographic). This will be considered in conjunction with the more copious evidence for local Black Sea stelai traditions that have been argued to draw on Athenian traditions in various ways. This analysis argues that consumption of Attic stelai and their associated funerary imagery was selective, driven by prosperous and heterogeneous elite markets in the Black Sea. Burstein, S. 2006. The Greek cities of the Black Sea. In K.H. Kinzl (ed.) A companion to the classical Greek world, 137-152. Oxford: Blackwell.
The Greeks - A Global History British School at Athens 2022-03-15 | Distinguished historian and BSA Chairman Prof. Roderick Beaton (KCL) discusses his latest book with Prof. John Bennet (Director, BSA), Prof. Paul Cartledge (University of Cambridge), Bruce Clark (Author, Journalist and Lecturer), and Prof. Peter Frankopan (University of Oxford).In the words of the publisher, “The Greeks: A Global History is the story of a culture that has contributed more than any other to the way we live now in the West. It is a story that travels the entire globe and four millennia, taking us from the archaeological treasures of the Bronze Age Aegean, myths of gods and heroes, to the politics of the European Union today. Here are the glories of the classical city-states of Athens and Sparta, the far-reaching conquests of Alexander the Great, the foundations of early Christianity, the thousand-year empire of the Byzantines, and the rediscoveries of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. It is a history of inventions, such as the alphabet, philosophy, and science — but also of reinvention, as Greeks adapted to catastrophic change and found new ways to survive and make their mark on the world around them; not least today, across a diaspora spread over five continents.“The product of a lifetime’s research by one of the subject’s most esteemed experts, this is the epic, revelatory story of the Greeks and their global impact, told as never before.”
The Knossos Stratigraphical Museum: 2022 Annual Lecture British School at Athens 2022-03-09 | In part three of the BSA Annual Meeting, Knossos Stratigraphical Museum Curator, Dr Kostis Christakis, discusses the Knossos Stratigraphical Museum, highlighting its origins, history, and the unique role in plays today both in academic research and public outreach. Please join Dr Christakis on this tour of the past and a review of plans for the future of the Stratigraphical Museum.
Other Histories of Democracy: 2022 Annual Lecture British School at Athens 2022-03-09 | In Part Two of the BSA Annual Meeting, Professor David Wengrow discusses the comparative histories of democracies in Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica.
The Work of the BSA: 2022 Annual Lecture British School at Athens 2022-03-09 | Professor John Bennet, in his last annual lecture as Director of the BSA, discussed the many and varied projects undertaken in 2021/22.
The Role of Experts in Crisis Management and Public Trust British School at Athens 2022-02-21 | The Role of Experts in Crisis Management and Public Trust: Evidence from a public survey across four European countriesStella Ladi (Panteion University/Queen Mary)Discussant: George Pagoulatos (Athens University of Economics and Business/ELIAMEP)Abstract: While experts are at the forefront of government efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, little research has been done on how expert involvement has affected levels of public trust towards crisis-management policies. Employing a public opinion survey conducted across four European countries, Germany, Greece, Sweden and the UK we show that all four countries experienced an increase in public trust towards experts and evidence-informed policies during the pandemic’s first year. The analysis attributes this increase to the technocratic legitimacy thesis and not to a “rally-round-the-flag” effect as most of the literature suggests. The paper offers insights into how expert input affects public trust during crises and on whether citizens favour expert involvement in policymaking during such periods. Our analysis holds lessons for politicians by demonstrating how evidence-informed policies can aid them to regain public trust during and after crises.This event is part of a series on Modern Greek Studies co-organised by the BSA and the Greek Politics Specialist Group. Organised by Eirini Karamouzi (University of Sheffield) and Lamprini Rori (University of Exeter) and hosted by the British School at Athens.
Translation & Inclusion vs Exclusion II British School at Athens 2022-02-07 | Translation and Inclusion vs Exclusion IIMonday 31 January 2022, 5pm (UK) / 7pm (Greece) Chair: Prof. Gonda Van Steen (CHS, KCL)Participants: Ruth Padel (Author and Poet), Dr Therese Sellers (Author, Poet and Translator), and Soloup (Graphic Artist) Abstract: This session will address the theme of ‘translation and inclusion versus exclusion’. Following on from previous events on the topic of translation with Aiora Press, we hope in this panel to explore its intersection with the dynamics of inclusion versus exclusion, the existence or creation of minorities, the advocacy for a more pluralistic society via fiction, children’s literature, poetry, and graphic novels, which, in their own way, perform acts of ‘translation’ between cultures, languages or historical periods.
Translation & Exclusion vs. Inclusion: A Panel Discussion British School at Athens 2022-01-31 | Chair: Prof. David Holton (University of Cambridge)Participants: Claire Heywood (Author), Dr Mika Provata-Carlone (Independent Scholar, Translator, Illustrator, Editor) and Dr Haris Psarras (Poet) Abstract: This session will address the theme of ‘translation and inclusion versus exclusion’. Following on from previous events on the topic of translation with Aiora Press, we hope in this panel to explore its intersection with the dynamics of inclusion versus exclusion, the existence or creation of minorities, the advocacy for a more pluralistic society via fiction, children’s literature, poetry, and graphic novels, which, in their own way, perform acts of ‘translation’ between cultures, languages or historical periods.
Herodotus and the foundation of the Peloponnesian League British School at Athens 2022-01-19 | Professor Maria Pretzler, Swansea University and BSA Visiting Fellow, presents her research on Herodotus and the foundation of the Peloponnesian League.
Gold tesserae from Daphni, Greece, 11th century CE | presented by Liz James British School at Athens 2021-12-20 | Gold tesserae from Daphni, Greece, 11th century CE | presented by Liz James
A Place of very great Antiquity” British School at Athens 2021-12-14 | In this lecture, "A Place of very great Antiquity”: The First Western-European Encounter with the Buildings of Ancient Greece, Matthew Walker (QMUL and BSA Early Career Fellow) explores those moments when, around the turn of the eighteenth century, British and French travellers first began to record meaningful encounters with ancient Greek buildings. Visitors to Athens, Delos, Ephesus, and other locations in the ancient Greek World, wrote lengthy accounts of these sites that, though lacking in sophistication when compared with later writers on the subject, still reveal much about contemporary attitudes to ancient architecture in the period. These encounters, I argue, began the process of disentangling Greek architecture from the Roman, Vitruvian, tradition and paved the way for a more sophisticated understanding of the stylistic chronology of the built fabric of Antiquity.
The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe British School at Athens 2021-12-10 | Distinguished historian Mark Mazower (Columbia University) discusses his new book with Roderick Beaton (KCL). In the words of the publisher, Mazower "explores the central place of the struggle in the making of Romanticism and a new kind of politics that had volunteers flocking from across Europe to die in support of the Greeks. A story of how statesmen came to terms with an even more powerful force than themselves – the force of nationalism – this is above all a book about how people decided to see their world differently and, at an often terrible cost to themselves and their families, changed history.”
The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967-1974 British School at Athens 2021-12-09 | This event (part of a series on Modern Greek Studies co-organised by the BSA and the Greek Politics Specialist Group), will reflect on the military regime’s reactionary, ultra-conservative, repressive and pseudo-modernising attitudes and policies towards education, youth and culture, as well as on the long lasting legacies of this disturbing past. Some of these views draw from the recently published volume The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a troubled Past, 1967-1974 (Berghahn 2021) edited by Anastasakis and Lagos, which contains a novel and well-researched study of the regime’s domestic and foreign affairs, a haunting period in Greece’ s recent history.Othon Anastasakis is the Director of South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX); Senior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College; Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations; Affiliate of the Centre for International Studies; Affiliate of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA); former Director of the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford (July 2012-October 2015). Katerina Lagos is a Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento and the Director of the CSUS Hellenic Studies Program and Hellenic Studies Center.Discussants: Konstantina Botsiou (University of Peloponnese) & Eirini Karamouzi (Sheffield University)Organised by Eirini Karamouzi (University of Sheffield) and Lamprini Rori (University of Exeter) and hosted by the British School at Athens.
Fragments from early Ottoman Zagori: resilience, adaptation, and transformation British School at Athens 2021-12-01 | Dr Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou (University of Sheffield) presents on Ottoman Zagori, tracing the history of Zagori from the final decades of the “Despotate” of Epirus (early 15th c.) up to the 18th century, investigating change through the agency of those dwelling in the mountains. Issues of resilience, adaptation and transformation will be raised through a combination of archival (local and imperial) sources, ethnography and landscape archaeology.
Crops, Climate Change, and COPing Strategies British School at Athens 2021-11-17 | Professor Amy Bogaard address the climate crisis and offers observations from prehistory.
20 Years of Artists at the BSA British School at Athens 2021-11-17 | Professor Malcolm Quinn, joined by artists Vanessa Gardner, Eleanor Wright, and Annabel Dover, discusses 20 years of artists at the BSA.
The Art of the Bodge British School at Athens 2021-11-17 | Elin Karlsson presents on her work as BSA Artist in Residence.
An Assemblage of Linear B Administrative Documents from Ayios Vasileios, Laconia. British School at Athens 2021-11-17 | At the 15th Mycenological Colloquium, held virtually 21-25 September 2021, Vassilis Petrakis presents an assemblage of Linear B administrative documents.
Experiencing the Parthenon British School at Athens 2021-11-17 | Juan de Lara uses physically-based 3D rendering to investigate sensorial experience at the Parthenon.
