Fotakis Achilleas

Fotakis Achilleas

Assistant Professor

Academic field: Social and Cultural History, 19th-20th century

Official Government Gazette, Issue: 2261/07.05.2026, Issue C

Achilleas Fotakis holds a degree in Law from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2009) and a degree from the Department of Education of ASPAITE (2016). He obtained his MA in Human Rights from Birkbeck School of Law, University of London (2010), and completed his PhD at the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2016, with a dissertation on the establishment of the City Police in Greece. In 2020, he completed a postdoctoral research project at the same department, supported by a small-scale ESPA grant, on the postwar reorganisation of the police forces in Greece. In 2021, he completed a postdoctoral research project, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI), at the Department of Social Anthropology and History of the University of the Aegean, focusing on the legal conceptualisations of rape in twentieth-century Greece. In 2023, he completed a postdoctoral research project, funded by the Konstantinos Tsagadas Foundation, on postwar Jewish life in Greece, hosted by the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2026, he completed a one-month postdoctoral research project at the Yad Vashem Archives on the involvement of the Greek security forces in the Holocaust, funded by the Conny Kristel Fellowship Programme of EHRI/ERIC. From 2022 to 2025, he taught through teaching-experience programmes in the Departments of History of the University of Crete and the University of the Aegean. At the latter, he was elected Assistant Professor and has been teaching since 2026.

He was a member of the Board of Research Network 31 of the European Sociological Association, Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism (2010–2017), and is a member of the research groups History of Crime and Justice (2018–), Police History Society (UK, 2021–), and Democratic Policing (Italy, France, Greece, Portugal, Spain, 2024–). He has participated in numerous conferences in Greece and abroad since 2010. His research interests lie in the social and cultural history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on the history of policing, Jewish and Armenian history, and the history of sexualised violence.

Books

  • Red, Black and Blue. Police History and Memory, 1941–1955, Themelio, Athens, 2026.
  • Mugshot. Photography and Discipline, 19th–20th Century, Isnafi, Ioannina, 2025.
  • City Police. The First Steps in Interwar Greece, Themelio, Athens, 2022.

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

  • Co-edited with Dimitra Lampropoulou and Eleni Beze, the special issue “Greek Jews after the War. Continuities and Discontinuities”, Ta Istorika, issue 80 [April 2025].
  • Ilias Petropoulos, On the Jews of Salonica, Kapon, Athens, 2022.

Articles in Journals and Edited Volumes

  • “Information Sources in the Greek Police Forces, 19th–20th Century”, in Jonas Campion, Margo De Koster, Antoine Renglet and Xavier Rousseaux (eds.), Police Intelligence, from Local to Global, from 1750 to the Present Day, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
  • “Silences, Traces and Suspicion. Historical Research in the Greek Police Archives”, in Dimitra Vasileiadou (ed.), Against the ‘Common Morals’. Sexual Crimes and the Meaning of Justice in the Twentieth Century, Psimides, Athens, 2026.
  • “Legislation, Legal Theory and Policing of Rape in Greece, 1922–1976”, in Dimitra Vasileiadou (ed.), Against the ‘Common Morals’. Sexual Crimes and the Meaning of Justice in the Twentieth Century, Psimides, Athens, 2026.
  • “The Police in the Service of Democracy. Memories of the Occupation in the City Police and Gendarmerie, 1974–1984”, in Parthenopi Vergou, Panagiota Gatsiou, Spyros Kakouriotis and Eleni Paschaloudi (eds.), 50 Years since the Fall of the Dictatorship: The 1940s in the Metapolitefsi – Identities, Stakes, Strategies, Epikentro, Thessaloniki 2026.
  • “Policing from One War to Another, 1922–1940. The Police as a National Agent of Culture and as an Internal Army”, in D. Kamouzis (ed.), Interwar Greece. In the Aftermath of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Vivliopoleion tis Estias, Athens, 2026.
  • “Continuities of Control: Policing Prostitution in Greece, 1922–1990”, in Sarah Frenking, Elisabeth Janik-Freis and Martin Göllnitz (eds.), special issue Frauen Polizieren, Werkstatt Geschichte 93 (September 2026).
  • “‘Your Papers, Please!’ A History of the Identity Card, 1943–1963”, in Efi Avdela and Vasso Seirinidou (eds.), On the History of Crime and Justice in Greece, 19th–20th Century: Institutions, Practices, People, Themelio, Athens, 2026.
  • With Dimitra Lampropoulou and Giannis Golfinopoulos, “Policing as Mobility Control. State Restructuring and Public Order in Postwar Greece”, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies, 29:1 (July 2025), 55–73.
  • “‘Reduced Efficiency’, ‘Blacks’ and ‘Seamstresses’: Policing Gender and Sexuality among the Security Forces in the Twentieth Century”, in S. Vidalis, M. Gasparinatou, S. Georgoulas, O. Themeli, A. Kasapoglou, D. Koros, N. Koulouris, C. Kouroutzas, G. Papanikolaou, G. Petsas, S. Spyrea and E. Stamouli (eds.), Social Reality, Critical Discourse and the Criminal Phenomenon: Contributions to the 2nd Conference of the Hellenic Society for the Study of Crime and Social Control, Athens: Hellenic Society for the Study of Crime and Social Control, 2025, 208–224.
  • “Antisemitism during the ‘Narrow’ Metapolitefsi (1974–1989). Methodology, Experience, Politics”, Ta Istorika, issue 80, vol. 43, Benaki Museum / Melissa Publishing House, April 2025, 77–91.
  • With Dimitra Lampropoulou and Eleni Beze, “Introductory Note” to the special issue “Greek Jews after the War. Continuities and Discontinuities”, Ta Istorika, issue 80, vol. 43, Benaki Museum / Melissa Publishing House, April 2025, 4–14.
  • “Legislation, Legal Theory and Law Enforcement on Rape, 1924–1974”, Aspasia: The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History 18 (2024), 47–63. DOI: 10.3167/asp.2024.180106
  • “Economy and Security beyond the Marshall Plan, 1945–1952”, Ta Istorika, issue 79, vol. 42, Benaki Museum / Melissa Publishing House, October 2024, 175–200.
  • “Memories of WWII in the Greek Police (from the 1950s to the Present)”, in Areti Adamopoulou and Anna-Maria Droumpouki (eds.), Monuments for World War II: Memory and Oblivion in the Balkans and Central-East Europe, Ioannina, University of Ioannina / Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, 2024, 188–203.
  • “Conceptualisations of Rape in Greek Criminal Law, 19th–20th Century”, in D. Vasileiadou (ed.), ‘Against Their Will’: Conceptualisations of Sexual Violence in Modern Greece, Psimides, 2024, 41–51.
  • With Dimitra Lampropoulou and Giannis Golfinopoulos, “The Security of the Nation: Public Order and State Restructuring in Postwar Greece”, Kathedra: Journal of the Society for Modern Greek Studies of Russia, in collaboration with the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, issue 12:3 (2022), 94–112.
  • “The Creation of the Greek Police by the First British Police Mission”, Journal of the Police History Society (UK), 37 (2023), 95–102.
  • “The Blue Cadillac, the Geese and the Chickpeas. The Complex Relationship between Law and Crime in the History of the Police”, in D. Dimitropoulos and V. Karamanolakis (eds.), Mechanisms of Control and Discipline in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Institute of Historical Research / National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, 2022, 107–138.
  • “Christoph Gustavus-Sminck, The Nostalgia of Valerian Vrubel. A Child in a Nazi Court, 1941–1942 (2021)”, book review in Synchrona Themata: Quarterly Review of Scholarly Thought and Education, issue 157, Series B, vol. 44, December 2022.
  • “Nikos Alivizatos, Political Institutions in Crisis, 1922–1974 (1983). Political Times and the Uses of a Book”, book review in Istorika: Journal of Historical Studies, issue 75, vol. 40, Benaki Museum / Melissa Publishing House, June 2022, 193–201.

Translations

  • Rae Dalven, A Matter of Survival, edited by Adam Goldwyn, Isnafi, 2024.
  • Rae Dalven, Marriages Are Arranged in Heaven, edited by Adam Goldwyn, Isnafi, 2022.
  • Adam Goldwyn, Rae Dalven: The Life of a Greek Jewish American, Isnafi, 2022.

Conference and Workshop Presentations [from 2025]

  • “Antisemitism in Greece: Experience and Politics 1974–1991”, Contemporary Antisemitism conference, University of Haifa, Haifa, July 7–9, 2026.
  • “Policing the Greek Jews during the Shoah”, European Holocaust Research Institute – European Research Infrastructure Consortium, Conny Kristel Fellowship Programme Welcome Meeting, April 22, 2026.
  • “Coffee and Cigarettes: An Armenian Perspective”, More Stories about Things in Motion in the Eastern Mediterranean & Beyond, workshop organised by Angelos Dalachanis, Alexis Rappas and Mercedes Volait, École française d’Athènes, September 26, 2025.
  • “Police and Public Relations: Police Magazines, Press and Correspondence with the Public, 1974–1984”, Democratizing Public Space and Policing. Transitions, Circulations and Contestations in the 1970s and the 1980s Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece), Demopol 3 Workshop, École française d’Athènes, June 10, 2025.

Interviews / Radio Discussions [from 2025]

  • Interview with Dimitris Pliakas, Larissanet, June 18, 2026.
  • Interview with Petros Kori, Leafing through the 20th Century, podcast of the digital journal Twentieth Century: Historical, Social and Political Review, produced by the independent media collective Alterthess, April 2025.

Contact

Undergraduate Courses

H-291 Control and Regulation of Prostitution in Greece and Europe, 19th–20th centuries
specialised general knowledge
H-252 Social and cultural history of Greece in the twentieth century
specialised general knowledge
H-200 Introduction to History
special background

Graduate Courses

KIA-H-10 Histories of Policing from the Global to the Local: Social and Cultural Approaches
MA in Social and Historical Anthropology
SHA-Α-4 Methodological Issues: Anthropological Directions
MA in Social and Historical Anthropology
SAH-H-4 Methodologies in History and Anthropology
MA in Social and Historical Anthropology

Courses taught

Undergraduate

H-291 Control and Regulation of Prostitution in Greece and Europe, 19th–20th centuries
specialised general knowledge
H-200 Introduction to History
special background

Postgraduate Courses

KIA-H-10 Histories of Policing from the Global to the Local: Social and Cultural Approaches
Fotakis Achilleas
SHA-Α-4 Methodological Issues: Anthropological Directions
Fotakis Achilleas & Panopoulos Panagiotis
SAH-H-4 Methodologies in History and Anthropology
Panopoulos Panagiotis & Fotakis Achilleas