The Greek Orthodox Communities of the north-east Aegean islands: From the Ottoman Empire to the Greek state, 1876-1923
Principal Investigator: Spyridon Karavas
Presentation
The research project focuses, through a wide range of sources, on the processes of transition of the islands of the northeastern Aegean, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Ikaria and Lemnos, from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek state. It attempts to highlight the peculiarities, the similarities and the differences, as regards the perception by the members of these insular communities of the ever-changing political situation during the period 1876–1923. For the communities in question, the year 1912, when Ottoman rule came to an end, undoubtedly marks a turning point. In addition, significant changes have taken place in these island societies since 1914 with the arrival of refugees from the opposite coasts of Asia Minor, a phenomenon that will become more massive with the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922).
The research highlights the people and their relations, the communication networks, the political choices and mentalities, the economic mechanisms, the commercial networks and the dynamics of the local scholars’ networks. Locating the research in a comparative context, the insular communities are viewed in the framework of the dominant ideology of the era, namely the nationalism which was on the rise throughout south-east Europe. The aim of the project is not only to disseminate the results of the research to the academic community, but also to mobilize the public dialogue around the island societies, their history and historiography.
Principal Investigator
Spyridon Karavas, Professor, University of the Aegean
Research Team:
Nikolaos Vafeas, Associate Professor, University of Crete
Maria Mandamadiotou, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of the Aegean
Tatiani Strati, Social Scientist, Panteion University
Host Institution
University of the Aegean, Department of Social Anthropology and History
Cooperative Organization
University of Crete
Funded by H.F.R.I., 1st Call for Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (H.F.R.I.) Research Projects to Support Faculty Members & Researchers and Procure High-Value Research Equipment
Project’s Duration: 36 months (18/12/2019-17/12/2022)
The World of the Palaiologan Romance. Representations of Self and Society in the Greek Narrative works of the Late Medieval period (thirteenth – fifteenth centuries). A Multidisciplinary Approach to Identity, Otherness, Gender, and Ideology.
Principal Investigator: Zissis Ainalis
Academic advisor: Yannis Smarnakis
This project intends to examine (applying mainly modern narratological theories and analytical tools deriving from history and anthropology) the central aspects of the romances of the Palaiologan period and the world as they represent it. Furthermore, it aims to thoroughly compare the narrative universe of the romances with those of other texts of the same period (mostly hagiographical, historical, and rhetorical) and visual works. The research team seeks to explore issues related to how the people of the Palaiolologan period told stories, to analyze what those stories meant to them and how they reconstructed their social and historical reality through such story-worlds. In the context of the project, major questions regarding the making of the self and the people’s social identity in the Palaiologan period are examined: what did they think of themselves, who was the “other”, and what made him a “stranger”? And what about gender construction and identities, masculinities, and femininities? How did the imperial ideology affect the literary heroes, and what can we conclude about its everyday effects? Are there any links between the literature and the visual arts of the period? What can the themes, motifs, and chronotopes of romance reveal about everyday life and conduct? To what extent had the scholars of the Palaiologan period been involved in the efflorescence of this literary genre? Were the Palaiologan romances somewhat linked to similar texts of the Latin “West” or the Islamic “East”? These are some of the main questions that the project aims to explore.
Principal Investigator Zissis Ainalis
Academic advisor
Yannis Smarnakis, Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean
Research team
Yannis Smarnakis, Zissis Ainalis, Nafsika Vassilopoulou, Dora Konstantellou, Konstantinos Karatolios
Funding
Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation
Duration
2/8/2018 – 1/8/2021
Emergence and the routes of “nationalism” in Greece: Paris-Athens, culture, ideology and politics
Principal Investigator: Spyridon Karavas
Principal Investigator
Spyros Karavas
Research team
- Natalie Clayer, directrice d’études chez École des hautes études en sciences sociales (scientific manager),
- Paraskevas Matalas, Dr. of History (post-doctorate),
- Maria Mandamadiotou, Dr. of History (scientific associate).
Funding
‘Education and Lifelong Learning’. It is co-financed by the European Union and National Resources.
Developing Thematic Databases – Creating an Oral History Archive
Principal Investigator: Pothiti Hantzaroula
Objectives of the action:
1. To promote the use of oral testimony as evidence for understanding the past.
2. To contribute to the active and interactive educational process, as students have the opportunity to apply the theoretical and methodological knowledge they have acquired in the field of research.
3. To provide students with the opportunity to organize their own research and develop research objects that come either from their own experiences or from oral history studies.4. Students plan and implement an oral history program and learn to organize their sources following criteria of the scientific community for their classification.
Principal Investigator
Pothiti Hantzaroula
Research team
Pothiti Hantzaroula (scientific supervisor), Despina Hamhale (researcher).
Funding
The project is part of Action 6 of the project “The University of the Aegean, a key Factor for the economic and social development of the Aegean Region”, which is implemented within the framework of the Operational Program Education and Lifelong Learning and is co-financed by the European Union and National Resources (scientific supervisor, Nikolaos Soulakellis).
Collective subjectivities and space in 20th century Greece
Principal Investigator for the University of the Aegean: Charilaos Exertzoglou
Website: http://www.public-sociality.uoc.gr/
The research focuses on associations that construct collective subjects with a focus on locality, on the management of memory or on the space of action in relation to various periods of the twentieth century. The research is part of research group C of the program “Forms of public sociability in urban Greece of the 20th century: Associations, networks of social intervention and collective subjectivities”.
Principal Investigator for the University of the Aegean
Charilaos Exertzoglou, Professor, Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean
Research team
Charilaos Exertzoglou (Scientific supervisor for the University of the Aegean), Maria Stamatogiannopoulou, Yannis Yannitsiotis, Pothiti Hantzaroula, Vaggelis Kehriotis
Funding
The proposal was realized within the framework of the operational program Education and lifelong learning “Thales: Strengthening Interdisciplinary or Interinstitutional research and innovation with the possibility of attracting high-level researchers from abroad through the conduct of basic and applied excellence research”.
Website
From Between the Wars to Reconstruction (1930-1960)
Principal Investigator: Rika Benveniste
Website: http://gjst.ha.uth.gr/el
In October 2010, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation chose to fund the research project submitted by the Group for the Study of the History of the Jews of Greece, entitled: “From Between the Wars to Reconstruction (1930-1960). The Experience of the Jews of Greece in Audio-Visual Testimony”. The study was carried out and completed in 2011. The results of the work of the research group are presented in part on this web site. They fall into two categories:
- The construction of an electronic data base in which audiovisual testimonies of Greek Jewish survivors of the Holocaust are catalogued.
Processing of the archived material with the aim of conducting historical studies which shed light on new aspects of the experience of the survivors.
Principal Investigator
Rika Benveniste, Professor, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly.
Research team
Rika Benveniste, Anthony Molho, Yorgos Antoniou, Paris Papamichos Chronakis, Pothiti Hantzaroula
Funding
The project was funded by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation.
Duration
1/1/2011 – 31/12/2011
Website
Gendered dimensions of migration in Southeast Europe: integration, work and intercultural communication
Principal Investigator: Riki Van Boeschoten
The research studied migration as a gendered experience through the life narratives of male and female migrants from Albania and Bulgaria. The field of the research was defined as the city of Volos.
Principal Investigator
Riki Van Boeschoten, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
Research team
“Immigration, cultural identity and historical culture”, Riki Van Boeschoten (scientific supervisor), Μεταδιδακτορικοί ερευνητές: Pothiti Hantzaroula, Alvanos Raimondos, Ioanna Laliotou, Pinelopi Papailia, Efi Gazi, Ritsa Deltsou, Mitsos Mpilalis, Lambrini Styliou, Alexandra Siotou.
Funding
EPEAEK II: “Pythagoras: Strengthening Research Programs in Universities”, funded by the Ministry of Education
Duration
2004-2007