Centre for Hellenic Studies

Newsletter 31 December 2020 Director’s Report

The year 2020 will go down in history as the year of the global for the first week of November 2020. The wealth of today’s outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Already by late January 2020, online resources and virtual museum tours do not offer the same concerns about the spread of COVID-19 started to affect our travel experience, but they still offer good talking points for plans and activities. Let’s be honest, that was not the worst of our classroom discussions. We are grateful to all the foundations and fears. Since then, the pandemic has upended how we live, how organisations that have helped to build such rich resources over we work, how we teach, and how we interact with one another. the past several years. No individual, institution or organisation has been left untouched. This has been a time of ‘social distancing’, but what a misnomer While the focus was, rightly, on mitigating the immediate crisis, that term is. We may be adhering to the new rules of physical it soon became clear that so many things would, and should, distancing but keeping our audience intellectually engaged change well beyond the extraordinary lockdowns of the spring and socially close has been of utmost importance to us. We are and autumn of 2020. Since then, many colleagues and students at King’s have been doing incredible work to help shape real- working apart from one another, but we remain committed to time responses to the crisis. Research teams here have been in the building strong community ties, in which CHS and the Koraes forefront of the latest scientific developments. King’s Arts and Chair remain active and visible. In fostering this community, Humanities have participated in in-depth studies on the public’s CHS, , and the King’s community endorse the ideals of perceptions and the government’s predictions on the coronavirus diversity and inclusion, and it is making every effort to support pandemic, and they have examined how such reactions have our junior scholars, who are facing the most challenging academic informed attitudes and patterns of conduct, here and overseas. By job market of recent decades. This work, these ideals, represent late autumn of 2020, and as we keep navigating the unpredictable the ways in which CHS and the Koraes Chair are responding to world created by the new conditions, our work continues, albeit the changing new landscape in the wake of COVID-19. We will often remotely, since King’s has had to close our building on the continue this mission as we enter into the spring 2021 semester. Strand for long weeks at a time and has also reallocated many of Gonda Van Steen, December 2020 its resources (stemming the decline in tuition income). The Centre for Hellenic Studies had to cancel March through December 2020 events on campus, but it also promptly announced a series of academic and cultural activities that our students, colleagues, friends, and supporters have been able to follow online, on their own time and initiative. Thanks to the hard work and patience of our shared staff, and especially of Ed Stevens, Mark Johnson, Peter Swallow and Abigail Walker, CHS and the Koraes Chair have kept moving forward, supporting writers and ‘art workers’ (as per the newly coined Greek term) as well as scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Therefore, this report does not dwell on what was necessarily cancelled but focuses on what we could and can still enjoy, from the comfort of our homes. Thus CHS steered its followers on our Twitter page (@kingsCHS) to our Hellenic Fridays, featuring ‘slices of Hellenic culture online’. Sadly, we needed to cancel the Rumble trip to , originally scheduled Students on the October 2019 Rumble Fund trip, Old City Rhodes

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD CHS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE The Board held its annual meeting on 6 February 2020, the day of the The Management Committee of CHS consists of the following members: Dr Runciman Lecture. Chaired by the Principal, Edward Byrne, its John Kittmer, Dr Daniel Orrells, Dr Tassos Papacostas, Dr Emily Pillinger, external members are Dr Dionysios Kapsalis (Director, Cultural Foundation Professor Michael Trapp, and Professor Gonda Van Steen. of the National Bank, ), Professor Paschalis M. Kitromilides (Professor Emeritus of the University of Athens), Dr Tassos Leventis FKC (Director of the A.G. Leventis Foundation), Professor Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith (former HM Ambassador to Greece and a CHS Visiting Professor), and Professor Richard P. Martin (Stanford). PUBLICATIONS BENEFACTIONS

ROUTLEDGE SERIES: PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHS LEGACY GIFTS, PRIZES, STUDENTSHIPS AND many publications. Since January 2020, the The general editor of the CHS Routledge SPONSORED STUDY TOURS competition has been open to all BA, MA (formerly Ashgate) Series is Professor In February 2020, the Centre for Hellenic and PhD students currently enrolled in any Michael Trapp (Classics). Further Studies received an extremely generous faculty of any England-based university. information about this series is available at: donation from the Egon family, the late The next submission deadline is Friday, 15 https://www.routledge.com/Publications-of-the- Nicholas and Matti Egon, to secure the legacy January 2021. The award of £500 will be Centre-for-Hellenic-Studies-Kings-College-London/ of the annual Runciman Lecture at King’s. announced in late February 2021. Please book-series/CHS. CHS is eagerly anticipating the 30th Annual also save the date of the third Niki Marangou Runciman Lecture, which will be delivered Annual Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Mr. Co-editors Stefanos Geroulanos, John by our CHS colleague, Professor David Ricks. Candounas and co-organised with King’s Kittmer, and Polina Tambakaki will add The lecture titled ‘The Shot Heard round Centre for Hellenic Studies. This third Niki to the CHS Publications Series a much- the World: The Greek Revolution in Poetry’ Marangou Lecture will be given by Roderick anticipated volume on Cavafy, entitled C. will be one of many high-calibre lectures to Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern P. Cavafy: Poetics and Reception – Music, follow, far into the future. Greek and Byzantine History, Language History and the Arts. The volume will contain and Literature. The title of his presentation new material and some chapters based on is ‘1821 and European Philhellenism’ (in the presentations given in London at the Greek). The exact time and location of the January 2018 conference ‘C. P. Cavafy: lecture will be 13 October 2021, at 19.00, The Poetics of History and the Music of in the Temporary Exhibition Room of the Poetry’. This conference was organised Leventis Gallery in Nicosia, Cyprus. Please by CHS, in collaboration with the Athens save the date and help us spread the news Conservatoire and the Hellenic Centre, about this generous student prize. London, under the auspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic. Dr Tambakaki and In Spring 2022, the Rumble Fund trip Roderick Beaton, then Koraes Professor, will return to Athens and will include were the lead organisers. The new volume visits to sites related to the Greek War of will be dedicated to the memory of Angelos Independence. On the general itinerary are: Delivorrias, the late director of the Benaki visits to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum, who delivered his last major Museum, a guided visit of the Stavros academic talk at the 2018 conference. Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, a biking tour or walking tour of the Ilyssos Dr John Muir is currently preparing volume river bank and discussions about urban 21 in the CHS Series. His volume will planning, a meeting with Greek students present the first full English translation, from the University of Athens, etc. This fully with introduction and notes, of the travel funded trip to Greece for students of the journal written by Andronikos (Nikander) Classics Department is made possible by the Noukkios, and it will bear the title of A Greek generosity of the Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund. in Renaissance Europe. The 2022 trip will again form part of a module ‘Engaging Greece’, taught by One more volume is in preparation, the Professor Gonda Van Steen. As always, the collection Locating the Daemonic, edited by Department of Classics and CHS are very Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe and Emmanuela The A.G. Leventis Foundation has committed to grateful to our various partners in Greece, Bakola. fund our collaborative planning for events which include the British School at Athens. and activities marking the 1821 bicentennial Our students themselves provide the best OTHER BOOKS BY CHS MEMBERS of the Greek War of Independence. The full testimony of what these trips have meant to Professor Emerita Judith Herrin has been programme will consist of 21 events and is them. Students’ testimonies (and videos) studying the role of Ravenna in mediating the called ‘21 in 21: Celebrating 2021 in 21 Encounters’. can be found at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/classics/ interactions between Byzantine and Western The programme, which will offer lectures, about/rumble-fund-trip-201819. For further Medieval culture. Her latest book, Ravenna: panel discussions, conferences, and a couple information about the Rumble Fund and Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe of walking tours around Greek London, now the activities it supports in the fields of Art (Penguin) appeared in late August 2020 and has its own website at https://21in21.co.uk/. and Archaeology, please contact Professor has already been acclaimed in the Financial See below, page 6, for more details. Michael Squire ([email protected]). Times and The Economist. See https://www. The Rumble Fund also sponsors the annual penguinrights.co.uk/Penguin/277837. Postponed The Tassos and Angele Nomikos Postdoctoral Fellow Rumble Fund Lecture in Classical Art (see until post-COVID times is Professor Herrin’s in Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies p. 7). international conference, ‘Power and Images: will soon be appointed. The Koraes Chair Ravenna in a Comparative Perspective’. Her is seeking a junior scholar and colleague to current work and also the future conference help us prepare (and present remotely, if are generously supported by the Ahmanson necessary) some of the many London-based Foundation. events of 2021.

The Niki Marangou Translation Prize, sponsored by Mr. Constantis Candounas and awarded this year to King’s MA student Nicholas Kabanas, commemorates Niki Marangou, with a focus on her own written work. From 2019 onwards, the prize has been awarded annually to a literary translation from Modern Greek into English of one poem and one prose extract from Marangou’s

2 | Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 WORKSHOPS, PANEL DISCUSSIONS, AND OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Offered in addition to our regular Late dimension. In contrast, the politics of this Antique and Byzantine Seminars Series and crisis have been approached as more of an the Modern Greek Studies Events Series. afterthought, a natural or automatic correlate of its economic dimensions. Therefore, MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2020, RIVER ROOM: Kalyvas focused on the politics of the Greek ‘Greek Poets in Translation: Ganas and Ritsos’, co- crisis as a dynamic field. He identified organised with the Anglo-Hellenic League key critical junctures, explored plausible and the Society for Modern Greek Studies. counterfactuals, and pointed to puzzles and Joshua Barley discussed the process of blind spots. He also discussed some broader translating the intricate poetry of Michalis insights that the Greek crisis holds for how Ganas. Taking individual poems as a starting we approach and understand electoral point, he focused on the particular challenges dynamics, contentious politics, populism, presented by Ganas’s formally complex and democratic theory. poetry. The Runciman Lecture was preceded Barley has translated Ganas and, with by Orthodox Vespers held in the College David Connolly, issued the recent collection Chapel. Dean of Arts and Humanities A Greek Ballad, the first book-length Marion Thain paid tribute to the inspirers publication of Ganas in English. Barley, and founders of these lectures, the late who read Modern Greek at the MA level at Nicholas Egon and Mrs Matti Egon, who King’s, has also translated Serenity by Ilias graced the evening with her presence. Venezis and God Is My Witness by Makis Professor Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith Tsitas (both for Aiora Press). In June 2020, A introduced the speaker, and economist Greek Ballad was shortlisted for the London Dr John Kittmer, Second Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Vicky Pryce gave the vote of thanks. The Hellenic Prize and also for the Oxford- Lecture, Athens Runciman Lectures and the hospitality Weidenfeld Prize for book-length literary surrounding them are generously sponsored translations into English from any living by the Egon family, which has now donated European language. MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2020, KING’S COUNCIL RM: an additional £300,000 to secure the lasting Dr John Kittmer introduced and examined The second of a diptych of panel discussions on legacy of the Runciman Lectures. the work of Nikos Stangos, who published ‘Migration and Diaspora’: at the BSA in Athens and two volumes of translations from the at King’s. FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2020, COTSEN HALL 9, poetry of Yannis Ritsos in the early 1970s. In London, the speakers were: Giampaolo ANAPIRON POLEMOU STREET, KOLONAKI, ATHENS: He considered the working relationship Salice (postdoctoral Visiting Research The second Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Lecture between Stangos and Ritsos, as it appears Fellow), presenting ‘The Alexianos: The was delivered by Dr John Kittmer, Chair of from their unpublished correspondence, “Imperial Strategies” of a Diasporic Greek the Anglo-Hellenic League, former British and examined the translations themselves, Family (1743-1782)’; Maria Rizou (EU Policy Ambassador to Greece, and recent PhD looking at principles of selection, practices Advisor in the Department for International King’s College London. Dr Kittmer gave of translation, and the particular challenges Development), on ‘History Replaying his beautifully illustrated presentation in posed by translation from one’s native tongue Itself: Greece and the Policy of Settling Greek on the topic of ‘Anglo-Hellenism: into a language that is not one’s own. Refugees, from the Past to the Present’; Adventures in Cultural Exchange’. He Dr Kittmer read Classics at Cambridge and Manolis Pratsinakis on ‘Intra-EU Mobility positioned the topic as follows: ‘British Oxford, and he has recently been awarded a and the New Greek Emigration’. The latter involvement in Greece was strong throughout PhD in Modern Greek literature from King’s is an Onassis Fellow in the Department of the nineteenth century. “Anglo-Hellenism” College London, for his doctoral dissertation Politics and International Relations and became an institutionalised concept in the on the poet Yannis Ritsos. He is now working Deputy Project Manager of the SEESOX aftermath of the . The decline on a translation of Ritsos’s verse memoir, Diaspora project, Oxford. Our last speaker, of British power and the Cyprus crisis of the The Monstrous Masterpiece, and preparing an Effie Pedaliu, a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, 1950s ended its political role. This lecture edition of the poet’s translations of songs by spoke about European stability and migration examines the extent to which culture has Bertolt Brecht. Dr Kittmer is chair of trustees and placed Greek migration in a broader become a substitute means of exchange for the Anglo-Hellenic League and the European perspective. King’s own Dionysios between the two countries, through an Gilbert Murray Trust. He also serves on the Stathakopoulos chaired and moderated the illustrated exploration of emblematic figures Management Committee of King’s Centre session. and ideas. And it speculates about the role of for Hellenic Studies. More details can be found here: https://www. culture in the post-Brexit future.’ To view a bsa.ac.uk/events/panel-discussion-migration-and- podcast of the lecture, click here: https://www. MONDAY 20 JANUARY 2020, BSA ATHENS: diaspora-co-organized-with-kings-college-london/ blod.gr/events/2i-etisia-dialeksi-eis-mnimin-tis-nikis- The first of a diptych of panel discussions on (Athens) and https://www.bsa.ac.uk/events/ maragkou/. ‘Migration and Diaspora’: at the BSA in Athens and panel-discussion-migration-and-diaspora-co- Dr Maria Georgopoulou, Director of the at King’s. organised-with-kings-college-london/ (London). Gennadius Library, introduced the speaker, The speakers of the Athens edition of this and Dr Haris Vlavianos, writer and Professor diptych of panel discussions were: Eirini THURSDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2020, GREAT HALL: 29TH of History and Politics at the American Avramopoulou (Panteion University), Vassiliki ANNUAL RUNCIMAN LECTURE: College of Greece, gave the vote of thanks. Chryssanthopoulou (National & Kapodistrian Our 29th Runciman Lecturer, Stathis Kalyvas The lecture, sponsored by Mr Constantis University of Athens), Giorgos Tsimouris (Gladstone Professor of Government, Candounas, drew more than 250 people and (Panteion University), and Maria Christina Oxford) drew large audience numbers to was followed by a reception. Chatziioannou (National Hellenic Research the Great Hall on the Strand for his lecture Centre). Both this panel discussion and titled ‘“To Hell and Back”: The Politics of the following looked at the topic from the Greek Crisis, 2009-2019’. He noted how a contemporary as well as a diachronic most of the research about the crisis that perspective. They were well attended and erupted in Greece in 2009-2010 and that brought out excellent threads for discussion came to dominate headlines worldwide has with the audience members. focused, with good reason, on its economic

Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 | 3 MAY-DECEMBER ONLINE EVENTS

Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 the still-young Greek nation-state, and crisis has changed how CHS organises it bears special relevance in light of the events and delivers content. CHS has been bicentenary celebrations of 2021. Johanna steering its followers on our Twitter page Hanink gracefully turned the session over (@kingsCHS) to our Hellenic Fridays, to questions from the audience members, featuring ‘slices of Hellenic culture online’, who wrote in with queries, comments, and with links to offerings such as the Greek Film suggestions from all over the globe. The Archive’s online screenings of highlights sound file of this event may be accessed of postwar Greek cinema, the virtual tours here: https://soundcloud.com/user-760627229/ of five Athens museums, readings by the kcl-departmental-seminar-with-johanna-hanink/s- Actors of Dionysus, an introduction to the YM5ZGOttfXH. Byzantine manuscripts digitised by the Hellenic Institute of Venice, a lockdown On 4 October, CHS featured Dr Joanna Medea Live production, adapted for digital Eleftheriou in conversation with Professor performance by the By Jove Theatre, and, Gonda Van Steen. Together they discussed at @barefacedgreek, a series of short film This Way Back, the Cyprus-focused memoir adaptations of Greek drama produced in published by Dr Eleftheriou just a few days the original language. #HellenicFridays has earlier. The event was presented as part of been very successful in increasing our online the Cyprus@60 Online Festival, organised by presence. Over the summer, we have had the Cyprus High Commission, UK – Cultural more than 13,000 impressions on Twitter, a Section to celebrate the 60th anniversary of five-fold increase from last summer. We have the independence of Cyprus. Special thanks also seen a healthy uptick in followers on our go to Dr Marios Psaras, Cultural Counsellor, Facebook page and email listserv. CHC, and also, for his technical support, to Dr George Giannakopoulos. The sound We also offered our audience some file may be accessed fromhttps://21in21.co.uk/ suggestions for summer and ‘lockdown news/. Emma Bentley, winner of the 2020 Lentakis Award reading’ by presenting an interview with John Zervos, author of Passage to Paradise: FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER 2020: Hellenic Sketches of the Mind (2020), Professor David Ricks chaired the panel accessible via https://soundcloud.com/user- discussion ‘Beyond Words: History and Translation THE ANNUAL KATIE LENTAKIS MEMORIAL FUND 760627229/interview-with-yannis-zervos-author-of- in Modern Greek Fiction’, co-organised with the AWARD CEREMONY, co-organised with the passage-to-paradise2020. British School at Athens and Aiora Press. Anglo-Hellenic League, was postponed but Panelists were Joshua Barley (translator), the League was still able to confer its annual In collaboration with the Classics Karen Emmerich (), prize to a final-year undergraduate studying Department, we followed up with a June and Lambrini Kouzeli (journalist and in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at presentation by Professor Johanna Hanink translator). This panel discussion explored King’s College London, in memory of (Brown University), who is preparing how translators manage the ’s historical the late Mrs Katie Lentakis. This year’s the first English-language translation of awareness in relation to modern Greek fiction Katie Lentakis Award was presented to Emma Andreas Karkavitsas’s 1904 novella The and how these works can be made relevant Bentley, for her essay entitled ‘Why Are the Archaeologist—the first modern Greek for a contemporary audience. See: https:// Re-imaginings of the Prometheus Myth by prose author to be included in the Penguin www.bsa.ac.uk/events/beyond-words-history-and- , , and ’s Classics series (forthcoming 2021, as The translation-in-modern-greek-fiction/. This online so Different?’. This year’s runner-up Archaeologist and Selected Sea Stories). This event was attended by some 100 people, was Molly Duffy for ‘Mortality and the novella, Hanink affirms, is an allegory for tuning in from as far as India, Russia, Turkey, Monstrous: An Analysis of the Hellenistic the tensions, neuroses, and challenges of Egypt, Canada, and Brazil. Sculptural Depiction of Medusa from Greece and Magna Graecia’. Jessamyn Madden- Aberdein received a commendation from the judges for ‘The Birth of Misunderstanding: What Can and Parnassus Tell Us about the Dual worship of Apollo and Dionysus as “Twin Gods”?’ This year’s judges were Professor Gonda Van Steen, Dr Isabelle Clark and Dr John Kittmer, Chair of the League. We thank all students at King’s College London who submitted essays and congratulate the three short-listed students for their hard work that demonstrates creativity, scholarship, and excellent writing. The Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund was created in 2002 in honour of Katie Lentakis, who played an important role in the Greek Resistance, became a prominent member of the Greek community of London, and was for many years vice-chair of the Anglo-Hellenic League.

Artwork by Panagiotis Stavropoulos

4 | Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 PEOPLE

APPOINTMENTS Professor Fiona Macintosh he convened and truly international. Visitors normally In January 2020, Classics and CHS the Classics Faculty Reception Seminar contribute by giving seminars or public welcomed two new Lecturers: Nicolette in Oxford (this year’s theme: ‘Classical lectures, by a reading, performance, or Pavlides, who specializes in Greek religion, Literature and the Mind of Europe’) in exhibition of creative work, by helping and Hanna Mitchell, who covers Roman Michaelmas Term 2020. to organise a public event or conference, history. by advising doctoral students, and/or by Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos, Senior Lecturer in contributions to planning or publicity. PROMOTIONS Byzantine Studies, has taught at King’s since Congratulations on the following academic 2005 but was recently offered a position at VISITING STAFF IN 2019 WERE: promotions: Dr Lindsay Allen, promoted to the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. A social • As President of the Society of Senior Lecturer in Greek & Near Eastern historian of the Byzantine world, he has Papadiamantis Studies, Professor Georgia History; Dr Martin Dinter, now Reader in published widely on epidemics and famines, Farinou-Malamatari (PhD, King’s) directs Latin Language & Literature; Dr Emily the practice and practitioners of medicine, two programmes funded by a generous grant Pillinger, now Senior Lecturer in Latin charity, poverty and remembrance. He from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation: Language & Literature; and Dr Akrivi is currently working on a monograph on the compilation of Papadiamantis’ online Taousiani, now Senior Lecturer in Classics wealth, consumption, and inequality in the bibliography and database (1879-2018) (Education). late Byzantine Empire, and he is preparing and the project ‘Teaching Papadiamantis in another volume on the cultural history of the Secondary Education’ (both presented via NEW DIRECTIONS late Byzantine aristocracy. On 11 February the revised website www.papadiamantis.net). Roderick Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor 2020, Dr Stathakopoulos kindly gave us a She also chairs the Organizing Committee of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, research seminar on ‘How to Get (and Stay) of the 4th International Conference on Language and Literature, gave an interview Rich in the Late Byzantine World’. ‘Papadiamantis’ Diachronic Presence to the Public Diplomacy Office of the (Literature, Painting, Theatre, Cinema and Embassy of Greece, which was published on Music)’, to be held on Skiathos island in the website of the Greek News Agenda (link: October 2021. http://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/index.php/ • Professor Michalis Chryssanthopoulos is interviews/rethinking-greece/7119-beaton-2019). completing a book on the short-story writer He also spoke to O Anagnostis (https://www. Marios Hakkas, to be published by Agra oanagnostis.gr/roderick-beaton-h-istoria-kineitai- editions in 2021, and is also conducting pali-se-palies-roes-synenteyxi-stin-alexandra- research and preparing a book on Cavafy. samothraki/) and granted an interview to • Dr Katerina Levidou continues to work Lambrini Kouzeli, which appeared in To on Greek art music and identity. In June Vima of 17 May 2020. Professor Beaton 2020, she was offered a full-time permanent delivered the online keynote lecture, ‘A Assistant Professorship in historical Victim of His Times: Ion Dragoumis and musicology at the University of Athens. In the Struggle for the “National Soul” of autumn 2020 her book ‘Δοκίμια Ιστορικής Greece’, on the occasion of the opening of Μουσικολογίας: Όψεις της Ελληνικής the exhibition ‘Ion Dragoumis: 100 Years Gateway to Greece και της Ρωσικής Έντεχνης Μουσικής’ after His Assassination’ at the Gennadius was published by Orpheus Editions. Library in Athens. His latest book, Greece: • Dr Anastasia Lemos is carrying out Biography of a Modern Nation (Penguin NEWLY MINTED PHD HOLDER research on the intersections between Greek Random House, 2019) was shortlisted for Iakovos Menelaou was recently awarded and Turkish literature. the London Hellenic Prize and the Cundill his PhD degree with a dissertation • Dr George Giannakopoulos is finishing History Prize. He has also been serving titled ‘Reading Cavafy through Medical his book manuscript Imperialism at the on the Greece 2021 Committee. Also, he Humanities: Illness, Disease and Death’. Margins: A History of Interventions in Modern has been appointed as the A.G. Leventis His work explores Cavafy’s poetry in light Greece (under contract with Bloomsbury Visiting Professor of Greek at the University of insights gained from the medical sciences Press). He guest-edited a 2020 special of Edinburgh from September to December and medical history. The poet explores issue, ‘Britain, “European Civilisation”, 2021. There, he will be organising the death, for instance, as a result of illness, and and the Idea of Liberty’, of the journal Twelfth A.G. Leventis Conference in old age, not as a stage in life, but as a disease History of European Ideas [https://www. Hellenic Studies, to be held on the dates of that brings on its own conditions. tandfonline.com/toc/rhei20/46/5?nav=tocList&]. 18-21 November 2021, on the subject of Dr Menelaou has also published two He also published an open-access review ‘The Greek Revolution of 1821: Contexts, poetry collections with Anazitiseis and one essay of seven recent books on European Scottish Connections, the Classical with Colenso Books. A fourth collection, international history for the Contemporary (Ancient Tradition’. Αρχαίου Κόσμου Ανείπωτα European History journal [https://tinyurl.com/ World Untold) is forthcoming. His current y4eh4v3f research study, The Rhetoric of the Cyprus ]. David Ricks, Professor Emeritus of Modern • Dr Achilleas Hadjikyriacou and Dr Greek and Comparative Literature, retired Problem, delves deep into the Cyprus issue and engages with topics such as Marios Psaras, former and current Cultural in August 2020. With Ingela Nilsson Counsellors at the High Commission of (Uppsala) he is now editor of the flagship expansionism, Realpolitik, and political immaturity in the years 1950-1974. Cyprus. Dr Psaras led the very successful journal Byzantine and Modern Greek Cyprus@60 Online Festival in early October Studies (first edited from King’s by the 2020. late Donald Nicol, FBA) from his new ACADEMIC VISITORS The Centre for Hellenic Studies has a • Dr Salvatore Giuffré is conducting home base in Birmingham. Professor Ricks research on Greek and the taught at King’s since 1989, was head of distinguished record in attracting academic visitors, from postdoctoral researchers to work of A.R. Rangavis). the Department of Byzantine and Modern • Early career scholars Dr Loizos Kapsalis, Greek Studies for seven years, and as Head emeriti, who benefit from its distinctive character and resources and Dr Stavroula Kiritsi, Dr Maria Rizou, and of the School of Humanities (2001-2004) Dr Polina Tambakaki. founded the Department of Comparative contribute, on a voluntary basis, to making Literature in which he also taught. With our research environment at once unique Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 | 5 CURRENT CHS STAFF AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Professor Emeritus the British School at Athens Byzantine and In March 2019 Dr Ioannis Papadogiannakis was of the University of Athens, CHS Modern Greek series. Among the collection’s awarded the Tsiter-Kontopoulou Award International Advisory Board member, highlights is Anthony Hirst on Theodore for excellence in research in the fields of and Director of the Centre for Asia Minor Stephanides, reflecting on Stephanides’s time Byzantine Studies, the History of Ideas Studies, was elected to the Academy fighting on the . and Cultural History by the University of Athens at the chair of the History of of Vienna. He is scheduled to deliver the Political Thought. In October 2020, he Dr Tassos Papacostas spent a spring 2020 Distinguished Prize Lecture in Vienna was elected External Member of the newly Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton in 2021, and he has also been invited to founded Cyprus Academy of Sciences, University’s Seeger Center for Hellenic nominate a recent PhD student to spend Arts and Letters. The year 2020 also saw Studies, where he had just about enough one month at the University of Vienna, the publication of his latest book, Insular time to take advantage of the unparalleled funded by a Tsiter-Kontopoulou Stipend, to Destinies: Perspectives on the History and library resources before the general lockdown interact with students and Faculty there and Politics of Modern Cyprus, with a foreword began. He spent the rest of his fellowship to conduct research in the library. by Robert Holland (Routledge). We now in creative isolation, making good progress eagerly anticipate his forthcoming edited on his current book project on the topic of Professor Gonda Van Steen, Koraes Chair of volume, The Greek Revolution: A Critical ‘Architecture and Patronage in Venetian Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Dictionary (Harvard University Press), Cyprus (late 15th-16th c.)’. In April he Language and Literature, writes: ‘My which features several contributors from presented before an international online current research builds on my most recent King’s. The volume’s publication date of 25 audience the first in a series of virtual book Adoption, Memory, and Cold War March 2021will aptly mark the bicentenary. seminar papers by Princeton Hellenic Greece: Kid pro quo? (University of Michigan Studies Fellows, discussing a heraldic Press, December 2019, https://www.press. Professor Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith, former panel from Nicosia. Dr Papacostas was one umich.edu/11334015/adoption_memory_and_ HM Ambassador to Greece and a CHS of four King’s scholars holding Hellenic cold_war_greece), which was awarded the Visiting Professor, continues to work on Studies Fellowships at Princeton this year: 2019 Book Prize of the European Society and his times and has Fiona Antonelaki (PhD Modern Greek of Modern Greek Studies. The book has been editing the collection resulting from Studies, 2018), Panagiotis Theodoropoulos now prompted the first reviews, several the conference about the Macedonian Front (PhD Byzantine Studies, 2018) and Vicky interviews, a few consultancies on film in WWI. This conference was held in May Manolopoulou (Lecturer, Byzantine History, projects, and many positive reactions from 2018 in and was co-sponsored 2018-19) were Postdoctoral Fellows for Greek adoptees. Its translation into Greek is by CHS. The book will be published in 2019-2020. forthcoming with Potamos Publishers’. PUBLIC EVENTS IN 2021

All our public events are announced online. is called ‘21 in 21: Celebrating 2021 in 21 Encoun- of society, including the disengaged and If you click on https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/ ters’. It draws in partners across Greece and excluded. Across the world, in domestic centre-for-hellenic-studies, you can find the United Kingdom and converses with politics, rhetoric is seemingly preferred over truth; ‘fake news’ over traditional media; notifications of our public events for the the Initiative 1821-2021 [link: https://www. and emotion over expertise. Electorates rally current academic year (up to July) as well protovoulia21.gr/]. The activities on offer, to a ‘new populism’, placing the traditional as the archive of CHS events going back to listed on our dedicated website 21in21.co.uk, political establishment on the defensive. 2013, at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/series/ are designed to engage broad audiences Judicial processes are obstructed to protect centre-for-hellenic-studies-event-archive. You of non-specialists as well as specialists. the leader. In foreign policy, leaders sanction will also find dedicated pages for each of our These collaborative, interactive events must political murders overseas (Salisbury); forthcoming events, and, about one month leave legacies of critical debate, published assassinate journalists (Jamal Khashoggi); in advance of the event date, the Eventbrite work, filmed events, archival advances and use chemical weapons on their own people (Syria); block humanitarian aid (Venezuela); link that will allow you to register online for research capacities. The list below includes and forcibly break-up families (US-Mexican free. Reminders are also regularly sent out by the key events of the spring 2021 anniver- border). The political cost of such actions email to all who have registered their email sary programme, which may still undergo has seemingly fallen, along with the address at [email protected]. These electronic adjustments. The full, year-long programme accountability of their perpetrators. How did platforms also assist us when sending out has been generously sponsored by the A.G. we get here? Our notions of the good society, reminders. Please note that, due to the ongo- Leventis Foundation. of the responsibility that comes with power, ing COVID-19 restrictions, the locations of and, of course, and its discourse, stem from ancient and . events given below are provisional, and we THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 2021, 16.00-17.30 (UK), LSE, HELLENIC OBSERVATORY: , , Plato, and etc. may need to present some events online. Online Panel Discussion: ‘Power and Impunity: have shaped our political thinking, processes, What Donald Trump and Boris Didn’t Learn and systems. Our deepest sense of Western The year 2021 will bring you the usual high- from the Ancient ’. Co-organised by values, embedded in education curricula lights: the Runciman, Marangou, GACUK, Professor Kevin Featherstone and Dr Spyros across our societies, emanates from classical and Rumble lectures, prize award cere- Economides, this panel discussion delves Athens. Is it no longer of use or value? Are monies, book launches, etc. Also, detailed into the following topic: Are we living in a we now judging utility and cost differently? world marked by a new impunity of power? If so, how and why are our leaders safe in plans are underway to celebrate the 200th doing so? anniversary of the Greek War of Independ- Political leaders discard established norms and taboos that have guided the behaviour The panel, chaired by Paul Kelly, Professor ence, the bicentenary of 2021, with a diverse of their predecessors and, in doing so, of Political Philosophy, LSE, will bring range of events. Our collaborative initiative they win popular support from new areas together experts to address these issues from

6 | Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 PUBLIC EVENTS IN 2021 continued different vantage points: School of Fine Art), Efi Gazi (University THURSDAY 22 APRIL 2021, 18.00, ROYAL • Paul Cartledge: Emeritus A.G. Leventis of the Peloponnese), and Kostas Tampakis HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, 11 BEDFORD Professor of Greek Culture, Clare College, (National Hellenic Research Foundation). SQUARE, LONDON: Cambridge, Monday 22 February 2021, 18.00-20.00: CHS co- Panel discussion ‘The Greek Revolution through • Johanna Hanink, Associate Professor of hosting with the Hellenic Society, London location: the Eyes of “Others”’. This panel discussion Classics, Brown University, STB03 (large basement room of Stewart House, will focus on perceptions of the Greek War • Michael Cox, Emeritus Professor of adjoining Senate House on Malet Street, London of Independence across the Mediterranean International Relations and Director, LSE WC1E 7HU): In London, the speakers will be Sea during and after the event, including Ideas. Georgios Varouxakis (Queen Mary), Athena attitudes of Ottoman Muslim officials, Italian Leoussi (Reading), and Sanja Perovic revolutionaries, Greek Orthodox Cypriots, THURSDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2021, 18.00-19.30 (UK), (King’s). and Sephardi Jews. Chaired by Dr Paris ONLINE: Papamichos Chronakis (A.G. Leventis The 30th Annual Runciman Lecture featuring THURSDAY 11 MARCH 2021, 18.15, ROYAL Lecturer in Modern Greek History, RHUL), Professor David Ricks (King’s) speaking HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, MOORE the panel features, as speakers, Dr Antonis on the topic of ‘The Shot Heard round the BUILDING AUDITORIUM, EGHAM CAMPUS, Hadjikiriakou (Panteion University, Athens), World: The Greek Revolution in Poetry’. SURREY: Dr Sukru Ilicak (Research Centre for the The lecture itself will be introduced by The Nineteenth Annual Hellenic Lecture will be Humanities, Athens), Dr Maurizio Isabella CHS Director, Professor Gonda Van delivered by Professor Gonda Van Steen, (Queen Mary, University of London). Steen, and the vote of thanks will be given speaking on ‘The Greek Revolution of 1821 by Dr Dionysis Kapsalis. The Runciman and Its Multiple Legacies’. The event is SATURDAY 8 MAY 2021, 10:00AM DEPARTURE: Lectures are generously sponsored by the organised by Dr Charalambos Dendrinos, Historic Walking Tour of Greece-Related Sites and late Nicholas and Matti Egon and the Egon Director, The Hellenic Institute, RHUL. Sights in London: Tour of the Bayswater area, family. WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 2021, 18.30, KING’S including the childhood home of C.P. Cavafy BUSH HOUSE AUDITORIUM (POSSIBLY ONLINE, and the St Sophia Church, the London FEBRUARY 2021: TWO PANEL DISCUSSIONS: TBC): THE 7TH ANNUAL JAMIE RUMBLE residence of Seferis, and other highlights, On ‘1821: The Migration of Revolutionary Ideas’ MEMORIAL FUND LECTURE IN CLASSICAL ART co-organised by Dr Konstantinos Trimmis organised and chaired by Professor Roderick 2021: (Bristol) and CHS. Beaton, in collaboration with the British Professor Salvatore Settis (Scuola Normale School at Athens. These panels study the Superiore, Pisa) will be giving the Rumble FRIDAY 28 MAY 2021, 19.00, THE HELLENIC common topic of ideas about making a Lecture titled ‘A Greek Lady from CENTRE’S GREAT HALL: revolution – ideas that are in themselves Persepolis: A Statue of Penelope and ‘The Greek War of Independence in Greek Cinema’. revolutionary. They will revolve around Her Roman Sisters’. This lecture will be The evening will present short screenings both concepts, as ways of understanding followed by a complimentary wine reception. and a lecture by Dr Lydia Papadimitriou the outbreak of revolution by Orthodox Although attendance is complimentary, (Reader in Film Studies, Liverpool John Christian, Greek-speaking subjects of the places are limited and pre-registration is Moores University). This event is organised in the spring of 1821, that essential. Booking options will be available by the Society for Modern Greek Studies would lead to the creation of Greece as a via Eventbrite from January 2021 on. and is supported by the Hellenic Centre. It modern nation-state in 1830. Speakers will The 2021 Rumble Lecture, postponed from will be preceded by the announcement of the focus on the transmission, or ‘migration’, of last year, will again be owed to the generosity 2021 Niki Marangou Dissertation Prize, sponsored such ideas across the European continent in of the Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund. It is by Mr Constantis Candounas. Dr Liana the wake of 1789 Revolution in France and organised by the Centre for Hellenic Studies Giannakopoulou, Senior Research Fellow, their impact in creating the climate in which in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute Faculty of MMLL and Centre for Greek a Greek revolution became possible in 1821. of Art, the Institute of Classical Studies, and Studies, University of Cambridge, serves as Monday 15 February 2021, 17.00-19.00 (UK) / the Department of Classics at King’s College the key contact for this event. 19.00-21.00 (Greece), at the BSA: The speakers London (contact: Michael Squire, michael. of the Athens edition of this diptych of [email protected]). MONDAY 14 JUNE 2021, 18.00, KING’S COUNCIL panels will be Antonia Dialla (Athens ROOM: Annual Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award Ceremony, co-organised with the Anglo- Hellenic League (Chair: Dr John Kittmer).

THURSDAY 17 JUNE 2021, 19.00, THE HELLENIC CENTRE’S GREAT HALL: Relaunch of the Runciman Award: A Bicentenary Celebration, an event organised by the Anglo- Hellenic League, which administers the Runciman Award, and supported also by the Hellenic Centre.

THURSDAY 24 JUNE 2021, 18.30-20.00, LSE, HELLENIC OBSERVATORY, ROOM TBA: Panel Discussion: ‘The Greek War of Independence: Re-appraising Its Economic Legacies’. This panel, organised by Professor Kevin Featherstone and Dr. Spyros Economides and chaired by Janet Hunter, LSE, will bring together experts to address these issues from different vantage points. Philiki Etaireia Flag, National Historical Museum, Athens, Creative Commons Αναφορά Μη Εμπορική Χρήση Όχι Παράγωγα Έργα 4.0 (EL), Εθνικό Ιστορικό Μουσείο

Centre for Hellenic Studies Newsletter December 2020 | 7 IN MEMORIAM

Matti Xylas-Egon cultural understanding and appreciation. Her monuments at Amorion, new finds, as well (20 March 1935 – 14 October 2020) absence was sadly felt at the 60th GACUK as an inventory of individuals who have Matti Egon passed away in mid-October, Lecture, organised by Dr Zetta Theodoro- been attested in its archaeological record. and her absence is palpable after all she has poulou-Polychroniadis and entitled ‘Exca- They made Byzantine Amorion come to life, given and contributed. Born into a Greek vating the Cradle of an Imperial Dynasty: focusing on its people as well on its material shipping family, Matti was mainly brought up The Material Culture and Prosopography of remains. and educated in England, but was passion- Byzantine Amorion’, given by Dr Olga Kara- ate about her homeland’s cultural heritage. giorgou and Dr Nikos Tsivikis. This lecture She soon became a major philanthropic was originally scheduled as an on-campus benefactor. She was a very active supporter event to be held on 9 November 2020, but, of King’s Centre for Hellenic Studies, of the given the COVID pandemic, it was resched- Anglo-Hellenic League, and of the Greek uled for 3 December 2020 and as an online Archaeological Committee UK, to name lecture, co-hosted with the British School at just the contributions she made to the UK’s Athens (starting 17.00 UK or 19.00 Greek scholarly and cultural environment. With time). The 60th anniversary lecture was her second husband, the painter Nicholas dedicated to Matti’s memory. Dr Karagior- Egon, she founded the Runciman Lecture gou (associate researcher at the Research at King’s and secured its lasting legacy. She Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art graced innumerable events with her warm of the Academy of Athens) and Dr Tsivikis presence and was a consummate host herself. (research fellow at the Institute of Mediterra- She led a rich and giving life, and she will nean Studies, Rethymnon, ) discussed be deeply missed by her vast circle of friends Amorion (modern Hisarköy, some 110 miles and acquaintances in Greece and in the UK. SW of Ankara), which occupies a special The picture on the right shows Matti in at- place in the history of the Byzantine Empire tendance at the 19 November 2019 GACUK as the capital of one of the most important lecture. Credit: Katerina Kalogeraki. of its provinces, the thema of the Anatolikoi, and the birthplace of the homonymous short- Matti never missed a Runciman Lecture or lived dynasty of Byzantine emperors, the a GACUK Lecture—recurring expressions Amorian dynasty (820-867). They present- of her unwavering devotion to Anglo-Greek ed some of the most important excavated SAVE THE DATES FOR AUTUMN 2021

Saturday 25 September, 10.00: Thursday 28 October, 18.30 – 20.00, Hellenic Friday 26 November, University of Glasgow: Historic Walking Tour of Greece-Related Sites Observatory, LSE: Fifth Gilbert Murray Lecture on Internationalism and Sights in London. Panel Discussion: ‘The Geopolitics of Greece: and Classics: A.E. Stallings (title TBC). See also Continuities and Discontinuities’. https://gilbertmurraytrust.org.uk. Saturday 9 October: Film Screening, co-organised by the Cyprus Thursday 18 – Sunday 21 November: Friday 10 – Saturday 11 December, King’s High Commission and CHS. Twelfth A.G. Leventis Conference in Hellenic Studies Strand Campus: at the : Accompanied ‘Byron, Philhellenism in Literature, the Arts, WEDNESDAY 13 OCTOBER 2021, 19.00, NICOSIA, by an exhibition in the University Library: and Scholarship’, a conference in honour of CYPRUS, LEVENTIS GALLERY, TEMPORARY ‘Edina/Athena – The Greek Revolution Roderick Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor. EXHIBITION ROOM: and Edinburgh as the “Modern Athens” – The 3rd Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Lecture, 1821/2021’. More information can be found Date TBC, 18.00, UCL School of Slavonic and will be given by Professor Roderick Beaton, here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics- East European Studies (SSEES): Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek archaeology/classics/about/leventis/leventis-2021. Panel Discussion ‘Why 1821? The Origins and Byzantine History, Language and of the Greek War of Independence’. Co- Literature. His lecture will treat the topic Friday 26 November, 18.00, Royal Holloway, organised by Professor Richard Clogg of ‘1821 and European Philhellenism’ (in University of London, 11 Bedford Square, and SSEES, this panel discussion focuses Greek). The evening’s event is sponsored by London: on the early historical background and Mr Constantis Candounas. Panel Discussion: ‘Lord Guilford and his Ionian Balkan dimensions to the Greek War of Academy’. Independence. Wendy Bracewell, Professor Friday 22 October: of South-East European History at SSEES, The Greek War of Independence in the Visual Arts will chair this panel that features, as and Literature, an event integrated into the speakers, Richard Clogg, Viron Karidis, and Being Human Festival at Cambridge (TBC). George Frangos.

PEOPLE AND CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE CENTRE FOR HELLENIC STUDIES IN 2021 • Director: Professor Gonda Van Steen, Department of Classics, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, email: [email protected] • Centre Administrator: Abigail Walker, email: [email protected] • Direct questions and requests to receive this annual newsletter via email to [email protected] • Administration: AHRI / Arts & Humanities Professional Services, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, tel +44 (0)20 7848 2423 • Centre for Hellenic Studies website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/centre-for-hellenic-studies • Follow us: /kingschs @kingschs

This newsletter was published by the Centre for Hellenic Studies in December 2020. Design: CHS and AHRI, King’s College London.