Greek Studies Now:

Cultural Analysis Network

The Cultural Analysis Network “Rethinking Modern Greek Studies in the 21st Century” launches dedicated website

The Cultural Analysis Network “Rethinking Modern Greek Studies in the 21st Century” is launching its new dedicated website under the title “Greek Studies Now” on March 22, during the network’s webinar “Dream Nation: 200 Years On.”

The network started in January 2020 as the TORCH International Partnership “Rethinking Modern Greek Studies in the 21st Century,” bringing together two vibrant research communities working on the culture of Modern Greece and South Europe in the universities of Oxford and Amsterdam. This partnership created an institutional bridge between the programs in Modern Greek in both universities but from the outset engaged a broader network of scholars from several countries and universities in Europe, Greece, and the US, and will continue to widen its reach to include more institutional partners. It was initiated by professors Dimitris Papanikolaou (Oxford) and Maria Boletsi (Amsterdam) with the key contribution of Dr. Kristina Gedgaudaitė (currently at Princeton University), who has worked at both universities and acted as a bridge between the two communities.

Committed to the practice of cultural analysis, the network aims to energize the field of Modern Greek Studies and bring Greek culture, society, history, and politics to bear on larger and timely theoretical, cultural, and political debates. It promotes a broad understanding of Modern Greek Studies in its intertwinement with other fields and triggers interdisciplinary dialogues that take scholars outside the comfort zones of their disciplines. Crucial to the network’s mission is to bring together young and more experienced scholars in non-hierarchical settings and exchanges and embrace the new energy from young scholars in the field.

During the past year, the network organized a successful conference in Oxford (February 2020) and the equally successful ongoing online roundtable series “Local Cases, Global Debates.” These roundtable discussions address cases that situate Greece within larger debates, focused so far on ecocriticism, biopolitics, race, the nation, the relevance of contemporary art, and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Although the network’s material will also remain on the TORCH website, where the network’s events and blog have been hosted so far, its new website, “Greek Studies Now,” designed by Periklis Douvitsas, offers a lot of new material and possibilities. The website hosts announcements of the network’s past and future events, the network’s rich blog with short essays on ongoing research, new topics, and future projects by scholars connected with the network, an archive of videos of past (online) events, and the new section “book-self” with short essays about recently published field-defining books to which the reviewer has a personal connection. In short, the website offers an archive for the network’s past activities and a dynamic platform for scholarly exchanges and debates taking place through the website’s texts and the network’s events. The network’s new website is managed by an editorial team, which currently comprises, besides the three initiators, the PhD candidates Yiorgos-Evgenios Douliakas (Amsterdam) and Claudio Russello (Oxford).

The network is initially funded by TORCH (The Oxford Research Center in the Humanities). It also receives financial support from the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, main sponsor of the Marilena Laskaridis Chair in Modern Greek Studies (University of Amsterdam) and the Sub-faculty of Byzantine and Modern Greek (Oxford). 

The network’s website was made possible thanks to an “Innovative Initiatives Grant” by the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA).

To visit the website, go to https://greekstudiesnow.org/

To subscribe to the network’s mailing list, follow the dedicated link on the website, or write directly to greekstudiesnow[@]gmail.com

 

ΧΡΟΝΟΣ 2021, 21 Μαρτίου 2021

GREEK STUDIES NOW: CULTURAL ANALYSIS NETWORK
GREEK STUDIES NOW: CULTURAL ANALYSIS NETWORK

“Dream Nation: 200 Years On.”, 22 March 2021, 17:00 UK time, main speaker: Stathis Gourgouris
“Dream Nation: 200 Years On.”, 22 March 2021, 17:00 UK time, main speaker: Stathis Gourgouris