Scholars Present New Research at the Hellenic Studies Program

This Spring Semester, and April in particular, proved especially rich in events for the Hellenic Studies Program.

On April 6, the Hellenic Studies Program, in collaboration with the Program in Jewish Studies, welcomed Dr Paris Papapichos Chronakis (Royal Holloway, University of London), who presented the talk “Seeing like a Merchant: Jews and Greeks from Ottoman to Greek Rule.” Drawing on his award-winning book The Business of Transition: Jewish and Greek Merchants of Salonica from Ottoman to Greek Rule (Stanford University Press, 2024), he explored how Salonika’s cosmopolitan bourgeoisie navigated the transition from empire to nation-state in the early twentieth century.

Two days later, on April 8, the Hellenic Studies Program welcomed Dr Ilia Xypolia (University of Aberdeen), who delivered the talk “Conflict Guaranteed: Imperialism, Cyprus, and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee.” In her presentation, she argued that the Treaty of Guarantee was the most consequential element shaping the ongoing conflict in Cyprus, describing it as part of the 1959–1960 settlements that granted the Republic of Cyprus an inherently flawed independence.

On April 13, Dr Marilena Anastasopoulou (University College Dublin and University of Oxford), who also served as a Visiting Fellow of the Hellenic Studies Program during the spring semester, gave a talk on her recently published book A Century of Asia Minor Refugees in Greece: Flight, Fight, and Fraternity (Oxford University Press, 2026). The book offers a comparative, intergenerational, and interregional history of Asia Minor refugee memories and identities shaped by forced displacement, while examining the complex relationship between contemporary attitudes and refugee pasts.