Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Oswyn Murray (University of Oxford)
Humanities Program Building, Room 103

John K. Papadopoulos (University of California, Los Angeles)
Location: 010 East Pyne

Presented by The Archeological Institute of America, Princeton Society, Department of Classics - Princeton, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Oswyn Murray (University of Oxford)
Humanities Program Building, Room 103

Copies of Professor Murray's article on "Bulwer Lytton's Athens: It's Rise and Fall (1837)," Times Literary Supplement, November 28, 2003, may be picked up at the offices of the Program in Hellenic Studies and the Department of Classics. Electronic copy is also available through the Princeton University Library web - site.

Asen Kirin (University of Georgia, Athens; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Michael D. Gordin (Department of History)
Humanities Program Building, Room 103

This talk will explore the role of the Byzantine cultural heritage in the realms of art, architecture, and literature during the Neoclassical period in Russia, and will focus on the pivotal role of Empress Catherine the Great (1762-1796) as the most influential patron of the arts in that country. During the late 1700s Russia was the only country actively contributing to the arts of the Neoclassical era, while still preserving a meaningful association with the Byzantine tradition. Eighteenth-century Russian Neoclassicism intentionally merged the heritages of classical antiquity and Byzantium. In an era when familiarity with classical culture brought prestige and served as a measure of enlightenment, Catherine the Great and her advisers attempted to elevate to the same status knowledge about Byzantium. The study of eighteenth-century Byzantinism opens a new perspective on the transformations that the perception of Byzantium underwent during the nineteenth century in Russia. From being the symbol of this country's westernization, it then came to represent Russia's difference from the West.

Asen Kirin received his Ph.D. from the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University (2000). His dissertation dealt with the late antique imperial palace of Serdica (modern Sofia). Asen Kirin's earlier training in Slavonic languages and literatures, took place in Moscow and Sofia. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at the Lamar Dodd School of Art of the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. He joined the faculty at UGA after spending a year at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., as a Junior Fellow in Byzantine Studies. Friday, March 5, 2004 2:30 p.m.  [Last Updated 2004]

Georgios Varouxakis (Aston University; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Jennifer G. Pitts (Yale University; Center for Human Values, Princeton University)
Humanities Program Building, Room 103

John Stuart Mill was unarguably the most influential pillar of the liberal tradition to confront directly the issues raised for liberal-democratic politics by nationhood and nationalism. His theorizing on "nationality" has been quoted and debated ever since he wrote his famous Chapter XVI of Considerations on Representative Government(1861) on nationality. From John [Lord] Acton a year later (in the equally famous essay "Nationality"), to the writings of some of the best known of our contemporary political theorists and philosophers, Mill's pronouncements on nationality/nationalism have been regarded as the starting-point of discussion on the subject from a liberal point of view. Georgios Varouxakis has recently challenged many of the misconceptions or half-truths that occur in the literature in his book Mill on Nationality (London and New York: Routledge, 2002). In this paper he explores further a topic that is central to the book he is writing currently (on British political thought on "the principle of nationality" and on Europe's "small nations" from 1821 to 1922), namely the theories developed in the nineteenth century regarding the viability of so-called "small nations" and, moreover, the advisability of there being such "small nations" in Europe and the world. In that respect, the modern Greek state that emerged in the early nineteenth century was a case of crucial importance. In this paper, Mill's attitude towards modern Greece (which he visited twice and on which he was well informed) is examined and discussed in the context of the theoretical debates raised by the emergence of "small nations." The role of Mill's compulsive interest in ancient Greece will of course be discussed. Of particular interest are the conclusions that can be reached through Mill's judgments on issues such as the plausibility of the claims of the modern Greeks to be the descendants of the ancient Greeks and their claims to be a "European" nation, or his stance on the "Eastern Question."

Georgios Varouxakis is Associate Professor (Reader) in Political Theory at Aston University, Birmingham, U.K. He is the author of the books: Mill on Nationality (Routledge, 2002), and Victorian Political Thought on France and the French (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2002) as well as co-author of Contemporary France: An Introduction to French Politics and Society (Arnold, 2003). He has also published several journal articles on topics in the history of political thought (mainly British and French) and on issues of nationhood and political theory. He is currently working on a book on Nationality, Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism in British political thought between 1821 and 1930 and, more long-term, on a book on conceptions and articulations of the relationship between "cosmopolitanism" and "patriotism" in contemporary political theory (Anglo-American, French, and German). He is the organizer of "The John Stuart Mill Bicentennial Conference, 1806-2006" that is to take place at University College London on 5-7 April 2006, under the auspices of the "International Society for Utilitarian Studies" and the "Political Thought" Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association of the U.K. [PSA].   [Last Updated 2004]

Minna Rozen (University of Haifa; Princeton University)
Respondent: Olga Litvak (History Department)
Humanities Program Building, Room 103
Co-sponsored by the Program in Judaic Studies

The last chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Salonika, Rabbi Tzevi Koretz (1933-1943), is engraved in the historical memory of the survivors of Salonikan Jewry, and by extension, in the collective Jewish memory, as a foreign traitor who collaborated with the Nazis in order to save himself and his family. The newly available archives and a re-reading of existing material suggests that a revision of Rabbi Koretz's role in this last chapter of the history of the Salonikan community is in order. The background provided by the new material suggests that Koretz's image in the Jewish historical memory was portrayed in such a way as to facilitate the community's understanding of its unexpected and colossal destruction. It served to substantiate the post-war Israeli ethos, and this same image served post-war Greece to allay any guilt it felt for not having done more against the deportation. The paper presented here sheds light not only on the history of Salonikan Jewry in the modern era, but also helps our understanding of the tension between the assimilationist and nationalist trends among diaspora Jewry in general, and in the countries of the former Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 20th century, in particular. It also adds a new dimension to the debate on the role of the Jewish leadership under Nazi rule. But first and foremost it is a case study on the nature of human memory, and the way of its formation.

Minna Rozen is Professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa (1999-). Formerly Head of the Diaspora Research Institute at Tel Aviv University (1992-97), she is the founder and Head of the Modern Hellenic Studies Program at the Univeristy of Haifa (2000-). Since 1987, Minna Rozen has engaged in several documentation projects of Ottoman and post-Ottoman Jewry, including a digital archive of the Jewish cemeteries in Turkey and Bulgaria, Jewish archives of Istanbul and Izmir, the archives of The Jewish Communities of Athens and Salonika, and the Archives of Bulgarian Jewry. Author of seven books and editor of five books, she has written extensively on the history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and its successor lands, especially Greece and Turkey. Her most recent publications are A History of the Jewish Community of Istanbul: The Formative Years (1453-1566) (Leiden: Brill, 2002) and The Last Ottoman Century and Beyond: The Jews in Turkey and the Balkans,1808-1945 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, forthcoming). During the current academic year, 2003-04, Minna Rozen is the Munir S. Ertegun Foundation Visiting Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University.   [Last Updated 2004]

Panos Valavanis (University of Athens)
106 McCormick Hall

The establishment of the sanctuary: Why Olympia? The battles for Olympia and the origin of the games. The warlike Zeus and the role of his oracle for the fame of Olympia. The type of dedications and their dedicators: Weapons against tripods. The big festivals and the Treasures of the colonists. The temple and the cult statue of Zeus by Phidias: The first tourism for art in History. The 'forming' of the catalogue of the winners and the 'first' Olympiad. Olympic truce or a battle into the sanctuary during the games ? Philip of Macedonia and Alexander the Great in Olympia: The political aspects of the games. The first Romans and Emperor Nero at Olympia. Wealthy women attend the games. The internationalization: Armenians against Athenians. The End: Zeus hands over his sanctuary to Jesus Christ.

Panos Valavanis has been working since 1981 at the University of Athens, where he is Associate Professor, teaching Classical Archaeology and doing research in the fields of Classical vase painting, topography of ancient Athens, Classical architecture, athletics, and ancient Greek technology. He has taken part in many excavations in Greece and has contributed to the publishing of the finds. He is especially interested in the dissemination of current research to the wider public. He is a member of the committee for the teaching of Archaeology in the elementary and high schools and he writes books for the preparation of the teachers and especially for the children. Panos Valavanis has also worked on the planning of the archaeological park of Athens, the exhibition of the Museum of ancient Olympic games, as well as the production of archaeological films and CD-Roms. His latest book: Sanctuaries and Games in Ancient Greece has just been published in Athens by Kapon Editions. An English edition, sponsored by the Getty Museum, is forthcoming.  [Last Updated 2004]