PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Program in Hellenic Studies
Arion Melidonis (Department of Anthropology)
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103
Interethnic conflict and violence has segregated Turkish and Greek Cypriots for more than forty years. In April of 2003, however, the "Green" line separating southern "Greek" Cyprus and northern "Turkish" Cyprus was opened for the first time since the war that divided them in 1974. The re-opening of the border also allowed for the re-opening of memory and trauma. This paper explores the experiences of both Turkish and Greek Cypriots as they cross the newly opened border and are confronted with the forgotten memories, histories, and violence of the "other side." It investigates the relationship between memory, violence, and the political and considers possibilities for reconciliation on the island.
Arion Melidonis (Amelidon@princeton.edu) is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, writing a dissertation on "Criss-Crossing the Green Line." He is a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson School and a Religion and Public Life fellow at the Center of the Study of Religion. His ethnographic research focuses on the conflict in Cyprus and looks specifically at how the opening of the "Green" line border has impacted understandings of national, ethnic, and religious belonging, as well as feelings of wellbeing and security on the island.
9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103
Conference Program and Abstracts
Conference Poster
FIRST SESSION (9:30 - 12:00)
Welcome: Dimitri Gondicas, Princeton University
Maria Kaliambou, Princeton University
In Search of Exceptionalism in Greek Folklore Studies
Dimitri Papanikolaou, University of Oxford
On Banal Exceptionalism
Penelope Papailias, University of Thessaly
Media Technologies and Foreign Bodies in Contemporary Greece
Respondent: James Boon, Princeton University
SECOND SESSION (1:30 - 3:00)
Nassia Yakovaki, University of Thessaly
Greece and Europe: An Exceptional Bond Revisited
Lidia Santarelli, Columbia University
War, Occupation, and Civil War: Rethinking Greek History from a Transnational Perspective,1940-1949
Respondent: Alexander Kitroeff, Haverford College
THIRD SESSION (3:30-6:00)
Miltos Pechlivanos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The Anxiety of Influence: The Burden of the Comparison and Modern Greek Literary History
Constanze Güthenke, Princeton University
Running with Scissors: The (Dys-)Functionality of Greek Romanticism
Effie Rentzou, Princeton University
Ruling the Exception: Modernism and Avant-Garde in Greece
Respondent: Michael Wood, Princeton University
Cosponsored by: Department of History, Davis Center for Historical Studies, Department of Classics, Department of Anthropology, Department of Comparative Literature
Directed by Tassos Boulmetis, 2003
Madison Hall, 201 Rockefeller-Mathey Theatre
(In Greek and Turkish, with English subtitles)
"A Touch of Spice" is a story about a Greek boy (Fanis) growing up in Constantinople/Istanbul. His grandfather, a culinary philosopher and mentor, teaches him that both food and life require a little salt to give them flavor; they both require...A Touch of Spice. Political troubles force the family to move to Athens, leaving the grandfather behind. Fanis grows up to become an excellent cook and uses his cooking skills to spice up the lives of those around him. Thirty-five years later, and by now an astrophysics professor, Fanis travels back to his birthplace, to reunite with his grandfather and his first love. He returns only to realize that he forgot to put a little bit of spice in his own life.
Running time: 108 minutes.
Winner of eight national film awards in Greece. Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2004.
Food as passion. Food is the lifeblood of humanity, garnishing tender moments and adding pizzazz to personal experience. The plot device surfaces again in "A Touch of Spice," a semi-autobiographical dramady by writer/director Tassos Boulmetis. This Greek/Turkish subtitled feature [is] rooted in novel narratives and sweeping, dreamlike cinematography.
The Herald Tribune
Richard Payne, Daniel Schwartz, Jack Tannous
Department of History
Syria and Lebanon possess an unusually rich variety of archaeological remains from Late Antiquity. The presentation of the steps of a recent trip will provide an overview of the key sites from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, highlighting the amalgamation of cultures – Hellenic, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic – that transformed the Levant between the fourth and eighth centuries.
Daniel Schwartz is a graduate student in the Department of History. His dissertation title is "Christian Education and Worship in the Making of the Late-Antique Church: Paideia and Cult in the Catechetical Orations of Theodore of Mopsuestia."
Jack Tannous is a graduate student in the Department of History. His dissertation title is "On the trail of la Syrie trilingue: Jacob of Edessa and His Circle."
Richard Payne is a graduate student in the Department of History. His dissertation title is "The Rise of Islam and Christian Society in Iraq."
Kimberly Bowes (Fordham University)
211 Dickinson Hall
Reception to follow
Reading packets are available in the Departments of History and Classics or by contacting Daniel Schwartz at dlschwar@princeton.edu.