The work of Royal Holloway’s Center for Greek Diaspora Studies was presented to the Greek Vice-Chancellor. Overseas in London

London, Thanasis Gavos

The facilities of the Royal Holloway College of the University of London were visited by the Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for issues of Hellenism abroad during his recent trip to the British capital Andreas Katsaniotis.

His visit was organized because one of the main centers of interdisciplinary study of the newer and modern Greek and Cypriot diaspora is based in this particular university.

Mr. Katsaniotis was given a tour of the university premises by the dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Vice-Chancellor of International Relations of Royal Holloway, Tziuliana Pieri, Dr. Charalambos Dendrinos, director of the university’s Hellenic Institute and assistant professor of Byzantine Philology and Greek Palaeography, as well as Dr. Achillea Chatzikyriakou, head of the Hellenic Institute and director of the Center for Greek Diaspora Studies that operates at the institute.

Among other things, Mr. Katsaniotis was presented with rare volumes of copies of Byzantine manuscripts of the 11th and 12th centuries with works by Sophocles and Aristophanes and the first edition of the Greek Palaeography volume (1708) which are housed in the state-of-the-art Royal Holloway library and the College’s archive .

As Dr Dendrinos explained, at Royal Holloway postgraduate and doctoral students from all over the world specialize in the study and critical edition of ancient Greek and Byzantine texts.

During the lunch that followed, Mr. Katsaniotis had the opportunity to be informed extensively by the Cypriot director of the Center for Greek Diaspora Studies (KMED), Dr. Achillea Hadjikyriakou, about the Center’s rich research activity and its importance in highlighting the past and present of Hellenism in exile.

Characteristically, KMED collaborates with the London Botanic Gardens and the Universities of Zurich and Haifa in the international program “Plants and minerals in Byzantine folk medicine: a multi-disciplinary approach”, which is led by Dr. Barbara Zipser, Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine and a member of KMED, and is generously funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The main purpose of this program is the development of an innovative methodology for the identification of medicinal herbs and minerals found in Byzantine and medieval sources.

KMED also participates in the program “Being an Islander: Art and Identity of the large Mediterranean Islands”, which is coordinated by the Fitzwilliam Museum of the University of Cambridge.

This program examines interdisciplinary the history, archeology and anthropology of Cyprus, Crete and other large islands of the Mediterranean, in order to understand how their populations shaped their island identity from ancient times to the present day.

The program has already received funding in excess of £470,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the A.G. Leventis and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation among others.

Finally, from next November, KMED will be one of the main partners of the international research program Immigrec 2.0 Histories of Greek Immigration. This initial ten-year program (2022-2032) is coordinated by Dr. Anastasios Anastasiadis, Associate Professor of Modern Greek Studies at McGill University in Montreal, and is implemented by eight leading centers of Greek Studies in Europe, Australia and America.

Immigrec 2.0 focuses on the global trends of Greek immigration during the twentieth century and aims to rescue, preserve and disseminate the history and memory of the Greek and Cypriot diaspora through the use of innovative digital history tools.

The KMED participates in the program led by Dr. Pari Papamichos Chronakis, Lecturer in Modern Greek History at Royal Holloway, undertaking the part of the research that concerns the history of the immigration of Greek and Cypriot Christians and Jews to Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Mr. Katsaniotis expressed his warm thanks for the hospitality and his admiration for the work carried out by the Hellenic Institute and the Center for Greek Diaspora Studies: “The Hellenism of the diaspora is a very important part of the collective identity, history and our culture. I am impressed by what I saw and heard today at Royal Holloway. The Greek State is next to the Hellenic Institute and the Center for Studies of the Greek Diaspora and we will support you as much as we can in this extraordinary effort you are making”.

In his speech, Mr. Dendrinos emphasized the tradition of the Greeks “from ancient times until today, to explore the world beyond the borders of their homeland, discovering new places, looking for new ideas, opening new horizons and, most importantly, understanding deeper themselves”.

Before departing, the Deputy Minister expressed his intention to visit Royal Holloway again on 30 March 2023 on the occasion of the Hellenic Institute’s 21st Annual Lecture, which coincides with the 30th anniversary celebrations.

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