Kouvenda

Join us for Kouvenda. For Zoom link, materials, and further information, please contact Associate Director, Dr. Simos Zenios (szenios@humnet.ucla.edu). 5-6 pm: virtual language table for students of Modern Greek and members of the community. Interested community members will take on a mentoring role and will participate in language learning at UCLA, while the students will...

Erγastirio: Conversations on Greek America

Delighted to announce a new initiative! Erγastirio: Conversations on Greek America A Collaborative Public Forum This online forum initiates a series of conversations among academics, authors and cultural producers with the aim of promoting the practice of writing and teaching Greek America in the context of U.S. multiculturalism, the Greek diaspora, and European Americans. We...

Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Linda Reid and Deborah Shlian

Authors Linda Reid & Deborah Shlian discuss their most recent book, Deep Waters. For centuries, an ancient shipwreck in azure Greek waters has concealed  an astonishing truth. The drowning of an underwater cameraman, then the  murder of a highly respected academic - seemingly isolated tragedies?  When radio talk show host Sammy Greene and ex-cop Gus...

Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Louis Anastas

Louis Anastas discusses his recent book, Zeus Rising. Zeus is living anonymously in the hills of Los Angeles when he gets an unexpected marriage proposal, which triggers a mid-life crisis. He fights to find renewed purpose and even considers coming out of the shadows and reclaiming his power. Living forever has its problems, like losing...

Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Constance M. Constant

Constance (Connie) Constant discusses her book, American Kid: Nazi Occupied Greece through a Child’s Eyes Many books written about WWII come to us primarily from generals, prime ministers, diplomats, and revered historians who never personally lived through occupation. Yet, childhood war experiences add a dimension to history different from other points of view. American Kid...

Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Jim Birakos

Jim Birakos discusses his recent book, Unlucky Tuesday: Will Civilization Die on a Tuesday? On a tragic Tuesday, Al-Qaeda terrorists plowed into the Twin Towers. On a shameful Tuesday, Ottoman hordes defiled God’s majestic cathedral, Hagia Sophia, and massacred the Byzantine faithful. But Tuesday in Greek means “three.” And a thrice-occurring tragedy is believed inevitable....

Gelina Harlaftis, “Creating Global Shipping: From the Vagliano Brothers to Aristotle Onassis”

by Zoom

The lecture is based on the author's recent book, Creating Global Shipping: Aristotle Onassis, the Vagliano Brothers and the Business of Shipping, c.1820-1970 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019). It explores the evolution of the European shipping firm through the study of two Greek shipping firms, which provide a prime example of the regional European maritime...

Mary E. Voyatzis, “Exploring Sacred Landscapes in the Mountains of Arcadia”

The mountainous region of Arcadia, situated in the heart of the Peloponnese, has attracted considerable interest and attention since antiquity. Many ancient authors described Arcadia in detail, discussing its rich mythology, many sites, unusual gods, numerous sanctuaries, engaging history, diverse geography, and the important fact that its inhabitants were indigenous, living there even before the...

Konstantinos Zachos, “Excavations at the Victory Monument of Octavian Augustus at Nikopolis, Epiros: A Monument that Marks the Turning Point in the History of the Ancient World”

On September 2, 31 BC, Octavian’s forces defeat those of Mark Antony and the queen of Egypt Cleopatra off the western coast of Greece. The battle is known as the Battle of Actium, after the name of the peninsula at the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf, where an ancient sanctuary to Apollo existed. Few episodes...

Marisa E. Marthari, The Early Cycladic Site at Skarkos on the Island of Ios

by Zoom

The site of Skarkos stands in an advantageous position on a hill in a coastal plain, mid-way down the western side of Ios and in proximity to one of the largest sheltered harbors in the Cyclades. The excavations conducted by the author brought to light a multiperiod prehistoric site and, most significantly, a settlement of...

Greek Book Club: Κάτι θα γίνει, θα δεις του Χρήστου Οικονόμου

Via Zoom

Δεκάξι ιστορίες από τα Καμίνια, τη Νίκαια, τη Δραπετσώνα. Από τον ντόκο των Κρητικών, από το ουζερί "Υπάρχω", από το φουγάρο της ΔΕΗ στο Κερατσίνι. Ιστορίες για τράπεζες που παίρνουν σπίτια, για σπίτια που παίρνουν φωτιά, για όνειρα που γίνονται στάχτη. Για το σκοτάδι που ζει στη διπλανή πόρτα. Κάτι θα γίνει όμως, θα δεις....

Artemis Leontis, “Going after Eva Palmer Sikelianos”

by Zoom

For more than a decade, Artemis Leontis has carried out a recovery project researching and writing the life of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, publishing her biography in 2019. Leontis knew Palmer as a shadowy figure in Greek cultural history, known mostly as the wealthy American wife of the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, who spent all her...