Greek History and Culture Seminars with Leading Speakers

The Greek History and Culture Seminars has been one of the most unique initiatives of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV) in the field of culture over the last few years. These seminars have attracted enthusiastic supporters and have been embraced by a completely new audience of people of different ages and backgrounds.

This is one of the main objectives of the GOCMV; to extend its scope by attracting to its events the largest possible number of people, both of Greek and non-Greek origin. The “recipe” is simple: High level speakers and interesting subjects that appeal to a wide audience.

Eleni Lianidou, Consul General for Greece in Melbourne, and Professor of the University of Melbourne, Nikos Papastergiadis, will launch  on March 21, the series of seminars. The first lecture will be given by the professor of La Trobe University, Chris Mackie, on Homer.

Although one of the main subjects of the series of seminars is to promote the research projects and the expertise of local speakers that are not widely known in the community, the search for charismatic speakers is not confined within the borders of Melbourne. So, this year’s program will include many speakers from other States, as well as from abroad.

The subject, Ancient Greece- Classical Period will be the main subject matter of the first part of the seminars that will last until the end of May. The Mycenaean Greek society, sexuality in Ancient Greece and the Greek colonies of southern Italy are some of the subjects to be covered.

The first part will include some special lectures of the events of the Antipodes Festival that will take place at Wheeler Centre, a hall with larger capacity. Two examples are the lectures of Prof. Dimitris Arvanitakis and of Associate Prof. Nicholas Doumanis, from Sydney. Dimitris Arvanitakis, who was recently honored by the Prime Minister as Lecturer of the Year, will give a speech on The Future of Education: Virtual Universities in a Virtual World. Nicholas Doumanis, honored with the London Fraenkel Prize for his book Myth and Memory in the Mediterrannean, will give a lecture on Muslim-Christian Coexistence and its Destruction in Late-Ottoman Anatolia.

The lecture about the socio-economic and political evolution of Greece during the Political Changeover period (after 1974), will be very interesting. The speaker will be ljournalist Kostas Karamarkos from Thessaloniki-and ex-resident of Melbourne, who was really close to the pulse of political decisions in Greece over the last years.

The second part of the seminars will cover subjects on the Byzantine and Ottoman period, while the third part will focus on modern Greece and its Diaspora. The site of GOCMV will host regular updates concerning the seminars. It is sure that the broadness and the variety of the subjects will attract many participants. Certificates of participation will be awarded to those who attend on a regular basis.

The lectures will be given in English.