Virtual Lecture Delves into the History and Destruction of Smyrna

A virtual lecture on the history and the destruction of the great city of Smyrna in Asia Minor will be held this coming Tuesday.

Organized by College Year in Athens (CYA) and the Greek Consulate General in Boston, the lecture is a tribute to the city of Smyrna and the 100 years since its destruction.

Guest speaker Alexander Kitroeff, a Professor of History at Haverford College and the CYA, and a Member of CYA’s Academic Advisory Roundtable, will illuminate what Smyrna was like at the beginning of the 20th century, including what was so unique about this international Mediterranean port, and will review the events that caused the Asia Minor disaster that led to the destruction of this cosmopolitan city in 1922.

Facilitating the discussion will be Fotini Christia, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center at MIT. She is Director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC), Associate Director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), and Chair of the doctoral program in Social and Engineering Systems (SES).

The lecture will be held on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, at 12 noon EDT. For more details and registration please follow this link. The lecture will be broadcast live on YouTube.

CYA offers educational seminars on Greece

College Year in Athens in partnership with HALC (Hellenic American Leadership Council),  has formed the CYA Hellenic Executive Program, which offers online educational seminars to all interested and who desire to further their knowledge on all topics associated with Greece, from ancient civilization to modern-day development.

CYA is currently offering the third seminar titled Greece & the Challenges of Europeanization: 1936 – 2021, which serves as a continuation of the two first sessions offered in spring 2021 (“The Emergence of the Modern Greek State”) and fall 2021 (“Greece Enters the Twentieth Century”).

The seminar is being taught by Professor Alexander Kitroeff.

Kitroeff is currently teaching a class at CYA that examines the wide-ranging support Americans offered Greece during the revolution of 1821 entitled Americans and the Greek Revolution.

A cultural and educational bridge between the U.S. and Greece

CYA, acting as a cultural and educational bridge between the U.S. and Greece for almost sixty years, offers outstanding academic programs (semester, year, winter and summer), Virtual Internships and Gap programs are also offered, all of which embrace the vibrant experience of day-to-day contact with the people, the monuments and the landscape of Greece.

Speaking recently to Greek Reporter, Alexis Phylactopoulos, the president of CYA, says that the institution “brings people together and makes Americans get to know Greece. A country that is safe, stable – a country that has a lot to give to the world.”

Phylactopoulos is justifiably proud of what CYA has achieved throughout the decades of its existence. “After all these years, CYA has created 10,000 philhellenes.

“Almost 300 of those students have become professors, teaching subjects related to Greece,” he told Greek Reporter. He added that some of the CYA students who came over to Greece to study eventually stayed permanently in the country.

All its programs are delivered in English at the Athens-based International Center for Hellenic and Mediterranean Studies (DIKEMES), located next to the Kallimarmaro (Marble) Stadium and the National Gardens in the heart of the city.