CHS International Conference 2006

The conference will therefore focus on the emergence, contestation, and consolidation, during that period, of a national identity at once 'modern' and 'Greek.' Participants will be invited to situate these developments within the theoretical context of current debates about modern nations and nationalism, and particularly about the role of the past in the formation of national consciousness.

Contributors may address these issues with reference to any of the following:
•  political, constitutional, legal texts or commentaries
•  historiography
•  literary texts
•  linguistics and the 'Language Question'
•  outsiders' perspectives, including 'Romantic Hellenism,' the influence of the Philhellenes, travel books
•  Greeks' perspectives on outsiders (Ottoman v. Western European identities)
•  archaeology/art/architecture
•  the collection, dissemination and interpretation of folklore
•  classical studies; the growth of Byzantine studies in the nineteenth century

A comparative dimension will be encouraged throughout, so that Greek and non-Greek texts / perspectives / initiatives can be considered in interaction. A concluding panel is planned on 'comparative nationalism', in which specialists in the theory of nationalism and in other European nationalisms will be invited to bring their own perspectives to bear on the Greek case.