Skip to main content

Please note: this event has passed


The 1821 Greek Revolution Observatory records and makes sense of the ways in which 21st-century society perceives the Greek Revolution.

Speaker: Dr Athena Syriatou, Assistant Professor in Modern and Contemporary European History, Department of History and Ethnology in the School of Classics and Humanities, Democritus University of Thrace

Commentator: Dr Kyriakos Sgouropoulos, Democritus University of Thrace

The 1821 Observatory has been one of the major endeavours in public history focusing on the bicentennial celebrations of the Greek Revolution of 1821 in Greece and worldwide. Dr Syriatou will present the digital archive that was created to record and analyse the ways in which 21st-century societies around the world have perceived the Greek Revolution in digital as well as conventional domains.

As we believe that historical culture is formed by many contributors, both professional and lay, we sought to include in the archive the works of academic historians, artists, theatre actors, civil servants, the clergy, the teachers, and others who were motivated by the 1821 bicentenary to produce new historical works and commemorative undertakings on 1821.

Far from creating a silent archive, we aimed to start a dialogue with those interested in contemplating the memory and meaning of the 1821 Revolution and its afterlife not only in Greece but also globally. Dr Syriatou will present the major results of the academic and other commemorative activities in many categories included in the archive, to highlight contemporary concerns of the public aspects of history that have arisen because of the bicentenary.

Dr. Athena Syriatou

Dr. Athena Syriatou is the Scientific Director of the 1821 Observatory, President of the Society for the Study of Historiography and Theory of History, Director of the Modern and Contemporary History Laboratory in the Democritus University’s Department of History and Ethnology, and member of the editorial committee of the Historein journal. Her major research interests include Modern British cultural and social history, Public History, and history of the British Empire. Among her selected publications are: ‘London Ablaze and the Construction of the “People”’, in M. Papathanasiou (ed.), The City in Crisis (Athens: Herodotus Publications, 2022 [in Greek]); Ruling the Waves: Aspects of History and Historiography of the British Empire, an edited volume published by Asini Publications, Athens, 2018; and ‘National, Imperial, Colonial and the Political: British Imperial Histories and Their Descendants’, Historein 12, 2012, pp. 38-67.

Event details

Council Room (K2.29)
Strand Campus
Strand, London, WC2R 2LS