Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University

Students, scholars, activists and artists convened at the Princeton Athens Center last week to study race and racialization in a transnational context.

Our newest Summer Institute, “Race and Racialization,” brought together graduate students based in Greece and at Princeton University, as well as practitioners in the arts, education and activism in Greece, for in-depth engagement with key texts in Black studies.

The seminar was held at the Princeton Athens Center June 8-12. Anthropologist Soo-Young Kim and social scientist Marcus Lee led the seminar and a related workshop on June 11 titled “Black Studies: What Is at Stake?”

“The “Race and Racialization” seminar provided an exciting opportunity to consider the global significance of race,” said Lee, an assistant professor of African American Studies, Princeton University. “Witnessing the exchange of ideas between the American and Greek seminar participants was eye-opening and inspiring.”

The cohort included five Princeton doctoral students (in Art & Archaeology, Classics, English, and History), three doctoral students at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Πάντειον Πανεπιστήμιο, Πρύτανις - Panteion University, in Greece (in Anthropology, History, and Sociology), and three practitioners working in Greece.

Students, Artists, and Educators from Princeton and Greece Study "Race and Racialization" at the Princeton Athens Center By Catherine Curan Students, scholars, activists and artists convened at the Princeton Athens Center last week to study race and racialization in a transnational context.Our newest Summer Institute, “Race and Racialization,” brought together graduate students based in Greece and at Princeton, as...

In the latest Ideas Roadshow “Exploring Art History” podcast and Substack, Sam Holzman, assistant professor of art and archaeology and the Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for Hellenic Studies, reflects on discovering a career path researching ancient Greek architecture, teaching at Princeton University and in Greece, and collaborating with University colleagues including Basile Baudez, associate professor of art and archaeology.

Samuel Holzman discusses Greek art and archaeology in "Exploring Art History" podcast interview In the latest Ideas Roadshow “Exploring Art History” podcast and Substack, Samuel Holzman, assistant professor of art and archaeology and the Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for Hellenic Studies, reflects on discovering a career path researching ancient Greek architecture, teaching at Princeton a...

After sixteen months of online collaboration, four Ph.D. students based in Greece and Turkey visited the Seeger Center to share findings from a Princeton-led digital humanities project on medieval coins.

On April 23, the students presented their research on late antique and early medieval coin finds from Greece and Turkey at a workshop co-sponsored by the Seeger Center. This event was the cohort’s second in-depth workshop, bookending a joint research initiative that began at a numismatics workshop in January 2025 at the Princeton Athens Center.

The event at the Seeger Center marked the culmination of the FLAME Heartlands Project, which was supported by a Magic Grant for Innovation from the Princeton Humanities Council.

FLAME Heartlands is an offshoot of the FLAME project (Framing the Late Antique and early Medieval Economy. These projects research the minting and circulation of coins from 325-750 C.E. and create an open-source database available to scholars anywhere in the world with the touch of a computer cursor.

FLAME Heartlands brought together a team of scholars from Princeton, Greece, and Turkey. The cohort included two doctoral candidates from Greek universities and two from Turkish universities: Didem Dursun (Akdeniz University), Rumeysa Olutaş (Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi), Dikaios Panteleakis(University of Crete), and Garyfallia Prifti (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).

Read the full story by Ilia Curto Pelle, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and project manager for FLAME: https://bit.ly/4e4pPvg

Early-career scholars based in Greece, Princeton, and Turkey Collaborate on Digital Numismatics Research By Ilia Curto PelleAfter sixteen months of online collaboration, four Ph.D. students based in Greece and Turkey visited the Seeger Center to share findings from a Princeton-led digital humanities project on medieval coins.On April 23, the students presented their research on late antique and early m...

Our warmest congratulations to Jiani Fan *21, Comparative Literature Grdauate student, on the publication of “The Reception of Ancient Philosophers in Early Modern France."

Our warmest congratulations to Justin Willson *20, Art and Archaeology Graduate student, on the publication of “The Moods of Early Russian Art."

In the latest edition of our Director's Bookshelf series, Seeger Center Director Dimitri Gondicas speaks with Luca Zavagno, author of “The Insular Worlds of Byzantium, ca. 550–ca. 900,” published by Arc Humanities Press in 2025.

Zavagno was appointed as a visiting fellow at the Seeger Center in 2012 and 2024. He is an associate professor of Byzantine Studies at Bilkent Üniversitesi in Ankara, Turkey.

Director's bookshelf with Luca Zavagno DIRECTOR’S BOOKSHELFAn Agora of IdeasSeeger Center Director Dimitri Gondicas in conversation withLuca Zavagno     The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies supports Princeton scholars — students, faculty, and fellows — who conduct research on Hellenic studies topics at the University and in G...

Congratulations to Teresa Shawcross and Will Stroebel, co-winners of the Mediterranean Seminar’s 2026 Book Prize!

“Wisdom’s House, Heaven’s Gate: Athens and Jerusalem in the Middle Ages (New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture),” by Teresa Shawcross, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2024.

“Literature’s Refuge: Rewriting the Mediterranean Borderscape,” by Will Stroebel, was published by Princeton University Press in 2025.

Both authors are former postdoctoral fellows at the Seeger Center.

Shawcross was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow at the Seeger Center in the 2006-07 academic year and is now an associate professor of history and Hellenic studies at Princeton University.

Stroebel was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center in 2018-19. He is an assistant professor in the Modern Greek Program, Department of Classical Studies, and the Comparative Literature Department at the University of Michigan.

The Mediterranean Seminar’s announcement stated that “the committee was most interested in books that broke new ground conceptually or methodologically, were comparative and/or interdisciplinary, that emphasized the intercultural/interregional/inter-religious contact, and that were “of” rather than merely “in” the Mediterranean.”

The announcement praised “Wisdom’s House, Heaven’s Gate: Athens and Jerusalem in the Middle Ages” as “a tour de force of early medieval Mediterranean history” and “a model of how to approach the history of this complex and dynamic world, demonstrating how Mediterranean Studies approaches can generate illuminating and original conclusions by interrogating canonical historiographical paradigms.”

“Literature’s Refuge" was lauded for “foregrounding the violence and loss inherent in the imposition of borders of all kinds." The announcement noted that Stroebel's book “magisterially demonstrates the centrality of literary politics to modern Mediterranean history.”

Read Director Dimitri Gondicas’ interviews with Shawcross and Stroebel about these titles:
https://bit.ly/3VaCiTQ
https://bit.ly/4dSeKxi

As a postdoctoral fellow at the Seeger Center from 2023-25, Evangelia (Lina) Chordaki researched Hellenic studies, the history of science, and feminist theory.

We were thrilled to welcome Lina to the Princeton Athens Center yesterday to celebrate the launch of her monograph “Making Sense of Knowledge: Feminist Epistemologies in the Greek Birth Control Movement (1974–1986),” published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.

In an interview with Dimitri Gondicas for our Director’s Bookshelf series, Chordaki said, “My years as a Seeger Fellow were truly formative and led to the publication of this book. The Center offered both the gift of concentrated research time and a community of extraordinary intellectual exchange that crucially shaped the arguments of the monograph. This environment allowed me to think critically and creatively about the intersections of Hellenic studies, the history of science, and feminist theory.”

Read the full interview: https://bit.ly/4u54lTB

Greek magical papyri are the focus of intensive study at our new Spring Institute, “Late Antique Magic,” at the Princeton Athens Center this week.

The seminar brings together graduate students from Princeton and universities in Greece to learn about the history of magic, which played an important role in shaping the identities and practices of different religious groups in the Roman Empire in late antiquity.

Ioannis Papadogiannakis, who earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 2004, is leading the seminar, which concludes on Friday, May 29.

Photo by Eva Goniotaki.

Congratulations to the Class of 2026!

There is so much to celebrate as Princeton held its 279th Commencement at Princeton Stadium today. We’re especially proud of the four graduating seniors who earned minors in Hellenic studies and of our Hellenic Studies Senior Thesis Prize recipient.

Jack Tannous, associate professor of history and Hellenic studies and director of the Program in Hellenic Studies, congratulated the seniors at a reception at the Seeger Center on Class Day.

2026 Hellenic studies minors:

• Daniel Kaiser (history)

• Nadia Makuc (classics)

• Olivia Lechner (politics)

• Joe Silva (history)

Recipient of the 2026 Hellenic Studies Senior Thesis Prize:

• Jack Geld, (classics), “Homer at Sinai: 18th-century Iliad Manuscripts in St. Catherine’s Monastery.”

Photo by Chris Twiname.