Visiting Professor of the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies, Professor Dr Constantinos Hatzidimitriourecipient of the Christos 2023 Mantzios Visiting Scholar Awardwill give his first seminar on Monday, October 23, 2023 on the role of Eleftherios Venizelos in the Asia Minor campaign, as manifested through American archives.
The Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS), in close collaboration with the Oceania branch of the Eleftherios Venizelos National Hellenic Research Foundation and the Greek community of Melbourne and Victoria, presents this seminar at 6:30 p.m. at the Lyceum Theater at Alphington Grammar School.
Doctor Hatzidimitriou, who comes with his wife Peggy, is a researcher and professor at the American Hellenic Institute and St. John’s University in New York.
The seminar will be enriched by the historian and AIMS member, Mr. Stavros Stavridis, who will make reference to the British and Australian archives for the contribution of Eleftherios Venizelos to Asia Minor.
The event is the first appearance of the Australian and New Zealand Chapter of the Eleftherios Venizelos National Research Foundationa new association supported by Church and State, as its members in Australia are many academics, artists and community leaders from all parts of Greece.
The seminar will follow the screening of the documentary on Eleftherios Venizeloswhich will take place at the Como Theater on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
The seminar entitled The role of Eleftherios Venizelos in the expedition to Asia Minor and its results will be given in English and Greek and will be coordinated by AIMS President, Professor Dr. Anastasios Tamis. This pioneering seminar with a visiting professor from the United States is dedicated to the memory of Ethnarchus Venizelos and honors the memory of close AIMS collaborators Panagiotis Liveriadis, Dimitris Kontoleon, Kostas Chatzistavrou and Christos Mantzios.
The panel and audience will be welcomed by the Principal of Alphington Grammar, Dr Vivian Nikou, who has a close relationship with AIMS. During the seminar, images from the Archives will be projected and technical editing was carried out by AIMS collaborators George Lioukas and Nikos Papakonstantinou. This will be followed by a reception hosted by AIMS and the Oceania Branch of the Eleftherios Venizelos National Foundation, coordinated by Ms. Christina Kotsifaki-Sari.
On Wednesday October 25 at 6:30 p.m., Dr Constantinos Hatzidimitriou will deliver his first public lecture in Australia at the Lyceum Theater at Alphington Grammar, Melbourne on the subject, Understand two important commemorations: America’s involvement in the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922.
Those invited include educators, leaders of Hellenism, as well as those interested in Greek-American relations at these two key stages of modern Greek national history.
Next Friday, October 27, this highly qualified researcher and academic will also present at 6:30 p.m. at the Lyceum Theater at Alphington Grammar his extremely interesting lecture on Asia Minor Hellenism in general and Pontic Hellenism under the theme: Who destroyed Christianity in Asia Minor? illuminating aspects of the destruction of the Orthodox Greeks, as well as the Pontian Hellenes and the Greeks of Asia Minor.
Dr Hatzidimitriou will continue his lectures from October 28 to November 3 at the University of Sydney and the premises of the Greek Community of Sydney and NSW. Events there are organized in collaboration with AHEPA Kostis Palamas Cultural Department, AHEPA National President George Lianos, the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales and the Sydney Greek Festival team under the supervision of Ms. Nia Karteris. Admission is free for all who wish to attend.
The AIMS guest professor:
Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou holds a doctorate in Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Greek history from Columbia University. He was a Gennadius Fellow at the American School in Athens and an educational advisor at the American Consulate in Thessaloniki, where he also served as a professor at Anatolia College. He is currently editor-in-chief of American Journal of Contemporary Hellenic Issues and Journal of Modern Hellenism and research associate at St. John’s University in New York.
Dr Hatzidimitriou is also the author of three works: Navios: A future built on a historic tradition of innovation and excellence (2007); American accounts documenting the destruction of Smyrna (2005) and Founded on Liberty and Virtue: Documents Illustrating the Impact of the Greek War of Independence on the United States (2002) in addition to numerous articles in scholarly journals in the fields of Byzantine and modern Greek history and education. In 2022 his book on Smyrna was updated and published in modern Greek. He is currently working on a new book on the American Philhellenes during the Greek Revolution, and another on central Greece during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
