Panel I: Ancient and medieval animals

Moderated by Dimitris Krallis, SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies

During the summer of 2020, in response to the ongoing global pandemic a diverse group of scholars and students gathered together online as part of the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies' Island Sessions series to explore the theme of political animals. In this video, Dimitris Krallis, Director of the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, moderates a panel discussion on ancient and medieval (political) animals. 

Exploring Mid-Byzantine genres – the rhetoric of dissidence

Jovana Anđelković, Simon Fraser University

Donning Effeminacy to Challenge Imperial Rule: the Gendered Politics of Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus

Alexander Grammatikos, Langara College

Ioannes III Batatzes’s Italian Venture: Byzantine Imperial Revival in Mediterranean Diplomacy

Aleksandar Jovanović, Simon Fraser University

Army commanders as managers of demotic power in Byzantium: Debate, persuasion, and politics among the genos stratiotikon

Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University

Ritual Geographies and Ceremonial Time: The Book of Ceremonies as a Blueprint for Political Action

Tiffany VanWinkoop, Simon Fraser University

Tactical Urbanism and Grassroots Initiatives in Byzantine Athens

Fotini Kondyli, University of Virginia

Panel II: Modern animals

Moderated by George N. Politis, Philosophy, Politics, and Economy Research Laboratory

During the summer of 2020, in response to the ongoing global pandemic a diverse group of scholars and students gathered together online as part of the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies' Island Sessions series to explore the theme of political animals. In this video, George N. Politis , Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economy Research Laboratory, moderates a panel discussion on modern (political) animals. This year's Island Sessions was presented in collaboration with the Philosophy, Politics, and Economy Research Laboratory at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

D. Hume and J.J. Rousseau on Private Property

Vassiliki Baka, University of the Peloponnese

At the crossroads between economic theory and policy proposal: Gustav’s Cassel evolving formulation of Purchasing Power Parity Theory in the context political debate of the 1920’s

José Bruno Fevereiro, Open University

Spolia, Imagination and Economic Texts

Costis Repapis, Goldsmiths, University of London

Locke’s and Rawls’ social contract theories: state of nature, original position and the veil of ignorance

Dimitra Vagena, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

What makes politics possible? An inquiry into the ontological foundations of the political

Panagiotis Vezyrgiannis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Liberalism in the era of pandemia

George N. Politis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University

Sadia Abbas, Rutgers University - Newark

Eirini Kotsovili, Simon Fraser University

No island is an island: or, thinking nationally and transnationally from and with Greek islands

Vangelis Calotychos, Brown University

Reconfigurations of ‘crisis’ and the politics of possibility in recent Greek literature and art

Maria Boletsi, University of Amsterdam + Leiden University

Village cosmopolis: movement and the constitution of space in Molivos, Lesvos

Sadia Abbas, Rutgers University - Newark

Europe in the mirror of Islam

Faisal Devji, Oxford University

Why empire is without sovereignty: a question for these times

R.A. Judy, University of Pittsburgh

For a prophetic vision of the past

Gary Wilder, City University of New York

The sovereignty of the waves: offshore refugee detention, Manus island, and Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains

Jini Kim Watson, New York University

Revisiting 20th century writings on the Aegean

Eirini Kotsovili, Simon Fraser University