INSTITUTE OF NEOHELLENIC RESEARCH

The Centre for Neohellenic Research (CNR) was founded in 1960 and is one of the two oldest research centres in the National Hellenic Research Foundation. Its object is the study of Modern Hellenism from the fifteenth century to the present day. To facilitate research on every possible aspect of Modern Hellenism – social organization, economic structure, institutions, cultural background and development – the CNR has set up a number of research programmes and projects specially designed for the study of their subjects from various theoretical and historiographical angles.

The long-term strategy of the CNR is to develop the main lines of study mapped out in its research programmes so as to be able to meet the changing demands of modern historical research. In particular, its aims are as follows:

a) To build up a documentary and technical infrastructure, with the emphasis on making full use of computer systems for historical studies.

b) To provide scholars with synthetic and comparative studies of historical data, either in book form or in the form of computer software.

c) To co-operate and arrange exchanges with other research centres in Greece and abroad.

d) To broaden the educational base of young researchers by providing house seminars or arranging for them to take postgraduate degrees, training courses, etc.

GENERAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

This programme covers activities concerned with the preparation and completion of infrastructure projects, the compilation of databases and the development of links between historians in Greece and abroad (e.g. publishing foreign-language handbooks, organizing international symposia, etc.). Some of these are ongoing projects that are added to and expanded from year to year, others come to an end and are printed out. Some of them are published in book form.

LANGUAGE LEARNING AND CULTURAL CONTACTS: HELLENISM BETWEEN EAST & WEST (16th- 20th c.)

Research on the phenomenon of language learning as a manifestation of the mobility of the Greeks and their contacts with East and West at various levels – economic, political and especially cultural – from the start of the Ottoman period to the foundation of the modern Greek state and more recent times.

INSTITUTIONS & IDEOLOGY IN MODERN GREEK SOCIETY (15th- 19th c.)

The object of this programme is to study the history of that large section of the Greek world that lived under Ottoman rule after the fall of Byzantium in the fifteenth century, with particular reference to the institutions on which Modern Greek society was based and the ideology or ideologies underlying its way of life. Two specific facets of this broad area of study have been selected for systematic examination:-

a) the institution of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and

b) the stratification and ideology of Greek society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – a subject that will make it possible to study and evaluate the way in which the problems of society as a whole interlock with the evolution of an institution.

HISTORICAL STUDY OF SETTLEMENTS IN GREECE (15th- 20th c.)

Systematic collection and analysis of documentary material relating to the geography, ekistics, demography, administrative history and ethnic and cultural groups of Greece proper, accessible through the programme's database. Production of a software application and publications on the historical development of Greek areas and settlements under study.

MECHANISMS OF THE ARGICULTURAL ECONOMY IN THE GREEK REGIONS (15th- 19th c.)

A descriptive approach to the pattern of crop-growing and stock-farming over a long time span, the objects being to reveal the continuities and discontinuities in the cultivation of crops and to identify the geographical factors that determine the patterns of certain activities.

SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT IN THE BALKAN AREA(17th - 19th c.)

The projects objective is the tracing and identification of the channels through which European scientific knowledge entered Greek and Balkan learning and thought.

MODERN GREEK HISTORIOGRAPHY (15th-19th c.)

Research and study of the growing Modern Greek historical consciousness, from the chronographies of the 15th c. to the historiography of the Enlightenment period.

BUSINESS HISTORY IN GREECE

Research and study of Greek enterprises (mainly industrial in the 19th and 20th c.). The resarch-team collects and exploits industrial archives and prepares databanks on the subject.

TRAVEL LITERATURE. PERCEPTIONS OF GREECE IN THE(15th-19th c.)

Constitution of a databank on travel literature in the Eastern Mediterranean and study of the theoretical and narrative approaches of the texts, of their impact on the construction of Greek national identity as well as the historical aspect of geography and cartography of the area.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

The Centre for Neohellenic Research as such, its programmes of research work and its researchers as individuals are active on many fronts and in many departments of Greek intellectual and cultural life. To give just a few examples: the CNR has brought out about ninety publications to date; it publishes a biannual Information Bulletin and organizes international conferences, symposia and other meetings of scholars with common interests; it arranges training courses for young researchers in the field of Modern Greek history; in collaboration with local authorities and the appropriate departments of the ministries concerned, it takes part in regional programmes for the promotion of historical research (Cyclades, Thrace, Mani) and in general it supports guest programmes carried out by national and european funds.

The Institute’s staff includes 21 researchers, a small number of scholarly collaborators, 3 research associates and five members of supporting staff (secretaries and technical assistants). It also possesses a specialised library.