A Muhabbet conversation between: Cengiz Aktar and Elias Kolovos (Research Director IHR/NHRF), about the historical background of Greek-Turkish relations and the issues stemming from this historic past.

Moderator: İlay Romain Örs (Institute of Hellenic Culture and Liberal Arts, The American College of Greece)

February 13, 2026
18:30

The Demos Center

In this podcast, Maria Christina Chatziioannou, Research Director Emerita of the Institute of Historical Research, talks about the history of Karytaina, a small mountainous community in Arcadia. Why do European travellers visit Karytaina during the 19th century? What was the strategic importance of the settlement and the castle? What do the inhabitants do for a living? What can archival research tell us about the history of the settlement and its people? Why do the inhabitants of Karytaina emigrate to Athens? What is the role of the millinery factory Pil Poul?

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In this podcast, Valentin Schneider, Research Collaborator in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about the German Occupation Database. What is this database? What kind of information does it include? How does the digitisation of the archive help research? How does the German administration record war crimes? How are the excessive German losses during the Battle of Crete justified? Is the German occupation of Greece and eastern Europe different than the one in western Europe? How many German soldiers came to Greece during the war?

The new, annual, open-access journal Witnessing: A Journal of Critical Humanities and Socially Engaged Arts has been published in December 2025.

Thoroughly interdisciplinary, the journal deals with the study of the past and present, through the looking glass of history, sound, listening and the notion of witnessing. Witnessing aims at enriching and critically informing perceptions about listening, sound, violence, resistance, and marginalization, cultivating a space for critical thinking and critical o/auralities, rupturing and transgressing the boundaries of national archives and archives of violence.

Muhabbet is an initiative aiming at bringing together scholars, students, and people interested in the shared social history and cultural heritage of the East Mediterranean. We wish to hold discussions about our common legacies in an informal and friendly environment, like that of the coffeehouses, which originated in the Ottoman East Mediterranean, where people used to come together to develop amicable conversations called muhabbet.

The initiative is endorsed by the Demos Center, the Institute of Hellenic Culture and Liberal Arts, ACG; the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation.

January 27 - May 26, 2026

In this podcast, Kostis Gotsinas, Associate Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, Kostas Tampakis, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, discuss with Christy Constantakopoulou the history of drug use and addiction in Greece during the early 20th century. Why was drug use prohibited in Greece? What was the role of mental institutions? Did women ever use drugs? What were the networks of distribution and production of drugs in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean more generally?

Edited by: Sophia Matthaiou, Alexandra Sfoini, Maria Christina Chatziioannou

Edited by: Dimitris Dimitropoulos, Vassilis Panayotopoulos, Maria Christina Chatziioannou

Edited by: Dimitris Dimitropoulos, Maria Christina Chatziioannou

Edited by: Georgios Kardaras, Maria Kalinowska, Alexandra Sfoini, Magdalena Kowalska

Ανδρέας Βούρτσης, Ελένη Έρση Μπάκου, Δρ. Ευθύμιος Νικολαΐδης

Ηλίας Β. Καρκάνης

Edited by: Ευρυδίκη Σιφναίου–Τζελίνα Χαρλαύτη