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, Hariclia Brecoulaki, Senior Research in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about colour in antiquity. What is colour? How was it made? Where was colour used? How did ancient writers talk about colour? Is it true that they thought that the sea is red? Was the Parthenon really painted with bright colours?

In this podcast, Vyron Antoniadis, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about ancient roads, with particular reference to Crete. What is a road? How do we study roads in antiquity? How do modern tools, such as GIS, contribute to archaeological research? What is the relationship between roads and cemetaries?

Δημήτρης Δαμάσκος, Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών

Η διάλεξη θα δοθεί στα Ελληνικά

January 20, 2026
19:00 EET

French School in Athens,  (6 Didotou str.) & Online

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?

N. Papazarkadas, Institute of Historical Research Director [IHR | NHRF]

Colloquium “Πέρα από τον Αλγόριθμο: ΤΝ, Προσωπικότητα, Έρευνα, Συναίσθημα και Τέχνη”

January 17, 2026

Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture, 28, Tripodon Str., 10558 Plaka

Nikos Livanos, Institute for Historical Research [IHR | NHRF]

The Agora – Institute for Historical Research Seminars 2025-2026

January 17, 2026
19:00 EET

Online

Διοργάνωση: Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ), το Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών (EIE) και τη Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών (EFA)

January 12, 2026
19:00

French School in Athens,  (6 Didotou str.) & Online

Niki Tsironi, Institute of Historical Research [IHR | NHRF]

Colloquium “Πέρα από τον Αλγόριθμο: ΤΝ, Προσωπικότητα, Έρευνα, Συναίσθημα και Τέχνη”

January 17, 2026

Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture, 28, Tripodon Str., 10558 Plaka

In this podcast, Sophia Kremydi, Director of Studies in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about Alexander the Great. What do we know about his life? Which stories are true and which are fictitious? What were the sources that ancient writers used (such as Plutarch) to write about the life of Alexander? Do we have any Persian sources? What did Babylonian news reports write about the illness and death of Alexander?

In this podcast, Eleutherios Despotakis, Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about the practice of matheteia, training, in Venetian Crete, during the late medieval period (14th-15th centuries). What exactly was the practice of matheteia? What was the relationship between matheteia and the society of Chandax (modern Herakleion)? Did girls learn to read and write? Who were the teachers and how were they paid?

In this podcast, Christy Constantakopoulou, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, and Vyron Antoniadis, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, talk about the history of Delos during the archaic and classical periods.

In this podcast, Kostas Tampakis, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Historical Research, talks about the relationship between scientific research and Orthodox religion in the 19th and 20th century. What was the relationship between sciences and orthodoxy in the modern Greek state? Why were there trials for atheism in Volos in the 20th century? Does anti-communist speech and propaganda have anything to do with Orthodox religion and sciences?

Lecturer
Julian Baker, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

December 08, 2025
18:00

Princeton Athens Center (3 Timarchou street, 116 34 Athens)

Διοργάνωση: Τομέας Βυζαντινών Ερευνών (ΤΒΕ/ΙΙΕ)

November 04, 2025 - May 28, 2026

Online

This year’s numismatic seminar will be held in hybrid mode. The aim of the seminar is to demonstrate the strength of the numismatic research in Greece by pointing out the links and interactions of the discipline with history and archaeology.

Organised by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) and the École française d’Athènes (EFA).

November 04, 2025 - May 18, 2026
19:00

French School in Athens,  (6 Didotou str.) & Online

Hadrian’s personality combined a variety of elements and balanced both universal and local values, being the ultimate expression of an empire that encompassed diverse cultures, languages, and traditions. The unity of the empire through diversity is evident in his relationship with each of the three cities that can be considered as his ‘homelands’: Italica -his ancestors’ place of origin; Rome -the city where he grew up, the heart of his empire; and Athens -his beloved cultural ‘homeland’ whose citizenship he proudly held about his mid-thirties.

Organised by the Directorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities, Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens (Hellenic Ministry of Culture) and the Institute of Historical Research, Section of Greek and Roman Antiquity, «Roman Attica Project».

November 20, 2025
17:00

National Gallery, Alexandros Soutsos Museum, (Auditorium) 50, Vasileos Constantinou Avenue

Material Entanglements in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond investigates cultural, and especially artistic, contacts across a broad swath of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world from the Middle Bronze Age to the Sasanian Period (c. 2000 BCE – c. 650 CE).

Organised by: Université de Lorraine/SAMA, National Hellenic Research Foundation, École française d’Athènes, Institut universitaire de France, College Year in Athens

October 16-17, 2025

16/10/2025 Venue: École française d’Athènes, Didotou 6