Session Description:
This session of the Diasporas Project considers the interaction of religion, ethnicity, language, and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Russian Empire. This is an ongoing mix that is felt in international relations in the Balkans and in banking crises in Cyrpus, to mention the obvious cases. At the time it was an explosive mix that produced Greek independence but also a lasting tension between a shared religious community (Orthodoxy) and a narrower notion of nationality that ultimately produced a rupture in Greek-Russian relations. The session brings together renowned scholars from Europe and the US and introduces some pathbreaking research by scholars who are new to the profession.
The Diasporas Project is a series organized by the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia in spring 2013. It is part of the Center’s inaugural year and we are grateful to the many units around NYU that have been offering help and guidance. The overarching purpose of the project is twofold: to consider the shared characteristics and shared assumptions that underpin the idea of a diaspora, and in the process erode our parochialisms; and to better grasp what is at stake and what is assumed when we cast movement as a diaspora rather than say an emigration, a migration, sex trafficking, slavery, or a flow of refugees. The project in no way aims to settle these questions one way or another; rather it aims to address them intelligently and forthrightly, as a guide to students and colleagues.
Pre-Arrival Instructions:
Please complete the following items by the dates indicated below:
Submit a biography and headshot for use in website publicity to jordan.center.workstudy@gmail.com by 3:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
Complete the Jordan Center Media Release Form and email to jordan.center.workstudy@gmail.com by 3:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
RSVP to jordan.center.workstudy@gmail.com and confirm attendance at the Friday, March 29th dinner by 3:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
Read and consider the papers submitted by your colleagues. Papers will be uploaded and available on the public Mediterranean as Movement page on the Jordan Center website at: http://jordanrussiacenter.org/event/the-mediterranean-as-movement-greeks-and-russians-in-a-contested-space/. Please make a note that your work will be accessible by the larger public as a part of your participation in this conference. Please place a disclaimer or guidelines for use statement at the start of your paper prior to submission if you feel it is necessary. The Jordan Center will not be adding one on your behalf and will upload papers as PDF version of the format in which they were submitted.
Session Format:
Participants are asked to submit their full-length papers by March 20, 2013 to the Jordan Center administrator (jordan.russia.center@nyu.edu). Each panelist will speak for approximately 20 minutes about his / her contribution, after which discussants (to be announced) will facilitate conversation among the panelists and audience.
Session Location:
Center for European & Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at NYU
285 Mercer Street, 7th Floor Seminar Room, New York, NY 10003
Speakers:
Gelina Harlaftis, Ionian University
“Linking the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea to the West: the development of Greek sea-transport systems in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
Evrydiki Sifneos, Senior Researcher, Institute of Historical Studies, The National Hellenic Research Foundation/NYU Visiting Researcher
“Odessa: the Distinctiveness of a Southern Russian Port-City.” (Abstract)
Nikolaos A. Chrissidis, Southern Connecticut State University
“The Business of Pilgrimage from the Russian Empire to the Holy Land in the Late Nineteenth Century.” (Abstract)
Vasilis William Molos, NYU
“A ‘Russian Swagger’ in the Mediterranean: The Orlov Brothers’ Efforts to Foment Revolution in Ottoman Europe.”
Dinner:
Favela Cubana
543 LaGuardia Place
New York, NY, 10012
Telephone: 212-777-6500
