Memory and Identity. Political, Financial and Cultural Aspects of Diaspora Communities

Memory and Identity:

Political, Financial and Cultural Aspects

of Diaspora Communities

Oxford, 29th June – 1st July 2018

 

FRIDAY 29 JUNE

4.30 pm | Opening Event and Garden Party at St Gregory’s House,

by invitation of the House of St Gregory and St Macrina

and the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius

1, Canterbury Rd., Oxford

SATURDAY 30 JUNE

10.00-13.00

Ioannou Centre for Classical & Byzantine Studies,

66, St. Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3LU

POLITICS, FINANCE AND RELIGION

CHAIR: REBECCA WHITE

The factors of survival and sustainability will be studied as the essential motive force of any given Diaspora. Survival in the context of Diaspora communities implied the struggle for physical subsistence but at the same time the struggle to regain a sense of identity and faith in the self, the community and the future. Special attention will be given to the notion of trust, as it relates both to man’s trust in the divine as well as  in his own strength and in  the world around him.

WELCOME ADDRESS BY DR ANGELIKI KOSMOPOULOU,

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE A.C. LASKARIDIS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Dr Vassilis Gregoriou

(President of the National Hellenic Research Foundation

“Brain drain and the economy”

SPEAKERS

Dimitri Tsomocos (Professor of Financial Economics,

SAID Business School and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford)

“The Christian Orthodox View of Economics “

Katia Savrami (Department of Theatre Studies, University of Patras)

“On Memory: Re-enacting the past for a better adapted present”

Peter Petkoff (Brunel Law School and Regent’s Park College, Oxford)

“Christian Tattoos: memory, identity and eternal return”

Tatiana Spinari (Citronne Gallery, Athens – Poros)

“Memory recorded in Art and the Art of Memory” (TBC)

Kostas Theologou (NTUA, Athens)

“Religion, Identity, Citizenship: Modern Greek Culture and European Identity”

Fr Stephen Platt (General Secretary of the FSASS, Oxford)

“Memory, Survival and Creativity: the Liturgical Life of the Russian Diaspora”

 

SATURDAY 30 JUNE

15.00-19.00

 

RUSSIAN HUBS OF THOUGHT IN WESTERN EUROPE

CHAIR: VERONIQUE MAGNES

 

Russians leaving their homeland due to political circumstances at the beginning of the 20^th century were faced with the challenge of rediscovering and reshaping an identity that sprang out of the traditions of their country, reconsidered from the distance of exile. Ultimately, this process resulted in the renewal of Orthodoxy, as the refugees saw their past with new eyes and were in a position to approach their religious identity independently of the official church of the imperial Russia. Russian hubs of thought represent a successful example of Diaspora communities in communication and fruitful dialogue with the local churches and society.

 

SPEAKERS

Dimitris Mavropoulos (Domos Publications, Athens)

“The Influence of the Russian Diaspora in Orthodox Thought and the Movement of Ecumenism”

Projection of an interview, shot on the occasion of the conference on Memory and Identity

Peter Scorer (University of Exeter)

“The Russian Thinker Symeon Frank and the Philosophers’ Ship”

Smilen Markov (University of Veliko Trnovo and Regent’s Park College, Oxford)
“Meaning and the Unfathomable in the Thought of Symeon Frank”

The Revd Dr Charles Miller, (Team Rector of the Parish of Abingdon-on-Thames and Vicar of St Helen’s Church)

“Diaspora, Dialogue and Ecclesial Identity: A. M. Allchin and the Lossky Family”

Sebastian Brock (Wolfson College, Oxford)

“The Zernov’s time in Kerala and the Syriac ​Diaspora yesterday and today”

Marie Stachowitsch (Inalco, Paris)

“Metropolitan Eulogius and the Formation of Russian Diaspora Communities in Paris”

CONCLUDING ADDRESS OF THE SESSION

METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS OF DIOKLEIA (OXFORD),

“Orthodox Theology in the West: Paris and Oxford”

Poetry reading. The actor Kostas Sfyrikidis, Director of the Speech Workshop of the National Conservatory (Athens) recites poetry

by Anna Akhmatova

SUNDAY 1 JULY

15.00-19.00

MEMORY AND THE “FINANCIAL TIMES” FOR THE GREEK COMMUNITY

CHAIR: NIKI TSIRONI

Finance represents a distinct area in which the Greeks excelled in the 20^th century. As financial or economic immigrants, the Greeks found in Western Europe and the States the space to develop their potential, while also establishing communities with distinct characteristics. Issues of national and cultural identities will be considered in this session, which draws on examples from the fields of law, art, social sciences etc.

 

SPEAKERS

Ida Toth (Classics Faculty – Ioannou Centre, Oxford)

“Memory Inscribed in Stone” (TBC)

Angeliki Kosmopoulou (Executive Director of the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation)

“Contemporary philanthropy and the Greek economy”

Ioanna Stefanaki (Lawyer, Athens)

“Greekness beyond Greece”

Andrew Watson (Katounia, Euboia)

“Reciprocal Diasporas”

Renee Hirschon (St Peter’s College, Oxford)

“Homeland-Diaspora Relations in Flux: Greece and Greeks abroad at times of Crisis”

Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz (Commissioner, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 

“Baking Bread as a Sacred Act of Memory”

Giorgos Gotis (Athens)

“The Poetics of Memory”

POETRY READING

Poet Giorgos Gotis will read in Greek a selection of his poems on Memory.

Andrew Watson will read the English translation.

Sessions conclude with round table discussion in which the participation of the audience is very much encouraged.

This conference has its origins in the research project Orality and Performance, initiated at the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in 2015. During the academic year 2017-2018 our project focused on the topic of Memory, with a series of activities hosted by the Centre for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University at Nafplio (December 2017) and The American College of Greece (March 2018). Academic supervisor: Dr Niki Tsironis.

Information & Registration: ainosculture@gmail.com
www.ainosculture.org • T.: 0030 6932 421060

Ainos culture is based in Athens (Greece) and is the Athens Bureau of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, Oxford. It contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and the dialogue between cultures, churches and religions through seminars, conferences, exhibitions, cultural trips and video media productions.