Month: January 2020

CHS – CCS Fellowships

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Since 2008, CHS has generously supported the Harvard Summer Program in Nafplio and Thessaloniki (Greece), by offering two research fellowships to a) junior faculty members (Adjunct Lecturers, Lecturers or Assistant Professors) and b) Scientific and Laboratory Teaching Staff (“ΕΔΙΠ” and “ΕΕΠ”) who hold a PhD, of Schools of Humanities and Social Sciences from Greek Universities.

About the program

The fellows participate in the program by presenting their research and interacting with colleagues and students from the U.S. and all around the world, while the team exchanges experiences and ideas about their different educational systems.

The fellowships aim to attract applicants with an academic background strongly related with the disciplines of Comparative Cultural Studies, the academic core of this program. CHS gives preference to those whose application and cover letter suggests that they would be comfortable working in an intimate, international, multilingual community of scholars. Former experience in similar academic programs/activities in Greece or abroad will be taken into consideration.

The fellowship includes:

  • Year-long appointment as CHS Fellow in Comparative Cultural Studies in Greece.
  • Year-long access to all Harvard electronic resources. The fellows will receive an ID and HarvardKey to have access to all digital libraries, available through the Harvard University library system.
  • A week-long stay in Nafplio or in Thessaloniki in July 2020 (dates to be determined). The fellows will join the summer program and interact with the students and the faculty. They will attend all seminars taught during that week and address a one-hour lecture to the students on their respective fields of interest. The Center covers accommodation, transportation, breakfast and dinner, during the fellow’s stay with the summer program, and offers a stipend aiming to cover additional expenses.

Collaborating Educational Institutions

In the past, fellows came primarily from the Universities of Patras and Ioannina. Since 2016, CHS opened applications to all Humanities and Social Sciences Schools of Higher Education in Greece.

For a full list of all Faculties, Schools and Departments of Greek Academic Institutions, please click here. This list is also available for download in PDF format.

2020 Application

The application for these fellowships is now open, and the deadline is February 19, 2020 at midnight (Eastern European Time). Please find information about all required documentation here (PDF).

Contact
For additional information please contact Mr. Evangelos Katsarelis, CHS Greece Programs and Events Manager, through telephone (+30 697 964 7166, Athens, Greece) and/or email ekatsarelis(at)chs.harvard.edu.

“From Popular Markets to Family Businesses and to Russian Markets: an Horizontal Economy of the ‘Poor’ as a Survival Strategy of the Returnees from the Former Soviet Union from mid-80s until Today”

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This research examines the economic networks of the Greek post-soviet migrants in Thessaloniki and the various ways they affect (and are affected by) mobility and migration practices, as well as the formations and deformations of previous and newer diasporic communities.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union more than 150.000 Greek natives migrated to Greece (or “returned” according to the official narrative),  in an effort to rebuild their lives from zero in the “homeland of their ancestors”. From 1990’s until the beginning of the new millennium, These migrants were involved in various commercial activities (mainly inside informal economic zones and thanx to loose state control) often implicating transnational mobility. The fur market, the tourist industry, the construction sector, and the open-popular markets become a privileged field of employment and business activity, on which Russophone post-soviet Greeks find a place through hard work and the appropriate kinship or diasporic networks. Despitethe fact that, among them, Greece was considered as the “final patria”, transnational practices never stopped to take placein both collective and individual levels; Germany, UK, Cyprus, proved to be favorable destinations who welcomed, at least temporarily, several post-soviet populations including Greeks.The Greek crisis of 2010, followed by the worsening of living conditions, increased (re)migration tendencies to western Europe along with return practices to southern Russia.

The objective of this research, based on semi-directed interviews and extended fieldwork in acompany owned by post-soviet entrepreneurs, was to explore the interaction between migration strategies, economic networks and diasporic communities, and the same time, to put into scrutiny several stereotypes around “Greekness” or “Ponticness” based on the myth of the “final” and “eternal”patria.Finally, the quest for the linkages between the “rise and fall” of specific economic sectors over time, and the post-soviet mobility, through the Greek example, reveals various economic and migrating practices embedded into the social and cultural norms of the diasporic communities.

The research was accomplished by the post doc researchers Dimitris Kataiftsis and Anastasios Grigorakis and was supervised by the Professor of the academic department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies Eftihia Voutira.

“This research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020”

Πληροφορίες ένταξης πράξης ΕΣΠΑ: https://empedu.gov.gr/decision/apo-tis-laikes-agores-stis-oikogeneiakes-epicheiriseis-sta-russian-markets-mia-orizontia-oikonomia-ton-quot-ftochon-quot-os-stratigiki-epiviosis-ton-epanapatristhenton-apo-tin-proin-essd-apo-ta-mesa-t/