Established in 2019, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) supports public-facing humanities endeavors in Greece and promotes Hellenic Studies at Columbia and beyond. Based in Columbia’s Department of Classics, it operates as the public humanities arm of the Institute for Ideas and Imagination (II&I).

About

At the core of SNFPHI operations is its award scheme for public humanities projects in Greece that focus on three main areas: History; Creative Arts; and Education. SNFPHI provides an initial $8000 award for project development and implementation over a 14-month period and organizes training for awardees in Paris and in Greece. Awardees also have access to additional funds for collaboration with Columbia faculty and students for the public presentation of their projects. The first award cohort began work on their projects in March 2020. To date SNFPHI has supported 14 new or ongoing projects that have taken place throughout Greece and have ranged from a shadow theater play informed by new historical research and a large-scale urban game centered around an ancient aqueduct to the creation of an archive of Greek zines and a hip-hop album based on oral histories of an Athenian neighborhood.

In addition to this award scheme, SNFPHI provides travel grants to Greece for II&I fellows to collaborate with Greek awardees and summer grants for Columbia undergraduates, graduate students, and recent PhDs to pursue remote work in public humanities, as well as designing and developing courses and summer programs that promote Hellenic Studies through public-facing projects.

Finally, SNFPHI operates a robust public events series in collaboration with the University Seminar in Modern Greek, the Program in Hellenic Studies, other Columbia programs, and Greek partners. These events aim to broaden the field of enquiry in Hellenic Studies and rethink the content of public humanities in the 21st century. They have included hybrid seminars and workshops, online concerts and exhibitions, theater performances, film screenings, and zine-making workshops. SNFPHI is exclusively supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

STAFF

Mark Mazower

Director of SNFPHI and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination and Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University

Mark is responsible for SNFPHI’s overall direction.

BIO

Mark Mazower has written several books, including Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (1998), Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950 (2004) and Governing the World: The History of an Idea (2012). His most recent work, What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home (2017), is about his father’s family. He works on and teaches the history of modern Europe and the international system and he has a particular interest in modern Greece. His reviews and commentaries on current affairs appear in the Financial Times and elsewhere. CLOSE

Dimitris Antoniou

Associate Director and Lecturer in Hellenic Studies at Columbia University

Dimitris is responsible for SNFPHI’s program planning, relations with partners, and overall management.

BIO

Dimitris Antoniou’s research and teaching focuses on the history, anthropology, and contemporary art of Greece. His monograph, The Mosque That Wasn’t There: Islam and the Politics of Imagination in Contemporary Greece (forthcoming, University of Pennsylvania Press), explores the state’s attempts to construct a mosque, while recent articles examine spatial absence, encounters with the unthinkable in investigations of Greece’s dictatorial past, and the contemporary artistic landscape. Dimitris is curator of the Columbia University Libraries special collection Greek Underground Press. CLOSE

Eleni Gizas

Program Coordinator

Eleni coordinates SNFPHI’s day-to-day operations and its events.

BIO

Eleni Gizas has experience in collections management, fine art shipments, museum education, public outreach, and curatorial projects. She holds a B.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College and an M.A. in Classical Studies from Columbia University. She previously worked at Kasmin Gallery in New York and for The American School of Classical Studies – Corinth Excavations as the Steinmetz Family Foundation Museum Fellow. She has designed and led numerous educational and outreach programs online and in Greece. CLOSE

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