A two-part lecture titled “Greek War of Independence (1821-1832): Between history and ‘mythistory” will be presented this month, by historian, Yianni Cartledge, as part of the seminars on Greek history and culture offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne, in collaboration with the National Union of Greek-Australian Students (NUGAS).
The lecture will explore the Greek War of Independence from a range of critical perspectives.
In the first part, which is to be held on 18 February, Mr Cartledge will discuss the relevant background knowledge of the Revolution, establishing Greece and the Greek people’s place in the Ottoman Empire, Europe and the world during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He will focus on the age of Enlightenment in Modern Greece and the rise of revolutionary ideas and nationalism in the Balkans.
The question of ‘who is a Greek’ will also be discussed, so as to contextualise the beginnings of the uprising and the outbreak of the Revolution.
In the second part, Mr Cartledge will deal with the War of Independence itself, including, but not limited to, the massacres, the civil war, the Egyptian invasion and Navarino. Finally, he will conclude his presentation with the study of the aftermath of the war and its modern legacy.
Through this series he hopes to provide a diverse range of perspectives, ideas and meanings, in order to help build a constructive discussion about the War of Independence, on its 200th anniversary.
Yianni Cartledge is a PhD candidate at Flinders University, South Australia. He has a passion for Greek, Ottoman, British and Australian histories, as well as migration and diaspora histories.
He explores all these areas in his current thesis, titled ‘Aegean Islander Migration to the United Kingdom and Australia, 1815-1945: Emigration, Settlement, Community Building and Integration’, in which he investigates the cases of the Chiots of London and Ikarians of South Australia.
His 2018 honours thesis explored the 1822 Chios Massacre under the Ottoman Empire and the ways in which it affected British attitudes towards the Greeks, leading to Christian-humanitarian intervention.
An article deriving from his thesis, titled ‘The Chios Massacre (1822) and early British Christian-humanitarianism’, was published in February 2020 in Historical Research.
He also recently published a biographical entry of South Australian fisherman and seafood merchant, George Angelakis, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The first part o f this interesting lecture on the Greek War of Independence, will be presented on Thursday 18 February 2021, at 7.00pm.
For more information contact: +61 3 9662 2722 or email : info@greekcommunity.com.au