From
Modern to Ancient Greece
The
Project of European Unification and the case of Greece
Professor
Vrasidas Karalis,
Sir
Nicholas Laurantus Chair in Modern Greek.
During the last six years, the European financial
crisis led to fresh reconsiderations about politics, identity and the character
of the European Union itself. As the most affected country, Greece became a
very significant discussion point in the European stage about the principles of
the Union, its central system of governance, its civic practices, even its very
cultural physiognomy. The former President of France Giscard d’ Estaing
forcefully declared that “Europe without Greece is like a child without birth
certificate’ while more recently Jean Claude Juncker proclaimed that in the
united Europe “Plato cannot exist as an inferior member.”
The significance attributed to the Greek presence
within the context of the European Union gives us the opportunity to study
certain important aspects of contemporary Greece, the structure of its modern
identity, its relationship with classical Greece, its position in modern Europe
and its formation as a modern state. The lecture discusses these controversial
issues and tries to make sense of the contemporary crisis both politically and
culturally, as it considers the economy only as an epiphenomenon and a
by-product of a structural asymmetry and a cultural incommensurability within
the Greek political culture.
Event details
Thursady, 4 September 2014
- When: 5.30pm - 7.00pm
- Where: 5.30pm - Refreshments will be served in the Nicholson Museum, Quadrangle, the University of Sydney.
- 6pm - Lectures will be held in General Lecture Theatre 1,Quadrangle, the University of Sydney.
- Registration:http://sydney.edu.au/alumni/insights2014
- Contact: Kate Macfarlane
- Alumni Relations Manager, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- T: 93517454
- All welcome
