The Greek Summer: Mythology – History – Future Prospects

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When: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 | 18:30
Where: ACG Plaka building, 17B Ipitou Street, Athens, GR-10557

Organized by
ACG Institute of Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts (IHCLA)
& The Demos Center of The American College of Greece

Supported by
Bodossaki Lectures on Demand-BLOD, the online lecture library of the Bodossaki Foundation.

 

 

 

About the event

Building on the successful launch of the online exhibition Imagining Greece, this panel discussion brings together leading voices on Greek tourism history to reflect on its post-war rise, its present dilemmas, and its cultural and historical legacies shaping the future.

The event will be held in Greek and is free and open to the public.
Seats are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A reception will follow the discussion.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

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About the panelists 

Yiannis Aesopos
Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Patras

Yannis Aesopos is principal of Yannis Aesopos Architecture, Athens. He studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens (Diploma of Architecture with Honors, 1989) and the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University (Master in Architecture, 1991). He is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Director of the Master of Architecture and Urban Design Program (MAUD) at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras, Greece, where he served as Chair from 2011 to 2013.

Aesopos was the national Commissioner/Curator of Tourism Landscapes: Remaking Greece, the official participation of Greece at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition Venice Biennale 2014 and editor of Tourism Landscapes: Remaking Greece (English and Greek, Athens, 2014; 2nd revised and expanded edition, Athens, 2015). The exhibition Tourism Landscapes: Remaking Greece was also presented at the Acropolis Museum, Athens (2015).

Margarita Dritsas
Professor Emerita, Hellenic Open University

Margarita Dritsas pursued her studies in England, France, and the United States, and was awarded a Doctorate by the University of Paris I (Sorbonne-Panthéon). She served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor in European Economic and Social History. She has taught and conducted research in Greece and abroad at the University of the Aegean, the University of Crete, and the Hellenic Open University, and has held visiting professorships at Uppsala University, Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden), London School of Economics (UK), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), and Princeton University (USA). She is also a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge.

Her work in Greece and internationally focuses on economic and social history, business and banking history, biographies of bankers, and the history of tourism. She has also collaborated on the development of the Tourism Museum in Athens.

Dimitris Philippides
Professor Emeritus, National Technical University of Athens

Dimitris Filippides is an architect with postgraduate studies at the University of Michigan. He taught at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, and worked professionally as an architect–urban planner. His principal scholarly work focuses on Greek architecture and urban planning. In addition to articles, interviews, and reviews in newspapers, journals, and broadcasts, he has authored and translated books, contributed to collective volumes, edited series, and written scripts for documentaries.

In 2024, he received the Silver Medal of the Second Class of Letters and Fine Arts by the Academy of Athens.

Dimitris Plantzos
Professor Emeritus, National Technical University of Athens

Dimitris Plantzos holds a first degree in History and Archaeology (Athens), and a M.Phil and a D.Phil in classical Archaeology (both at Lincoln College, Oxford). After a three-year British Academy post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford, he worked as curator at the Lalaounis Jewellery Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art. Before joining the Department of History and Archaeology in Athens, he taught classical Archaeology at the University of Peloponnese and the University of Ioannina. His research interests include ancient Greek art, archaeological theory, and modern receptions of classical culture. His articles and studies have been published in local and international scholarly journals, collective volumes, special journal issues, and university blogs.

In 2024 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America. His latest book, Athens Demapped: Archaeology, Heritage, and Urban Transformation has just appeared by Coimbra University Press.

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About the moderator 

Stavros Alifragkis
Architect Engineer, Co-curator of the exhibition Imagining Greece

Dr. Stavros Alifragkis is an architectural historian and theorist. A graduate of the Department of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he received his MPhils on architecture and the moving image from the Department of Architecture of the University of Cambridge and on architectural theory and history from the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Stavros has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the filmic representation of architecture and the urban landscape and on theory and history of art and architecture at various universities in Greece. His research interests bridge architectural history and theory with the history and theory of art, combing archival research with visual data analysis and oral accounts.

Recently, he co-curated the digital exhibition Imagining Greece with architectural historian Emilia Athanassiou.