Visiting Faculty

Dr Anastasia Karakasidou

Faculty Details

Education

1979

College of Wooster, Wooster
Ohio
Bachelors

1983

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr
Pennsylvania
Masters

1987

Columbia University
New York
M.Phil

1992

Columbia University
New York
Ph.D

Present Position

  • 2009 - till date, Professor | Department of Anthropology | Wellesley College 

Previous Positions

  • 2015, March - April, International Fellow | Center for Advanced study | Sofia Bulgaria
  • 2001 - 2009, Associate Professor | Department of Anthropology | Wellesley College
  • 2002-2004, 2005-2008, 2010-2014, Chair | Department of Anthropology | Wellesley College
  • 2007-2009, President | Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE) | American Anthropological Association (AAA)
  • 2005-2007 President-Elect | Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE) | American Anthropological Association (AAA)
  • Fall 2005, Visiting Associate Professor | Department of Classics | Harvard University
  • Spring 2004, Visiting Associate Professor | Department of Sociology | University of Crete
  • Fall 2002, Visiting Associate Professor | Program in Hellenic Studies and Anthropology | Yale University
  • 2001-2003, Whitehead Chair in Critical Thought | Wellesley College
  • 1997-2001, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology | Wellesley College.
  • 1995-1997, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology | Queens College | City University of New York
  • 1994-1995, 1993-1994, Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellow
  • 1994-1995, Visiting Scholar | Department of Anthropology | Harvard University | Cambridge, MA.
  • Fall 1993, Visiting Research Fellow | Hellenic Studies Program and the Council of the Humanities | Princeton University
  • 1992-1993, Hannah Seeger Davis Post-Doctoral Fellow | Princeton University | Program in Hellenic Studies and Department of Anthropology.
  • Summer Session 1992, Assistant Professor | Department of Anthropology | Columbia University.

Publications

  • “The Emperor of All Terrors: Forging an alternative biography of cancer.” IN Anthropology of Cancer in Global Perspective, Holly Matthews and Nancy Burke, editors, Berghan Press (forthcoming).
  • “National Purities, Ecological disasters: Greek modernity and the war on nature.” Dialectical Anthropology 35(4): 387-401, 2011.
  • Also appearing in Greek as “Ethnikes katharotites, oikologikes katastrofes: H Elliniki neoterikotita kai o polemos enantia stin fisi.” IN Revisiting Politics: Research trends in social and historical anthropology of Greece, Efthimios Papataxiarchis, editor, Athens. (forthcoming, in Greek)
  • “The Greeks” IN Ethnic Groups of Europe, Jeffrey Cole, editor, Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, pp. 177-184, 2011.
  • “Alexander the Great and the Yugo Zastava: Macedonian identities and descent narratives.” With Vemund Aarbakke, IN Macedonian Identity through History, Institute of National History, Skopje, Macedonia, pp: 27-34, 2010.
  • “Modern aesthetics and the cancerous body reconstructed.” Medische Antropologie 21(1):107-116, 2009.
  • “The Elusive Subversion of Order; Cancer and the human experience in modern Crete, Greece” IN Cultural Perspectives on Cancer: From metaphor to advocacy, Juliet McMullin and Diane Weiner, editors, Santa Fe, New Mexico: School for American Research Press, pp. 83-102, 2008.
  • “Humanizing cancer and the biopolitics of the disease in Crete” IN Patient Embodiment,Christina Lammer, editor, Wien: Locker, pp.169-186, 2007.
  • Also appearing in Greek as “I viopolitiki diastase tou karkinou: Empeiria, metaforikes ennoies ke exousia tis exeidikevmenis gnosis.” (The bio-politics of cancer: Experience, social metaphor and authoritative knowledge), Archaeologia kai Tehnes (Archaeology and Art) 105:55-62, 2007.
  • Area Editor for the Balkans, Dictionary of Medical Biography, edited by W. F. Bynum and Helen Bynum, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 2007.
  • Ethnography-ing Greece in Late Modernity. A special issue of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies, edited by Anastasia Karakasidou and Fotini Tsibiridou, 24(2), 2006.
  • “Mirrors, Myths and Metaphors: Ethnography-ing Greece in late modernity, introductory reflections” with Fotini Tsibiridou, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 24(2):217-22, 2006.
  • “Diseases of Modernity and Biomedical Moralities” IN Pratiques soignates, ethique et societes, http://agora.qc.ca/colloque/pses2005.nsf, 2005.
  • Also appearing in Greek “Nosoi tis neoterikotitas ke vioiatrikes ithikes.” (Diseases of Modernity and Biomedical Moralities: Constructing legitimacy in time and space) IN Metashimatismoi tou horou: Diepistimonikes prosengiseis kai erevnitikes praktikes (Spatial transformations: Interdisciplinary approaches and research practices), Manos Spyridakis, editor, Athens: Nisos, pp: 1-21, 2009.
  • “Balkan Purities and Hybrids: A commentary on the Istrian case.” Current Anthropology  45(1):52-54, 2004.
  • “Affections of a Greek Hero: Pavlos Melas and heroic representations in Greece” IN Identities and National Memories in the Balkans, Maria Todorova, editor, London: Hurst and Company, pp. 197-232, 2004.
  • “Cultural Illegitimacy in Greece: The Slavo-Macedonian ‘non-minority’ in Greece.”  IN Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society, Richard Clogg, editor, London: Hurst and Company, pp.123-164, 2002.
  • “The Burden of the Balkans,” Anthropology Quarterly 75(3): 575-590, 2002.
  • “From the Margins to the Center: The Macedonian Controversy in Contemporary Greece.”  IN The Identity and Violence: Political disintegration in the post-Cold War world, R. Brian  Ferguson, editor, London and New York:  Routledge, pp. 199-216, 2002
  • “Review Essay: Migrant Historical Encounters with Power in Greece” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 20:147-153, 2002.
  • “Rites of Purification, Acts of Retribution: Language and Representations of Identity in Northwestern-Greece.” IN Locating Capitalism in Time and Space:  Global Restructuring, Politics and Identity, David Nugent, editor, Stanford University Press, pp.175-204, 2002.
  • “Protocol and Pageantry: Celebrating the Nation in Northern Greece.”  IN After the War was Over:  Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960, Mark Mazower, editor, Princeton University Press, pp. 221-246, 2000.
  • Also appearing in Greek, Athens: Alexandreia, 2000.
  • "Transforming Identity, Constructing Consciousness: Coercion and Homogeny in Northwestern Greece.”  IN The Macedonian Question: Culture, Historiography, Politics, Victor Roudometof, editor, Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, pp. 55-98, 2000.
  • Also appearing in Macedonian, Skopje, 2003.
  • “Essential Differences: National Homogeneity and Cultural Representation in Four Recent Works on Greek Macedonia,” Current Anthropology, 41(3): 415-425, 2000.
  • “Fragments of Post-modernity.”  Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 12(1): 86-90, 1999.
  • “Reply to Carabott.”  European History Quarterly, 29(3): 430-434, 1999.
  • Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood: Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990.  University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  • Also appearing in Greek Makedonikes Istories ke Pathyi (1870-1990). Athens: Odysseas, 2000.
  • Also appearing in Macedonian, Skopje: MAGOR DOO, 2002.
  • Also appearing in Turkish, Istanbul Bigli University Press, 2010.
  • Also appearing in Albanian, Tirana, 2006.
  • Also appearing in Bulgarian, Sofia: CIELA Soft and Publishing 2008.
  • “Joan Vincent: The Identity of a Scholar,” IN Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 19(2):1-8, 1996.
  • "Women of the Family, Women of the Nation: National Enculturation among Slavic Speakers in Northwestern Greece," IN Women on the Margins: Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, a special issue of Women's Studies International Forum, Barbara Einhorn (ed.), 19(1-2): 99-110, 1995.
  • Also appearing IN Ourselves and Others: The Development of Greek Macedonian Identity Since 1912. P. Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis (eds.), Oxford: Berg. pp. 91-110, 1997.
  • "Vestiges of the Ottoman Past: Muslims under Siege in Greek Thrace." Cultural Survival Quarterly (Special Issue on "Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe," Loring Danforth, ed.), 19(2): 71-75, 1995.
  • "Sacred Scholars, Profane Advocates: Intellectuals Molding National Consciousness in Greece."  Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 1(1): 35-61, 1994.
  • "National Ideologies, Histories, and Popular Consciousness: A Response to Three Critics."  Balkan Studies vol. 3, no.1, 1994.
  • ”Response to Zahariadis.”  Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 12(1): 168-170, 1994.
  • "Fellow Travelers, Separate Roads: The Greek Communist Party and the Macedonian Question." East European Quarterly, 27(4): 453-477, 1993.
  • "Alas, Hellas: Molding National Consciousness in Contemporary Greece." BOOKS: Budapest Review of Books, 3(2): 50-53, 1993 (also translated into Hungarian and reprinted in BUKSZ: Budapesti Konyvszemle).
  • "Politicizing Culture: Negating Ethnic Identity in Greek Macedonia."  Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 11(1): 7-25, 1993.

Book Reviews

  • Review of Theodora Dragostinova Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900-1949 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 2011) IN American Historical Review 118(5): 1633-1634, 2013.
  • Review of Vasiliki N. Neofotistos The Risk of War: Everyday sociality in the Republic of Macedonia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) IN  Slavic Review, 72(4): 889-890, 2013.
  • Review of Tomislav Longinovic Vampire Nation: Violence as cultural imaginary (Duke University Press, 2011) IN Anthropological Quarterly 85(4): 1299-1302, 2012.
  • Review of  Vassilis Nitsiakos On the Border; Transborder mobility, ethnic groups and boundaries in the Albanian-Greek Border (Munster: LIT Verlag, 2010) IN Slavic Review 174-175, 2012.
  • Review of Alexandra Halkias, with Shannon Ward The empty cradle of democracy: Sex, abortion, and nationalism in modern Greece.  (Duke University Press: 2004) IN Journal for Contemporary European Studies 19(3): 429-455, 2011.
  • Review of Daphne N. Winland, We are a nation: Croats between ‘home’ and ‘homeland.’ (University of Toronto Press:2007) IN Choice, 46:2174, 2008.
  • Review of Grigory Ioffe, Tatyana Nefedova and Ilya Zaslavsky, The End of Peasantry? The disintegration of rural Russia, (Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), In Choice, 45:1027, October 2007.
  • Review of David Z. Scheffel, Svinia in Black and White: Slovak Roam and their neighbors,(Boradview:2005) IN Choice, 44:2568, 2006.
  • Review of Sarah F. Green, Notes from the Balkans: Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian Border, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006) In American Anthropologist 108(3): 591-592, 2006.
  • Review of Keith Brown The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003) IN Anthropological Quarterly, 2005.
  • Review of Henriette Rika Benveniste and Costas Gaganakis (editors), Heterodoxies: Construction of Identities and Otherness in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, (Athens: Historein, 2000) IN Journal of Modern Greek Studies 21(1): 145-147, 2005.
  • Review of Barbara Cellarius, In the Land of Orpheus: Rural livelihoods and nature conservation in post socialist Bulgaria. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005) IN Choice 43:2385, 2005.
  • Review of Graham Day and Andrew Thompson (editors), Theorizing Nationalism, (New York: Palgrave, 2004) IN Choice 43:1887, 2005.
  • Review of Effie Avdela, In the Name of Honor: Violence, emotions, and values in post-Civil War Greece, (Athens: Nefeli, 2002) In Journal of Modern Greek Studies 23:397-399, 2005.
  • Review of Redman, Charles, et al (eds.) The Archaeology of Global Change: The impact of humans on their environment, (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2004) IN Choice, 42:2882, January 2005.
  • Review of Susan Sutton (editor), Contingent Countryside: Settlement, Economy, and Land Use in the Southern Argolid Since 1700, (Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press, 2000), IN American Anthropologist 105(4):878-879, 2003.
  • Review of Mary N. Layoun Wedded to the Land? Gender, Boundaries, and Nationalism in Crisis (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), IN The American Historical Review 1421-1422, 2003.
  • Review of Laszlo Kurti, The Remote Borderland: Transylvania in the Hungarian Imagination, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), IN Slavic Review 62(4):835-836, 2003.
  • Review of Dru Gladney (editor), Making Majorities: Constituting the Nation in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Fiji, Turkey, and the United States, (Stanford, Ca.: Stanford University Press, 1998), IN Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, 15(1): 228-231, 2001.
  • Review of Alice Ackermann, Making Peace Prevail: Preventing Violent Conflict in Macedonia,(Syracuse:  Syracuse University Press, 2000) IN Slavic Review , 60(3): 632-633, 2001.
  • Review of Janet Hart, New Voices in the Nation: Women and the Greek Resistance, 1941-1964 (Cornell University Press, 1996), IN The Oral History Review, 2000.
  • Review of Vasos Argyrou, Tradition and Modernity in the Mediterranean:  The Wedding as Symbolic Struggle (Cambridge University Press, 1996), IN American Ethnologist, 25:1:68, 1998.
  • Review of James Faubion Modern Greek Lessons: A Primer in Historical Constructivism (Princeton, 1993), IN Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 13(1): 158-160, 1995.
  • Review of Stanley Aschenbrenner Life in a Changing Greek Village: Karpofora and its Reluctant Farmers. In Bulletin of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, 5(1): 15-16, 1991.
  • Review of Stephen D. Salamone In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain: The Genesis of a Rural Greek Community and its Refugee Heritage. In Ethnohistory 37(1): 102-103, 1990.

Papers Presented

  • “Refugee Crisis in Greece “ panel, organized by the Hellenic American Women’s Council, Consulate General of Greece, May 23, 2017.with four women (bios below) that have each researched and interacted with aspects of this crisis. We hope
  • “Interrogating humanity: Refugee encounters in Lesvos, Greece” Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Modern Greek Literature and Culture, Harvard University, November 29, 2016.
  • Cancer Encounters in Bulgaria.” Hippocratic Society, Wellesley College, April 15, 2016.
  • The Emperor of all Terror.” American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, Colorado, November 18, 2015.
  • “Normalizing Cancer: The biopolitics of a global epidemic.” University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Department of Social Anthropology, May 16, 2014.
  • Chair. Panel on “Voices of suffering: National, imperial, and humanitarian causes in the modern Balkans.” Annual meeting of the ASEEES, Boston, 21-24 November 2013.
  • Discussant. Panel on “Overlapping Bodies.” Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco: CA, November 18, 2012.
  • “The emperor of all terror: Cancer and the culture of warfare.” Keynote lecture for Conference on “Cancer Cultures,” University College London, November 9, 2012.
  • Discussant. Graduate student seminar, University of the Aegean, Department of Anthropology and History, July 10, 2011.
  • “Fortification walls as the domestic space for marginality.” Wellesley College, Tom Cushman’s series on ‘Walls,” 7 April, 2011.
  • Discussant. Seminar on “Sudosteuropa der Regionen,”  The University of Vienna, Austria, 15-17 March 2010.
  • “Confronting Cancer.” Blue Cancer Society, Wellesley College, November 18, 2009.
  • “Modern aesthetics and the cancerous body reconstructed.” Annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe, NM, 17-21 March, 2009.
  • “Alexander the Great and the Yugo Zastava: Macedonian identities and descent narratives.” With Vemund Aarbakke, international conference on Macedonian Identity through History, Institute of National History, Skopje, Macedonia, 10-13 October 2008.
  • Discussant.   Seminar on “Cultural Heritage of the Balkans.” European Parliament, Brussels, 15 July 2008.
  • “Chemicals and humans: Modern bodies in risky nations.” Conference on “Politics of Life: Anthropological perspectives on health and biosociality.” Panteio University of Social and Political Science, Department of Social Anthropology, Athens, May 16-18, 2008.
  • Discussant. Panel on Evangelia Adamou’s (ed) Le patrimonie plurilingue de la Grece.” Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), 13th World Convention, Columbia University, New York, 10-12 April 2008
  • “National Purities, Ecological Disasters:  Greek modernity and the war on nature.” Harvard University, Humanities Center, Seminar on Modern Greek Literature and Culture, 26 February, 2008.
  • Discussant. Panel on “Memory and Religion in post-89 Eastern Europe: A transnational perspective,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), New Orleans, Louisiana, November 15-18, 2007.
  • “Revisiting nationalism: Politics, biopolitics and the war on nature.”  Conference on “Revisiting Politics: Research trends in social and historical anthropology of Greece.” University of the Aegean, Department of Anthropology, 10 November, 2007.
  • Discussant, Panel on “Ethnography and the political economy of nationalist violence.” Conference on “Revisiting Politics: Research trends in social and historical anthropology of Greece.” University of the Aegean, Department of Anthropology, 10 November, 2007.
  • “Landscapes of Health and Illness in modern Crete: Greece.” Advanced Seminar on “Cultural Perspectives on Cancer: From metaphor to advocacy,” School for American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 29-May 5, 2006.
  • Discussant, Panel on “Memory, Commemoration and Performance,” Third Annual Greater Boston Anthropology Consortium (GBAC) Student Conference, Wellesley College, 10 March 2006.
  • Discussant, “Making Borders, Unmaking Identities: frontiers and nationalism in the Balkans, 1774-1913” presented by Dimitrios Livanios, Center for European Studies, The Greek Study Group, Harvard University, November 9, 2005.
  • Discussant, Workshop for directors of Modern Greek Studies Programs, Modern Greek Studies Association Symposium, Chicago, 3-5 November, 2005.
  • “Medecine moderne et mededine complementaire: Le point de vue de l’anthropologue.” Conference on “Pratiques soignates, ethique et societes: Impasses, alternatives et aspects interculturels,” Lyon, France, April 11, 2005.
  • “Maladies de la modernite et moralites bio-medicales.” Conference on “Pratiques soignates,ethique et societes: Impasses, alternatives et aspects interculturels,” Lyon, France, April 8, 2005.
  • “National Identities and the Political Economy of the State,” University of the Aegean, Greece, April 5, 2005.
  • “Confronting Cancer in the Age of Modernity in Crete, Greece.” University of Florida, Center for European Studies, February 23, 2005.
  • “Nationhood and Identity in Modern Greece.” University of Florida, Center for European Studies, February 22, 2004.
  • “The Biopolitics of Cancer and Carcinogenesis in Crete, Greece.” American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, California 17-21 November, 2004.
  • “The Cultural Meaning of Cancer and Other Diseases.” Wellesley Club of Merrimack Valley, November 15, 2004.
  • “Cancer and the Human Experience.” European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Vienna, Austria, 8-12 September, 2004.
  • Discussant. Preparatory symposium for the 2005 Colloquium on Public health, Universite Jean Moulin Lyon3, RISES (Reseacu interdisciplinaire sante, ethique et societe), 16-17 June, 2004.
  • “Polluting Modernities and Cancerous Subversions in Crete.” Third Northeast Regional Medical Anthropology Conference, Montreal, Canada, April 24-25, 2004.
  • “The symbolic Geographies of Health and Illness.” Conference on “The Symbolic Geographies of Europe,” May 29-30, 2004.(Revised Version presented at the conference on “Balkans: Readings and reflections,” Etaireia Makedonikon Spoudon, Thessaloniki, Greece, June 4-6, 2004.
  • “The phenomenology of Cancer in a post-modern World” Stalley Symposium, Wellesley College, April 20, 2004.
  • Discussant. Panel on “The Politics of Historical Memory,” First Annual Boston Anthropology Consortium, Student Conference, Tufts University, February 27, 2004.
  • “The Elusive Subversion of Order: Cancer and the human experience” University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, November 10, 2003.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Slavo-Macedonian Political Refugees” Conference on “Greek Civil War Refugees in the Eastern Block,” July 4-6, Zagorochoria, Greece, 2003.
  • “Heroes and the Discourse on Patriotism in Greece” University of Alabama, Birmingham, Department of Anthropology, April 17, 2003.
  • “Cancer Discourses in Modern Greece” University of Thessaly, Greece, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, January 15, 2003.
  • “Affections of a Hero:  Pavlos Melas and Greek historiography” Yale University, Program in Hellenic Studies, December 5, 2002.
  • “The Moral Risks of Carcinogenesis” European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). Copenhagen, Denmark, August 14-16, 2002.
  • Discussant.  Conference on “AIDS in South Africa: The social expression of a pandemic.” Pendleton Social Science Center, Wellesley College, April 20, 2002.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “History and Anthropology in a Greek Context,” Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA), Georgetown University, Washington D.C. 25-28 October 2001.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Women and War in the Balkans.” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Crystal City, Virginia, 15-18 November 2001.
  • Discussant. Conference on “Culture Goes Public: Anthropologists speak back on war, gender and globalization.”  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, October 19-20, 2001.
  • “The Burden of the Balkans.” Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan, October 3, 2001. (Revised Version presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington D.C., 29 November-2 December 2001.)
  • “War and Identity in Macedonia.” Third International Conference on “Actors of Violence, Actors Of Reconciliation”, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Comanedi Cortona, Italy, 15-16 June 2001.
  • “Willing Europeans: Preventing Ethno-National Conflict in Macedonia.” Center for the Study of Ethnic Conflict and Conflict Resolution, International Studies Center, The University of Washington, Seattle, 10 May 2001.
  • “Willing Europeans and the ‘end’ of Ethno-national conflict in Macedonia.” American Ethnological Society (AES), Montreal, 3-4 May 2001.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Macedonia Through Other Eyes, 1900-1934,” Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention, Columbia University, New York, 5-8 April 2001.
  • “Recent Developments in Macedonia.” Colloquium on “Recent Developments in the Balkans,” East European Studies Program, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington D.C., 22 February 2001.
  • “Affections of a Greek Hero: Situating Pavlos Melas in Greek Historiography and Popular Culture.” American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, California, 15-19 November 2000. (Revised Version presented at the Balkan History Workshop, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan, October 2, 2001.)
  • “Subjective Affections, Objective Histories: Pavlos Melas and the Veneration of a Greek Hero.” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Denver, Colorado, 9-12 November 2000.
  • “Pavlos Melas: Affections of a Greek Hero.” European Association of Social Anthropologists EASA), Krakow, Poland, 26-19 July 2000.
  • “Competing Nationalism in the Balkans.” New Jersey Wellesley Club, Summit, New Jersey, May 16, 2000.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Macedonia,” Conference on “Memory, Identity, Geopolitics: Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean,” Brown University, May 5-6, 2000.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “National Conflict in Macedonia,” Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), Fifth Annual World Convention, Columbia University, New York, 13-15 April 2000.
  • “Affections of a Greek Hero.” Wellesley College, European Studies Faculty Forum, 29 March 2000. (Revised Version presented at Wellesley College, Alumni Reunion, June 2, 2000.)
  • “Affections of a Greek Hero: Reflecting on Pavlos Melas.” Harvard University, George Seferis Chair of Modern Greek Studies, 2 March 2000.
  • “Rites of Purification and Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia.” The Second Finnish Colloquium of Southeast European Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 22-23 November 1999.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Competing Balkan Identities in the Twentieth Century,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), St. Louis, Missouri, 18-20 November 1999.
  • “Crossing Cultural Boundaries in Present-day Greece.”  Conference on “Migration and Culture Contact:  Pattern of Confrontation and Coexistence in a Changing World,” The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, Amman-Jordan, 11-14 October 1999.
  • “Nation and Ancestor: Situating Pavlos Melas in Greek History and Popular Culture,” Conference on “National Memory in Southeastern Europe,” Chalki, Greece, 16-20 June 1999.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “The Making of Macedonians,” Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), Fourth Annual World Convention, Columbia University, New York, 15-17 April 1999.
  • “Macedonian matters and cultural representations in Northern Greece.”  Center for European Studies, Harvard University, 2 April 1999.
  • “Macedonian Identities.”  Mnimon Historical Society, Athens, Greece, 13 January 1999.
  • “Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990.”  University of Pittsburgh, History Department, November 20, 1998.
  • “Minority Matters: National Homogeneity and Cultural representation in Greek Macedonia.” Wellesley College, History Department, November 19, 1998. (Revised Version presented at the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) Conference, Columbia University, New York, 15-17 April 1999
  • “Nationalizing Culture and the Ethnography of Greece, Macedonia and the Balkans.”  City University of New York, Academy of Scholars, October 22 1998.
  • Discussant.  Panel on “Sleeping Beauty Nations in the Balkans,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Boca Raton, Florida, 24-27 September 1998.
  • “National Majorities, Ethnic Minorities: The Crisis of representation in the Ethnography of Greece,” European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA, Frankfurt, Germany, 4-7 September 1998. (Revised Version presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Philadelphia, 2-6 December 1998.)
  • “Identity and Nationhood: The case of Greek Macedonia,” University of Maryland, Department of History, May 1, 1998.
  • Archaeological Theory and Ethics, Graduate course, Professor Jack Davis, University of Cincinnati, Department of Classics, 27 February 1998.
  • “States United, Nations Divided: Greek national homogeneity in a multi-cultural Europe”, Remarque Institute, New York University, January 21, 1998
  • "Sponsoring Passages to Nationhood in a Greek Macedonian Town", Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, Graduate Center, April 4, 1997.
  • "Democracy and the Assimilation of Minorities", Mellon Foundation Workshop on Democratization, Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, February 27, 1997.
  • "Of Ancestors and Kings: Visions of the past in a Greek Macedonian Market Town," Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., February 13, 1997.
  • "The Morality of the Nation and Local Ethnographic History in Greek Macedonia," Anthropological Institute, Oxford University, Oxford, England, January 22, 1997.
  • "Ethnicity in the Making: the Case of Macedonia,” Conference on "Archaeology, Ethnicity and the Past," Sheffield University, Sheffield, England, January 18, 1997.
  • "After Civil Strife: Constructing Homogeneity in Greek Macedonia."American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, CA, 20-24 November 1996.
  • "Class, Nation and Collective Identity: The Macedonian Controversy in 1940's Greece." American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Boston, Mass, 14-17. November 1996.
  • "Preachers and Teachers, Merchants and Partisans: Negotiating the Passage to Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia." Peoples and States Lecture Series, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., 22 October 1996.
  • "Protocol and Pageantry: National Celebrations in Northern Greece," Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Symposium, Cambridge, MA, 2-5 November 1995. (Revised Version at the 94th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington, DC, 15-19 November 1995).
  • “Between National History and Personal Memories: Historical Anthropology in an Age of Rising Nationalism,” American Anthropological Association (AAA), Atlanta, GA, 30 November 1994.
  • "Rites of Purification, Acts of Retribution: Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia," Social Anthropology Seminar, Harvard University, 21 November 1994.
  • "Modern Greek Orthodoxy: Constructing a National Habitus on Minority Issues in Contemporary Greece," International Conference at University College, London 11-12 November 1994.
  • History, Politics, and Representations of Identity: Minorities and 'Non-Minorities' in Contemporary Greece.  International Conference on "Minorities in the Balkans," Ankara (Turkey), 27-29 October 1994. (Revised Version presented at Wednesday Seminar Series, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 1 February 1995).
  • "History, Hegemony, and Homogeny: Contrasting Notions of Identity in Northwestern Greece," Barnard College, Columbia University, 24 March 1994.
  • "From the Margins to the Center: The Macedonian Controversy in Contemporary Greece." Queens College, CUNY, 16 February 1994. (Revised Version presented at the New York Academy of Sciences (Research Institute for the Study of Man) conference, "The State Under Siege: Political Disintegration in the Post-Cold War Era," 22-24 April 1994.)
  • "Cultural Illegitimacy in Modern Greece: The Slavo-Macedonian 'non-Minority' in Greek Macedonia."  Symposium on Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Greece, St. Anthony's, Oxford, University, England, January 1994.
  • "Vestiges of the Ottoman Past: Muslims under Siege in Greek Thrace." Association for Political and Legal Anthropology invited session at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington, D.C., November 1993.(Revised Version presented at the Council on European Studies Conference, Chicago, IL, March 31-April 2, 1994).
  • Discussant.  Panel on "Minority Rights, National Fights: The Politics of Identity in Europe's Old and New Democracies," American Anthropological Association (AAA) meetings, Washington, D.C., November 1993.
  • "The Macedonian Leviathan: Transforming Ethnic Identity and National Consciousness in the Florina Area, 1913-1993” Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Symposium, Berkeley, CA, October 1993.
  • "Alas, Hellas: Nationalist Xenophobia and the Rape of Intellectual Integrity in Contemporary Greece."  Conference on "Intellectuals in Political Life," Rutgers University, Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, February 1993.
  • “Sacred Scholars, Profane Advocates: Intellectuals Molding National Consciousness in Greece." American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, CA, December 1992. (Revised Version presented at the Seminar on "European Research," Department of Politics, Princeton University, March 1993.)
  • "Ethnic Imagery in the Shadows of Nationalist History in Greek Macedonia."  Council on European Studies, 8th International Conference of Europeanists, Chicago, Illinois. March 1992. (Revised Version presented at Haverford College, Anthropology Department, April 1993.)
  • "Ethnicity in Northern Greece."  Foreign Service Institute, Washington, D.C., February 1993.
  • "Fellow Travelers, Separate Roads: The Greek Communist Party and the Macedonian Question."  Seminar on the Modern Greek State, CUNY Graduate Center, February 1992.
  • "The New Left and Ethnic Minorities in Northern Greece, 1924-1990." American Anthropological Association (AAA), Chicago, Illinois, November 1991.
  • "Politicizing Culture: Negating Ethnic Identity in Greek Macedonia."  Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Symposium, Gainesville, Florida, October 1991.
  • "Terror and National Struggle in Macedonia, 1870-1913." Columbia University, Anthropology Department Boas-Benedict Seminar, May 1991.
  • "The Langadhas Basin in Central Greek Macedonia: A Regional Analysis."  University of Thessaloniki, Department of Archaeology, May 1990.

Conference Panels Organized

  • “Mirrors, Myths, and Metaphors: Ethnographing Greece.” American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C., 28 November-2 December 2001 (Co-organizer). 
  • “Metaphors and Imaginings: Ritual Celebrations of Self and Society in Contemporary Greece,” Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Symposium, Cambridge, MA, 2-5 November 1995.
  • "Against the Grain: Nationalism and the Politics of Ethnographic Practice." American Anthropological Association (AAA), Atlanta, GA, November 1994.
  • "The Politics of Identity in Europe's old and New Democracies: Redefining Membership in the Collectivity."  Council on European Studies Conference, Chicago, IL, March 31-April 2, 1994 (Co-organizer).
  • "Redefining Membership in the Collectivity: The Quest for Legitimation in the National Arena."  Invited Session (Association of Political and Legal Anthropology), American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington, D.C., November 1993.
  • "The Converging Frontiers of Greek and Macedonian Nationalisms: The Creation and Contestation of National Identity among Slavic Speakers from Northwestern Greece.  Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Symposium, Berkeley, California, October 1993.
  • "Riding the Crest of Moving Frontiers: National Intellectuals as Cultural Critics in Social Movements." American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, CA, December 1992 (Co-organizer)

Academic Honors and Grants

  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2017
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2016
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2015
  • Center for Advanced study, Sofia Bulgaria, International Fellow, March-April, 2015.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2014.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2013.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2012.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2011.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2010.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2009.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2008.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research 2007.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 2006.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 2005.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 2004.
  • Wellesley College, Mellon Mid-Career Enrichment Grant, Release Time Grant, 2002-2003.
  • Wellesley College, Brachman Hoffman Small Grant, 2003.
  • Wellesley College, Mellon Mid-Career Enrichment Grant, 2003.
  • Wellesley College, Stalley Cancer-Related Research Grant, 2002-2003.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 2002.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 2001.
  • Staley Fellowship for Cancer-Related Research at Wellesley College, 1999-2001
  • Barbara Jelavich Book Prize, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1998.
  • Heldt Book Prize, American Association for Women in Slavic Studies, 1998.
  • Wellesley College, Faculty Award, Summer Research, 1998
  • PSC-CUNY Out-of-Cycle Award, Faculty Research Grant, 1996
  • Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award, Free Expression Project, 1995
  • Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, research fellowship, 1994-1995
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, research grant, 1993-1994
  • Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, research fellowship, 1993-1994
  • Nomination for the Bancroft Award, Best Dissertation in International Relations, Columbia University, 1992
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Dissertation Grant, 1989-1990
  • MacArthur Foundation, Dissertation Fellowship, 1989-1990
  • MacArthur Foundation, Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Summer 1988
  • President's Fellow, Columbia University, 1988-1989, 1987-1988, 1985-1986, 1984-1985
  • Alexander J. Arghis Fellow, Columbia University, 1986-1987

Peer Reviewer

  • American Anthropologist
  • American Ethnologist
  • American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, AWSS, Graduate Essay Prize
  • Anthropology Today
  • Anthropological Quarterly
  • Center for European Studies/Society for the Anthropology of Europe, pre-dissertation fellowships
  • Chicago University Press
  • Choice
  • Comparative Studies in Society and History
  • Cultural Anthropology
  • Cultural and social history
  • Social and Cultural History Journal
  • Current Anthropology
  • Dialectical Anthropology
  • Douglass Book Prize for best European ethnography (Society for the Anthropology of Europe, SAE)
  • East European Politics and Society
  • Economic and Social Research Council
  • Ethnic and Racial Studies
  • European University Institute, dissertation defense
  • FOCAAL, European Journal of Anthropology, Consulting Editor
  • Folklore
  • Harvard University (promotion in the Department of Classics)
  • Harvard University Press
  • Heldt Book Prizes Award Committee for best woman author in Slavic Studies, best author in women’s Slavic Studies, and best article in women’s Slavic Studies.
  • Helsinki Watch, Report on Slav-Macedonians
  • Human Rights Review
  • HUA: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
  • Identities:  Global Studies in Culture and Power
  • Indiana University Press
  • Indiana University, promotion in Department of Criminal Justice
  • Journal of Human Rights
  • Journal of Modern Greek Studies
  • Journal of Women’s History
  • Journal of Rural Studies
  • Law and Society Review
  • McArthur Foundation
  • Medische Antropologie
  • Middle East Studies
  • Ministry of Education, Greece
  • Museum Anthropology
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Identities
  • Nations and Nationalism
  • New York University Press
  • Oxford University Press
  • Panteion University, Athens, Greece (promotion review in anthropology)
  • Parson’s, Elsa Clews, graduate student paper prize (American Ethnological Society)
  • Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR), editorial Board Member and reviewer
  • Princeton University, promotion in the department of Anthropology
  • PSC-CUNY, Research Awards, CUNY
  • Rappaport student paper prize in environmental anthropology
  • Slavic Review
  • Social Science Research Council, Dissertation Fellowships
  • Social Science and Medicine
  • Stanford University Press
  • Syracuse University Press
  • University of Chicago Press
  • University of Toronto Press
  • University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (tenure case in the Department of Anthropology)
  • University of California, Riverside (tenure case for the Department of Anthropology)
  • University of the Aegean Greece, Evaluation of Department of Social Anthropology
  • University of Thessaly, Greece (promotion in Anthropology)
  • University of Crete, Greece (promotion in Anthropology)
  • Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

Fieldwork Experience

  • Fieldwork (summer 2017) “Refugee crisis in Lesvos.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2016) “Cancer In Bulgaria.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2015) “Cancer in Bulgaria.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2014) “Cancer in Turkey.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2013) “When the Christian Saints arrived: Cancer in Byzantium.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2012) “Monuments, Museums, and Statues: Designing urban space in national vernacular.”
  • Fieldwork (summer 2011) on “Domesticating the fortification walls of Salonica and the experience of marginality.”
  • Research  (summer 2010) for the entry on ‘The Greeks” for CLIO-ABC books.
  • Fieldwork (summer 2009) on “National identity and family memory of Macedonian refugees and their descendants in Bulgaria in the XXth century.” Collaborative project with the Institute of National History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, coordinated by Georgi Markov.
  • Fieldwork (August 2009) Research on “Cancer among the enemy: Are there ethnic variations in carcinogenesis in Skopje, Macedonia?”
  • Fieldwork (August 2008) Research on the Tito-Veles zinc refinery and the oncology section of the Skopje Hospital (the Republic of Macedonia)
  • Fieldwork (August 2007) Research on perceptions of cancer among the Slavs of Northern Greece.
  • Fieldwork (August 2006), St. Raphael Monastery, island of Lesvos, Greece. Research on religious ritual and healing from cancer.
  • Fieldwork (July 2005) Paliambela, Northern Greece. Research on cancer incidence and memory.
  • Fieldwork (August 2004) Paliambela, Northern Greece, ethnoarchaeological research on a Neolithic site and the changes in agricultural and herding practices.
  • Fieldwork (July 2003, July 2004), Crete, Greece, Research on greenhouses, pesticide use and cancer.
  • Fiedlwork (July 2002), Crete, Greece.  Research on pesticide use and carcinogenesis.
  • Fieldwork (June-August 2001), Greece and China.  Research on perceptions of cancer and the environment.
  • Fieldwork (June-August 2000), Greece.  Research on the national hero, Pavlos Melas.
  • Fieldwork (June-August 1999), Greece and China.  Research on perceptions of cancer and the environment.
  • Fieldwork (July-August 1998), Greece.  Research on competing Greek and Macedonian nationalisms.
  • Fieldwork (June-September 1995, December 1995-January 1996), Greece.  Research on ethnicity and national identity during the inter-war period.
  • Fieldwork. (April-September 1994)  Thessaloniki, Greece.  Research on Greek and Macedonian nationalisms in the media of popular culture.
  • Fieldwork. (July-September 1993, December-January 1993)  Western Greek Macedonia, Thessaloniki, and Athens, Greece.  Ethnographic and archival research on ethnicity, local history, and national politics.
  • Fieldwork. (July-September 1992)  Western Greek Macedonia, Thessaloniki, and Athens, Greece.  Ethnographic and archival fieldwork on the role of academics and intellectuals in Greek nationalism.
  • Fieldwork (June-July 1991) Western Greek Macedonia and Western (Greek) Thrace.  Comparative Ethnographic and historical research on ethnic relations and government minority policies in Northern Greece.
  • Fieldwork (August 1991, May 1989-July 1990, April 1989-August 1990, May-September 1988) Dissertation field research in three villages in the Langadhas basin, Central Macedonia, Northern Greece
  • Fieldwork (August 1989-September 1989) Ethno-archaeological fieldwork in the village of Aghios Demetrios, Mt. Olympus.  A pilot study for the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
  • Fieldwork (summer 1986) Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (NVAP).  Ethnohistorical analysis of the relationship between population movements and commercialized agriculture in the Nemea Valley, Southern Greece, since Greek Independence in 1829, based on oral histories.

Teaching Interests

General anthropology courses:

  • Introduction to social and cultural anthropology
  • Contemporary Anthropological TheoryFoundations of Anthropological TheoryA History of Anthropological TheoryReligion and Iconic Imagery
  • History, Mythology and National Identity
  • Culture, Time, and History: Theories and Methods in Historical Anthropology
  • Culture, Class, and Gender: An Introduction to Political Anthropology
  • Media and Nationalism

Anthropology of health and the environment courses:

  • The Politics of Nature
  • Cultures of Cancer
  • The Triumph of Culture:  Human interaction on the environment
  • The Vulnerable Body: Anthropological understandings

Area courses: Greece, Balkans and the Mediterranean:

  • Cultures, Histories and Nationalisms in the Balkans
  • Cinematic Representations of the Balkans
  • The Mediterranean World: A cultural area through history
  • Greece and its neighbors
  • Peoples and Cultures of the Balkans

Languages

  • Modern Greek: excellent speaking, writing and reading ability
  • French: reading ability, proficient speaking and writing ability
  • Bulgarian:  reading ability

References

Professor Victor Freedman

  • Andrew W. Mellon Professor
  • Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
  • University of Chicago
  • 1130 East 59th Street
  • Chicago, IL 60637
  • (
773) 702-0732
  • vfriedm@uchicago.edu

 

  • George Seferis Professor Panayiotis Roilos
  • Harvard University
  • Department of the Classics
  • 204 Boylston Hall
  • Cambridge, MA  02138
  • roilos@harvard.edu
  • (617)495-7783

Professor Sally Merry

  • Professor of Anthropology and Law and Society
  • New York University
  • New York, New York
  • sally.merry@nyu.edu
  • (781) 962-3471

Professor Paul Stoller

  • Department of Anthropology and sociology
  • 102 Old Library Building
  • West Chester University
  • West Chester, PA 19383
  • (610)436-2556
  • pstoller@wcupa.edu

Contact Details

  • E-mail id: akarakasidou@wellesley.edu
  • Ph. No.: (781)235-5539 (home), (508)308-8665 (mobile), (781) 283-3199 (office)
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