8th Annual Lecture in Hellenic Civilisation

Brady Kiesling, Independent Scholar

The Greek state tends to treat monuments and history as political and diplomatic leverage. European liberalism’s embrace of 5th century BCE democracy as a weapon against despotism ultimately rescued Greece’s independence struggle after 1821. Two centuries later, as Europe wavered over how far to let the Greek economy collapse, Athena, Pericles, Plato and the Parthenon all played their roles. As the next generation comes to adulthood in an era of revived nationalism and deep distrust of educated elites, the stories Greece tells, and the means of delivering those stories, must evolve, partly through new technologies that engage the public as active interlocutors not passive worshippers.

Event is free and open to the public.

Reception to follow