Dr Michalis Sotiropoulos, FRHistS
British School at Athens
52 Souedias Street
Athens, 10676
The 1821 Fellow in Modern Greek Studies
My research interests lie in the intellectual history of the Greek world during the long nineteenth century, with an emphasis on the Mediterranean and the processes (revolts, revolutions, secessions, unifications, constitution-making and state-building) that changed the political culture and eventually the political and geopolitical map of the region. At the BSA I am working on the research project, Unpublished Archives of British Philhellenism During the Greek Revolution of 1821 which is carried out in collaboration with the National Library of Greece and funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The project has two aims: one is to make invaluable primary sources (such as the papers of the historian George Finlay) digitally accessible to public for the first time; the other is to reassess the general phenomenon of Philhellenism by adopting the insights of transnational and global history.
Prior to joining the BSA, I held post-doctoral and teaching positions at Queen Mary, University of London, Princeton University, the University of Athens, and the University of Thrace. I am also the scientific advisor to the 1821: Digital Archive project.
Publications (selection)
- Liberalism after the Revolution: The Intellectual Foundations of the Greek state, ca 1830-1880 (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
- ‘George Finlay and the Greek Revolution of 1821: The Scottish Enlightenment and transnational liberalism in revolutionary Europe’, in Roderick Beaton and Neils Gael, (eds), The Greek Revolution of 1821: Contexts, Scottish Connections, the Classical Tradition (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming, 2024).
- Guest editor (with A. Dialla and A. Hadjikyriacou), ‘Where was 1821? Space and territory in the Greek Revolution’, Historein, special issue, 22/2, 2023 (forthcoming).
- ‘The transnational foundations of the Greek revolution of 1821’, in Y. Cartledge and A. Varnava (eds), New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence 200 Years on: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections (London: Palgrave, forthcoming, 2021).
- ‘“United we stand, divided we fall”: sovereignty and government during the Greek revolution (1821-28)’, Historein, special issue, 20/1, 2021, edited by Y. Kotsoni and A. Dialla (forthcoming).
- (in Portuguese) ‘Grécia’, in J. L. Cardoso, R. Ramos, N. Monteiro and I. Corrêa da Silva (eds), Dicionário Critico da Revolução Liberal Portuguesa, 1820-1834 (Lisboa: Dom Quixote, forthcoming 2021).
- (in Greek) The Greek Revolution in history: Past, present, and future of the historiography of 1821, digital edition (Athens, Research Center for the Humanities, 2021).
- (in Greek) ‘”Walking backwards into battle”: The political concepts of 1821 and the Age of Revolutions’ (with A. Hadjikyriacou), Μνήμων, 38 (2021), 77-109 (a Turkish translation in K. Andrianopoulou και A. Vakali (eds), On the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of March 1821: new perspectives from Greek historiography [in Turkish] (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2021).
- ‘Liberalism, property, and the foundations of the Greek state (ca. 1830-1870)’, Modern Intellectual History, 1-22, 2019, doi:10.1017/S1479244319000210.
- Patris, ethnos, and demos: representation and political organization in the Greek world, 1750-1860’ (with A. Hadjikyriacou) in J. Innes, M. Philp (eds), Re-imagining Democracy in the Mediterranean, 1750-1860 (Oxford University Press, 2018).