Events Calendar – British School at Athens
International Symposium
Celebrating 200 Years of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man
Mary Shelley’s third published novel, The Last Man (1826), tells of a great plague which exterminates the human race at the end of the twenty-first century, just as the Greek Revolution reaches its long-postponed conclusion with the conquest of Constantinople. In what many critics have deemed to be her most ambitious novel, Shelley interlaces her personal experience with current historical events and offers a grim but prescient panorama of global and local politics, climate change, ethics, societies, and human institutions. In light of the increased attention The Last Man has gained in the COVID era, this international symposium aims to reflect on the multilayered nature of Shelley’s novel; its parallels with her more famous Frankenstein; its ambivalent philhellenism; its profound resonance in our days; and the rich profusion of ideas it evokes in the reader.
SPEAKERS
RODERICK BEATON
LAMBROS FLITOURIS
ARISTIDES HATZIS
ANNA KARAKATSOULI
EFTERPI MITSI
PIYA PAL-LAPINSKI
MARIA SCHOINA
KONSTANTINA TORTOMANI
SIMOS ZENIOS
In-person only
To attend in-person in Athens, please register here
The day’s symposium proceedings will be followed by the Book Presentation: Victorians and Modern Greece: Literary and Cultural Encounters. Please register for both events separately.
When: 19 January, 2026 @ 10:00 am - 6:00 pm EET
Where: British School at Athens, Upper House – Athens – 52 Souedias Street