The Greek Community of Melbourne’s Greek History and Culture Public Seminar Series, which was suspended due to COVID-19, will now resume on June 25 and is set to be delivered online fortnightly.
The series has been running for ten years and its restart means Community members can now commemorate a decade of intellectual debate, academic visits, captivating presentations and stimulating discussions.
According to the convenor, Dr Nick Dallas, online delivery may not be an ideal situation, but it’s a step towards normalcy.
“It doesn’t cover the coming together and interaction of people at the Greek Centre nor the social dimension the seminars provided but it’s a first step towards the return to normalcy,” Dr Dallas said.
“Whether towards the end of the series we allow audience attendance to the Centre, even on a limited basis, remains to be seen.”
The series will recommence with the University of Melbourne’s Louise Hitchcock, Professor of Aegean Archaeology. Her topic, ‘What the Covid-19 Pandemic Can Tell Us About the Bronze Age (12th century) Collapse in Greece,’ is particularly fitting during this time.
The aim of the talk is to re-examine theories of events and mythologies surrounding the end of Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, which resulted in collapse, depopulation in Greece, and the destruction of the Mycenaean civilisation as well as of many sites around the Mediterranean.
The seminars will be broadcast via the video-conferencing platform Zoom, but will also be simultaneously streamed on the Community’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
Registration will not be mandatory for participants but for those who would like the potential to ask questions using the chat function of Zoom, prior registration is necessary.
More information about the event will be released in the weeks ahead.
