Evangelia Balta

Evangelia Balta was born in Kavala in 1955. She studied at the Department of History of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1973-77) and with scholarship from the Alexandros S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, went on to study at Paris I-Sorbonne and the École Pratique des Hautes Études IV Section in Paris (1980-1983), where she received her doctorate in Ottoman History in 1983. She worked in the Historical Archive of Macedonia (Thessaloniki, 1979), at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (1978, 1984-1987) and taught at the Ionian University during the first two years after its foundation (Corfu, 1985-1987). Since 1987 she is a Researcher at the National Hellenic Research Foundation.
Her interests are centered on subjects related to economic and social history during the Ottoman period, as well as the Greek culture of Asia Minor. In addition to her commitment to various programs at the National Research Foundation, she has also served as a scholarly advisor for the Museum of Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta, the Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production in Lesvos, and the Museums of Wine at the Ktima Hatzimihalis and the Ktima Gerovassiliou (Epanomi). She was academic supervisor for the restoration of the Kayakapi neighborhood (Project Kayakapi) in Ürgüp, Turkey (2003-2008). She has been invited to teach seminars for groups of graduate students by universities in Greece and abroad. She is a founding member of the planning committee of Οἶνον Ἱστορῶ (History of Wine), a scholarly group which has organized seven conferences on subjects related to wine and wine production (2000-2008). In 2008 and 2010 she organized two Ιnternational Conferences of Karamanlidika Studies.

KARAMANLIDIKA STUDIES
Since 1978, Evangelia Balta has been involved with the study of karamanlidika philology and its world: printed matter, authors, publishers, reading public. Her priority was compiling the bibliography of the karamanlidika book. Continuing the work of Severien Salaville – Eugène Dalleggio, she has added three further volumes to their bibliography, in 1987 (2 volumes) and 1997 (1 volume). Her quest for karamanlidika titles not recorded in the bibliography, in libraries and archives all over the world, inevitably revealed to her the treasure-trove of the periodic Press. Since 1984, she has been creating systematically in the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (Athens) an archive of photocopies of volumes of various karamanlidika periodicals and newspapers. In 1990 she located and reproduced volumes of the periodicals Αγγελιαφόρος (The Weekly Anggeliaforos) and Αγγελιαφόρος τζοτζουκλάρ ιτζούν, which were published by the American Bible Society (Amerikan Han, Istanbul). These photocopies are kept now in the archive of collector Stratis Tarinas (Athens).
Evangelia Balta is preparing the new edition of the Karamanlidika Bibliography, in which is recorded the testimony of Ottoman archival material on the history of the publication (the permit to publish or its prohibition) and references are made to the bibliographies of Ginis-Mexas, Ph. Iliou, M. Özege, the Stepanyans. Recorded too are the corresponding Greek, Osmanli, Armeno-Turkish publications, with the aim of enhancing the reciprocal influences in the literature-bibliographical side of loans and counter-loans. As is well known, the culture that was shaped in the Ottoman Empire functioned, as far as political circumstances permitted, as a galaxy, with satellite regional cultures that were in mutual contact with each other and concurrently with the whole.
Her future aim is to compile the analytical bibliography of the newspapers and periodicals which circulated, with a team of researchers and post-graduate students. Ultimate aim is to create an encyclopaedic lexicon which will include information on the biography and the work of authors, translators, publishers and funders of karamanlidika printed matter.

Οἶνον Ἱστορῶ  (History of WINE)
Evangelia BALTA is a founder member of Οἶνον Ἱστορῶ  (Oinon Istoro), a team of scholars involved with researching the history of Greek wine. The other members of this team are Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona (PhD, chemist-oenologist), Ilias Anagnostakis (Director of Research, NHRF) and Yanis Pikoulas (Associate Professor, University of Thessaly). The conferences organized by ΟΙΝΟΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΩ; study the history of Greek wine in all periods and from a multidisciplinary perspective. The main focus is on history (prehistory, antiquity, Byzantium, Venetian rule, Ottoman rule, recent times) and archaeology, but there are also agricultural and enological subjects. To date, seven conferences have been held, the proceedings of which have been published with the sponsorship of Ktimata (Domaines). The proceedings are published in Greek and are accompanied by summaries in a foreign language (French, English, German).
Phone: (+30)2107273576
Address: Institute of Historical Research,
National Hellenic Research Foundation
Vasileos Konstantinou 48,
Athens, 11635,
Greece