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Modern Greek Cities

The Modern Greek experience is intimately tied to the city as a physical space, a national symbol, a nostalgic memory, and a fantasy of grandeur. This course focuses on such celebrated Mediterranean and world cities as Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, Alexandria, and, finally, Chicago to detail the Modern Greek urban experience and thus engage with the broader themes of colonialism, modern appropriations of antiquity, nation-building, multi-ethnic coexistence, war and refugeehood, and, finally, immigration and the recreation of homeland in the diaspora. Students will work with a variety of textual and visual sources and undertake original research in Chicago’s Greektown. No prior knowledge of Modern Greek history is required.

GKM / HIST 286 MODERN GREEK CITIES -- SPRING, 2015 1:00-1:50 Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays, Stevenson Hall 220 CLASS WEBSITE: http://blackboard.uic.edu INSTRUCTOR: OFFICE HOURS Paris Papamichos Chronakis Fridays, 4:00-5:30 pm (or by appointment) 1818 University Hall e-mail: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION & GOALS: The Modern Greek experience is intimately tied to the city as a physical space, a national symbol, a nostalgic memory, and a fantasy of grandeur. This course focuses on such celebrated Mediterranean and world cities as Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, Alexandria, and, finally, Chicago to detail the Modern Greek urban experience and thus engage with the broader themes of colonialism, modern appropriations of antiquity, nation-building, multi-ethnic coexistence, war and refugeehood, and, finally, immigration and the recreation of homeland in the diaspora. Students will work with a variety of textual and visual sources and undertake original research in Chicago’s Greektown. No prior knowledge of Modern Greek history is required. REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Book review essay Greek Chicago History Project Quizzes (2) Weekly assignments Attendance, & Participation (10% + 5%, respectively) 20% 30% 20% 15% 15% Book review essay: You will be writing a 1,200-word, critical review of one of the assigned books. The essay must be emailed to me by 11:00 pm on the days shown in the calendar. Late papers can be turned in, but 3% will be deducted for each day that it is late. Note, that you are entitled to a 48-hour paper extension but only once per semester and if you contact me at least one day before the paper is due. Greek Chicago History Project: This is a collaborative project we will undertake together with the aim of documenting facets of the Greek experience in Chicago and making them available online. The project will include the compilation of an annotated bibliography and a list of available archival resources, the mapping of Greek Chicago, as well as oral interviews with Greek American Chicagoans. Participation and Quizzes: Attendance, active engagement, and an average of 50 pages of reading per week are all required for this course. You are responsible for coming to class 1 prepared to discuss the assigned readings. We will also have two in-class quizzes, which will be announced beforehand and can be found on the calendar below. They cannot be made up except in the case of a documented medical or family emergency or a university-recognized religious observance. Attendance will count for 10% of your final grade, and participation for 5%. Anyone who is not present in the first five minutes will be counted as absent. You are entitled to five unexcused absences. Every one thereafter will deduct 2 points (out of the 10 possible) from the attendance grade in the class. That means, for example, that missing 8 classes (the 5 “no questions asked” absences + 5 others) would result in an attendance grade of 0 and lower your overall grade in the class by one complete letter. However, you can make up for your absences and retain your grade if you request extra homework. Absences can only be excused for required UIC events, university-recognized religious holidays, and verifiable medical emergencies to you or your immediate family. If you miss a class and believe it should be excused, please contact me within one week of the absence; they will not be excused thereafter. If you must take an extended absence, please contact the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs for help. Laptop use: Laptop use must be reduced to the minimum and should be confined to note taking. Failure to comply with this basic rule may result in a lower class participation grade. Blackboard: All texts will be readily available electronically on Blackboard (http://blackboard.uic.edu). You are therefore responsible for learning how to log into Blackboard and use its features, and you will need to make arrangements to access it to upload lecture notes, check your grades, and turn in writing assignments. ACADEMIC HONESTY: Discussing and sharing thoughts with each other, online or offline, is highly recommendable. But for all graded materials for this course, you should research, think and write on your own. In the papers and exams acknowledge quotations and ideas drawn from books, articles, websites, and other texts by adding a footnote or some other form of reference mark. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, which the University defines as “Intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.” Academic integrity is highly important and the University’s policy can be found in the Undergraduate Catalog, at: http://www.uic.edu/ucat/catalog/GR.shtml#qa. All assignments will be evaluated for plagiarism. Any assignment that appears to have been plagiarized will receive a grade of 0; a second instance of plagiarism will result in failure of the course and referral to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. There is no need to panic. I will upload specific guidelines about research and writing techniques on Blackboard. Moreover, in the course of the semester there will be a session with a librarian who will help you acquaint yourself with the library facilities, conduct research, organize your notes and compose an essay. Besides, plagiarism is easily avoidable. It is enough to enclose any words that are not your own into quotation marks and that you note where you found any material (textual or visual) that you include in your essays. We will go through all of that in class, but for more insights into the art of referencing you can also consult a book such as A Pocket Guide to Writing History, which is usually available at the UIC Bookstore. Feel free to ask me, -there is no need to quote my replies! 2 STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Please contact ODS at 312-4132103 (voice) or 312-413-0123 (TTY). Required books All books are available for purchase at the UIC bookstore. All readings not listed below will be available on Blackboard: - Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 (2006) - Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924 (2006) - Michael Haag, Alexandria: City of Memory (2004) Optional introductory texts and reference works These texts provide important historical information on the history of Modern Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean and make for useful background reading: - Thomas Gallant, Modern Greece (London, 2001) - Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece (Cambridge, 1992) - John S. Koliopoulos & Thanos M. Veremis, Modern Greece: A History since 1821 (Chichester, 2009) - William Cleveland, A History of the Middle East (Philadelphia, 2012) - Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (Cambridge, 2005) CLASS CALENDAR Part I: The Modern Greek urban experience. From cosmopolitanism to nationalism WEEK 1 Jan. 12: Introduction Jan. 14: Athens I: The Ottoman city and the European gaze - (Background reading) Thomas Gallant, Modern Greece (London, 2001), Chapter 1 (The Ottoman Legacy), pp. 1-8. - E. Dodwell, The Bazaar of Athens (image analysis) - Nicholas Biddle in Greece. The Journals and Letters of 1806 (excerpts) Jan. 16: Discussion WEEK 2 Jan. 19: No classes, Martin Luther King Day Jan. 21: Athens II: Building a capital - (Background reading) Thomas Gallant, Modern Greece (London, 2001), Chapter 4 (Constructing the modern nation), pp. 55-75. - Eleni Bastea, The Creation of Modern Athens. Planning the Myth, Chapter 4 (Planning new Athens), pp. 69-104. Jan. 23: Discussion WEEK 3 3 Jan. 26: Athens III: Neoclassicism and the experience of modernity - George Horton, Modern Athens (1901) (excerpts) - Archaeology of the City of Athens (website) Jan. 28: Athens IV: the Acropolis: Ancient ruins, modern visions - Visit to the exhibition “The Periclean Acropolis: from Antiquity to Modernity”, National Hellenic Museum Jan. 30: Discussion WEEK 4 Feb. 2: Istanbul I: Orientalism and the remaking of an Ottoman capital - Philip Mansel, Constantinople, Chapter 13 (Yildiz) Feb. 4: Istanbul II: Greeks, Jews and Muslims - Philip Mansel, Constantinople, Chapter 10 (city of marvels) Feb. 6: Discussion WEEK 5 Feb. 9: Istanbul III: a city in revolution: the Young Turks - Philip Mansel, Constantinople, Chapter 14 (Young Turks) Feb. 11: Workshop: researching in the library Feb. 13: Discussion WEEK 6 Quiz 1 (February 16) Feb. 16: Alexandria I: colonialism and nationalism - Michael Haag, Alexandria (excerpts) Feb. 18: Alexandria II: Cavafy - Constantine Cavafy, select poems on Alexandria - Michael Haag, Alexandria (excerpts) Feb. 20: Discussion WEEK 7 Assignment: Book review essay due 11 pm, Friday, February 27 Feb. 23: Izmir I: a cosmopolitan, Ionian Greek port-city - Giles Milton, Paradise Lost (excerpts) Feb. 25: Izmir II: The Catastrophe - (Background reading) Thomas Gallant, Modern Greece (London, 2001), Chapter 6 & 7, pp. 125-150 - Giles Milton, Paradise Lost (excerpts) - Documentary: Smyrna: The Destruction of the Cosmopolitan City, 1900-1922 by Maria Iliou Feb. 27: Discussion WEEK 8 Mar. 2: Izmir III: Memory - Biray Kirli, ‘Forgetting the Smyrna Fire’ (2005) - Websites of Asia Minor refugees Mar. 4: Athens V: refugee city 4 - G. A. Yiannakopoulos, Refugee Greece: Photographs from the Archive of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (1992) - Renée Hirschon, Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The Social Life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus (1989) (excerpts) Mar. 6: Discussion WEEK 9 Mar. 9: Salonica I: A Jewish-Ottoman-cosmopolitan city - Documentary: Thessaloniki in Colors Mar. 11: Salonica II: The Jerusalem of the Balkans - Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Chapters 3, 9, 11 - Thessaloniki 1900-1930 Mar. 13: Discussion WEEK 10 Mar. 16: Salonica III: the Great Fire & making the city Greek - Audiovisual testimonies of Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors from the Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive - Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Chapters 14, 16, 18, 20 Mar. 18: Salonica IV: the Holocaust - Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Chapters 21-22 - Sofianopoulos, The Jews of Thessaloniki (documentary, 58΄, 1997) Mar. 20: Discussion Mar. 23-27: Spring Break, no classes WEEK 11 Mar. 30: Salonica V: Salonican Jews in Auschwitz - Audiovisual testimonies of Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors from the Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive Apr. 1: Salonica VI: A city of ghosts - Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Chapter 23, Introduction, Conclusion - Maurice Amaraggi, Salonica City of Silence (documentary, 52 min. 2006) Apr. 3: Discussion WEEK 12 Quiz 2 (April 6) Apr. 6: Athens VI: a city in film - Documentary, In exchange for five apartments and one shop! (2005, 110 min.) Apr. 8: Athens VII: a city in film - Documentary, In exchange for five apartments and one shop! (2005, 110 min.) Apr. 10: Discussion Part II: The “Greek Chicago” Project WEEK 13 Apr. 13: Chicago I: the Greek-American experience: the journey 5 Visit to the exhibition “Reaching for the American Dream: the legacy of Greek immigration”, National Hellenic Museum - Maria Iliou (dir.), The Journey: the Greek-American Dream (documentary, 2007) - Ann Beck, Greek Immigration to, and Settlement in, Central Illinois, 1880-1930 (2014), Chapter 3 Apr. 15: Chicago II: the Greek-American experience: The rise and fall of Greektown - Visit to the Gus and Mary Stathis Library and Resource Center, National Hellenic Museum - Natalie Walker, “Chicago Housing Conditions. Greeks and Italians in the Neighborhood of Hull House” (1915) Apr. 17: Discussion – Project meeting - WEEK 14 Apr. 20: Chicago III: the Greek-American experience: the view of others - Visit to the Jane Addams Hull-House archives, Richard J. Daley Library - Grace Abbott, “A study of the Greeks in Chicago” (1909) Apr. 22: No class Apr. 24: Discussion – Project meeting WEEK 15 Apr. 27: Chicago IV: the Greek-American experience: religion and community life - Visit to the St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church - Nick T. Thomopoulos, 100 Years: From Greece to Chicago and Back (2011) (excerpts) Apr. 29: Chicago V: the Greek-American experience: documenting history - Michael George Davros, Greeks in Chicago (2009) (excerpts) May 1: Discussion – Project meeting Submission of the “Greek Chicago Project” component: 11 pm, Wednesday, May 6 6