The Mythos as MythUs summer school program studies myth and popular narrative, from antiquity to the present, as being humanity’s voice, long-shared, with which to respond to harsh realities; to times of crisis; and to distress that impacts entire communities. In such times of transition and upheaval myth and narrative serve to ameliorate the inimical stereotyping, bigoted notions, and segregation that these challenging circumstances inevitably bring. In its role of healing, narrative has been not just preserved but also transformed, in all its oral, written, digital, and, of late, even contemporary literary forms, not just in terms of its atavistic world of archaic symbolism but in fact most markedly through being called on in confronting, via poetic means, problems, ideas, and emotions that are communal as well as individual — as a result of which transformative therapeutic dimension, narrative continues to update, on an ongoing basis, in altogether dynamic ways.
This Summer School is a blended-learning program that consists of an online preparation class and a ten-day live attendance summer school of face-to-face classes in Athens as well as fieldwork on the island of Antiparos, Cyclades, and five group and/or guided tours in and around Attica and Athens.
The University of the Aegean will provide all participant students with a diploma supplement including their courses – seminars and credit points.
The Program is open to Bachelor’s, Master and PhD international students, as well as Greek Englishspeaking students, with an interest in myth and legend and their contemporary research and applications; of value for those with research and learning interests in Humanities and Social Sciences, especially but by no means exclusively, Classics, Folklore Studies, History, Literature, Psychology and Cultural Studies.
Summer School Topics
Myth in Ancient Greek and Other Ancient Cultures
The Role of Myth in Response to Dread, Disruption, and Disaster
Narrating in Modern and Contemporary Society
Teaching staff
The team of instructors of the MythUS Summer School consists of scholars of international acclaim in classics and folklore studies:
William Hansen (Indiana University), Carl Lindahl (University of Houston), Camilla Asplund Ingemark, (Uppsala University), Licia Masoni (University of Bologna), Dominic Ingemark (Uppsala University), Gail Cooper, Ioannis Konstantakos (NKUA), Sophia Papaioannou (NKUA), Christos Zafiropoulos (University of Patras), Marianthi Kaplanoglou (NKUA), George Katsadoros (University of the Aegean), Aphrodite-Lidia Nounanaki (NKUA).
