The upcoming NIA-logue lecture titled “Coloniality and Decoloniality in Greece and Cyprus.” This engaging lecture will be delivered by Dr. Theodors Rakopoulos (Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo) and Dr. Konstantinos Kalantzis (Assistant Professor, Department of Culture and Creative Media, University of Thessaly).
Abstract
The case for coloniality and the ensuing need for decoloniality in Greece and generally among Greek-speaking populations has been made for a while now, with scholars from several disciplines, including anthropology, often expressing a favourable opinion on including “Greece” in a consideration of the question of colonialism and later in the decolonizing turn that anthropology and the humanities are currently undergoing. Taking cue from the decolonizing debate, this discussion between two Greek anthropologists based in institutions inside and outside Greece, will focus on the historical and epistemological meanings of coloniality and decoloniality in Greece and Cyprus, including the problems of consciousness, subjectivity, agency, representation, as well as the forces of state and capital in shaping the (de-post)colonial condition. Based on ethnographic material from Crete and Cyprus as well as Athens and Thessaloniki, this conversation will raise questions regarding power and the Decolonial Question in Greece as well as the applicability of decolonial and postcolonial analysis to Greek-speaking communities.
Biographical Information
Theodoros Rakopoulos is Professor at the Social Anthropology Department, University of Oslo. He is author of two monographs, From clans to co-ops: Confiscated mafia land in Sicily, and Passport island: The market for EU citizenship in Cyprus. The books have been translated to Italian and Greek, respectively. He is also editor of The global life of austerity and co-editor of Towards an anthropology of wealth. He has published articles on conspiracy, sovereignty, citizenship, mafia, silence, betrayal, masculinity, personhood, cooperatives, austerity, crisis, and commodification. His work has appeared in Current Anthropology, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Social Anthropology, and many other journals. He generally works on economic and political anthropology in the Mediterranean. His current book project focuses on “weirding capitalism”, while he is also pursuing two ethnographic and oral history projects looking at Bektashis in the Balkans, and historical legacies of anticolonialism in Cyprus. During 2025/2026 he is on research leave, mainly in residence at NIA, while also invited professor at EHESS in Marseille and visiting fellow at the University of Tokyo.
Konstantinos Kalantzis is an anthropologist working on the intersections of visual culture and political imagination. He is author of Tradition in the Frame: Photography, Power, and Imagination in Sfakia, Crete (IUP, 2019), co-editor of the volume Citizens of Photography (DUP 2022) and director of the ethnographic films Dowsing the Past (2014), the Impossible Narration (2021) and the Hospitable Gaze (2024). He has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in rural and urban Greece since 2006. He has taught as a lecturer at San Francisco State University, at the university of Bern and elsewhere. He has worked as a researcher at Princeton University (Mary Seeger O’Boyle Fellow), at UCL (PhotoDemos) and at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and he was a Fellow in Comparative Cultural Studies at the Center of Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. His publications appear in various refereed journals, and he has edited the special issue of Visual Anthropology Review “Uncertain Visions” (2016). He has organized a number conferences and exhibitions (e.g., “Imagi(ni)ng Crisis», BSA 2013), “The Sfakian Screen”, 2018). He is a recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s 2019 JB Donne Essay Prize on the Anthropology of Art. He is lecturer in anthropology and visual culture at UCL and assistant professor of Anthropology at the Department of Culture and Creative Media and Industries and the University of Thessaly.
NIA-logues is a series of in-person academic dialogues between Norwegian and Greek scholars launched in 2021 and takes place at the Norwegian Institute at Athens. This time the meeting focuses on the historical and epistemological meanings of coloniality and decoloniality in Greece and Cyprus.
The discussion-based lecture is scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 12, 2026, at 6 p.m. (EET) at the Norwegian Institute at Athens. We are pleased to offer both in-person and online attendance options through Zoom.
To ensure your participation, registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. Please follow the respective registration procedures outlined below:
In-Person Attendance:
Kindly register by sending an email to [email protected]
Online Attendance:
To join us virtually, please register via the following link: https://uib.zoom.us/meeting/register/4oZCx2rFSGms9r6pc2wb1A