Speaker: Dr. Christopher Jotischky, Marilena Laskaridis Fellow of Modern Greek Studies, University of Amsterdam
Date: 9 May 2025
Time: 15:30
Location: Universiteitsbibliotheek UvA Singel 425, room Belle van Zuylenzaal
Language: English
Abstract
In addition to his status as a major theorist of Greek political culture, language, and literature, Adamantios Koraïs was among the first advocates writing in Greek for the abolition of enslavement in both the Ottoman Empire and the mercantilist empires of Western European states. His writings betray a clear moral outrage at the inhumanity of the traffic in human beings; he also conceives of subjection to despotic political regimes metaphorically as a form of enslavement.
But where did his strong feelings about enslavement in the contemporary world develop? Undoubtedly, Koraïs was informed by his understanding of the history of enslavement in Ancient Greece and his horror at the ongoing traditions of enslavement he was familiar with from the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, his residence in Amsterdam during the period 1771-1777 seems also to have played a decisive role in shaping his feelings about enslavement and race in a European colonial context. In this lecture I shall present the preliminary findings in my ongoing research project into Koraïs’s role in shaping a Greek abolitionist discourse during the nineteenth century, focusing on how the Dutch context of the 1770s could have shaped his thoughts on the subject.
Bio
Christopher Jotischky is currently Marilena Laskaridis Visiting Fellow in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and an Early Career Research Associate at the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London. He completed his PhD in Classics at Brown University in 2024, and is interested chiefly in Greek prose literature and intellectual history during the period 1750-1950. He has published his research in Classical Receptions Journal and Skenè, and is also active as a translator into English of Modern Greek prose literature, archival material, and historiography, most recently for a major public website about important Greek revolutionary Nikolaos Soliotis, which is due to be launched later this year. Christopher has presented his research to audiences in the UK, US, Greece, and Canada, but this is his first time doing so in the Netherlands.