Professor Dimitris Krallis meets with the Centre's Chinese university partners

Dr. Dimitris Krallis, the Acting Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies and Associate Professor of Byzantine History in the Hellenic Studies Program at SFU accepted an invitation to deliver a series of lectures at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Nankai University and at Shandong University in March 2019. Dr. Krallis shared his latest research on the intellectual and social history of eleventh-century Byzantium with fellow Hellenic Studies scholars and Chinese university students on a range of topics, including: “The Byzantine army as Demos,” “Politics in the Byzantine village and small towns,” and “Impersonal governance in Byzantium.”

The invitation also provided an opportunity to reconnect with many of the Centre's Chinese university partners. At Nankai University, Dr. Krallis was pleased to meet the Dean of the College of History, Professor Jian, Pei and with Professor Chen, Zhiqiang (Director of the newly established Center for Hellenic Studies) to renew the strong bonds that exist between our two institutions and to discuss areas of future collaborations and opportunities for academic exchange.

Dr. Krallis was also pleased to meet with members of the senior administration at Beijing Language and Culture University, including Vice President Zhang, Xiwang and the Director, Associate Director, and Manager of the Academic Affairs Office: Wang, Ruifeng; Li, Xiaobo; and Zhu, Wentao, respectively. At Shandong University, Dr. Krallis was accompanied by Lecturer Sun, Lifang. In addition to giving a lecture on global history and Byzantium, he also met with instructors and graduate students to discuss their needs for new online learning material.

For over ten years, the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies has been collaborating with Chinese universities and institutions to expand knowledge of Greece’s language, history, and culture in China. As the number of students enrolled in Chinese university courses using technology and learning materials developed by the SNF New Media Lab surpasses 10,000, the Centre looks forward to the next ten years of partnership and increased opportunities for collaboration that this decade will bring.