Dr Athena Leoussi
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+44 (0) 118 378 6083
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Associate Professor
Specialism
Comparative European History; Nationalism; Citizenship; Legacy of Ancient Greek cultureCareers Officer for the Languages and Cultures Department
Office
Miller 103Building location
Miller buildingAreas of interest
My main scholarly interests lie in three overlapping fields: nationalism studies, art history, and the European Classical tradition. Within these broad fields, I am particularly interested in the history, theories and problems of nationalism and national identity; European cultural history, with special emphasis on cultural exchange and contact; visions of the human body in the context of the modern idea of race and anti-semitism; the representation of national identity in art and architecture; and the role of the classical tradition in the development of modern conceptions of humanity, nationality, and democracy.
I have published several volumes and articles in my areas of interest (see my Publications, below). My research has received funding from the Greek State, the Hellenic Foundation, the Irving Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, USA, and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) of the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼, that gives undergraduate students opportunities to acquire research skills by working with academics on their research projects.
Through my interest in the European Classical Tradition, I worked for several years with the British Museum, organising events to promote public understanding of the significance of the ideas, principles, and art of the ancient Greek world for modern life and the development of modern art. I also initiated and curated, with the late Dr Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator at the British Museum, the exhibition, ' (2015), and was scientific advisor for its sequel, Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece (2018). Both of these blockbuster exhibitions were radically innovative. They placed at centre stage the British Museum’s Parthenon Sculptures, hitherto held in obscurity and neglect by debates over their ownership, and showed their dramatic impact on modern art.
I am currently writing a book on European Parliaments.
Postgraduate supervision
I have supervised and acted as External Examiner for doctoral research on ethnicity, race, nationalism, the classical tradition, and the representation of national identity in art and architecture. I welcome applications for postgraduate research on any of these themes.
Current supervisions:
- Surya Devkota: The Raute Community in Nepal
- Chris Salatelis: The Society for Education through Art (SEA)
Completed supervision:
- Patrick Claude Fabien Robert (Department of Languages and Cultures): The Heath-Pompidou Paris 20-21 May 1971 Summit: Franco-British European Honeymoon or Marriage of Convenience? (Completed 2020).
Teaching
I teach and convene the following undergraduate modules:
- Liberty and Empire in the Making of the Modern World (ML1LIB)
- Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe (EU2UNR/HS2UNR)
- Society, Thought and Art in Modern Europe (EU2STA/HS2STA)
- Identity and Conflict (ML3IC)
International Teaching
I convene and teach in the Department of Political Science and History of the Panteion University of Athens, Greece the postgraduate module, ‘European Identities’. The module, team-taught by an international cast of distinguished academics from different European Universities, is a teaching partnership with Professor Christina Koulouri, Rector of the Panteion. The module has been funded by the ERASMUS+ Teaching Exchange Programme (2012-23), the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Athens, and the Dutch Embassy in Athens.
Research centres and groups
Founder of the LSE/Edinburgh University-based Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), which I Chaired for many years, since its creation in 1991. I am also a member of ASEN's Steering Committee, ASEN’s governing body. Through ASEN, I have been involved in the development of a variety of research projects, seminars, conferences and colloquia on ethnicity, nationalism, and national identity.
Founding Editor (1994) and continuing Editor of ASEN’s international peer-reviewed journal, Nations and Nationalism (Wiley-Blackwell).
Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed journal, Genealogy.
Member of the Advisory Board of NISE (National Movements and Intermediary Structures in Europe [NISE]), an international association with an online platform for research and heritage on national movements in Europe, created by the ADVN Archives of National Movements, funded by the Belgian government and based in Antwerp.
Visiting Senior Fellow in the Government Department, LSE (2008-12).
International Fellow, Research Centre for Modern History, Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens, Greece (2012-).
Academic qualifications
- My University education is from the University of Grenoble, France, and the University of London, UK.
- My first degree was a Licence de Sociologie, at the Université des Sciences Sociales de Grenoble.
- I then went on to study in the UK, obtaining a MPhil in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
- Obtaining a Greek State scholarship through competitive national examinations, I did my PhD on the intersection of nationalism and classicism in 19th-centry England and France, at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.
Selected publications
My publications include the following books:
- Famous Battles and How the Shaped the Modern World, co-edited with Beatrice Heuser. Pen & Sword (2018). 2 volumes.
- The Call of the Homeland: Diaspora Nationalisms, Past and Present, co-edited with Allon Gal and Anthony D. Smith, Leiden: Brill in association with UCL (2010).
- Nationalism and Ethnosymbolism; History, Culture and Ethnicity in the Formation of Nations, co-edited with Steven Grosby. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2006).
- Nationality and Nationalism, co-edited with Steven Grosby. London: I.B. Tauris (2003). Set of 4 volumes.
- Circles of Light: The Making of the Ionides Art Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London/Athens: Victoria and Albert Museum/Papasotiriou and Co. (2001).
- Encyclopaedia of Nationalism, with a Preface by Anthony D. Smith. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers at Rutgers University (2001).
- Nationalism and Classicism: The Classical Body as National Symbol in Nineteenth-Century England and France, Houndmills: MacMillan (also available as e-book). (1998).