Karachristos Ioannis

     Ioannis Karachristos was born in Lamia in 1968. He studied history at the University of Athens [Bachelor (1989) and MA in Modern Greek History (1993)]. In 1998 he acquired a PhD in Modern Greek History from the University of Vienna. Title of doctoral thesis: Familie, Verwandtschaft, Heirat und Eigentumsübertragungen. Das Beispiel der griechischen Insel Syros 1750-1820, (Supervisors: Michael Mitterauer, Olga Katsiardi-Hering).

    Between 1993 and 2008 he participated as a researcher in numerous scientific projects in Greece as well as abroad. He thus had the opportunity of conducting research on many different scientific issues such as the History of the Family, the History of Education, the formation of cultural terminology in southeastern European languages during the modern period, the Greek-orthodox communities in Asia Minor, in Constantinople and on the Black Sea coast, migration and finally the study of memory among the Asia Minor Greek-orthodox refugees by means of oral interviews, genealogies, documents and photographs.

    He held a course on Historical Anthropology at the Centre for Southeast European History at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz (Austria) (summer semester 1998) as well as courses on Modern Greek History and on the History of Childhood at the Department of Education Sciences in Pre-School Ages at the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece)  (winter semesters 2007-2008 and 2008-2009). Since 2003 he is teaching European History at the Greek Open University.

    Since March 2009 he is working as a researcher at the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens.

    Research interests: Historical Anthropology, Oral History, History of the Family, migration, communal organization during the ottoman rule, settlement of Asia Minor refugees in Greece, informal ways of transmitting knowledge on local history through narratives, songs etc, and use of information technology for the digitization and diffusion of cultural information.

Selected publications

"Contribution to the study of the history of Phthiotis during the late period of Ottoman rule. Mid 18th century - 1820" (in Greek), Phthiotika Chronika, 13 (1992) pp. 36-56.

Agathoklis Azelis, Ioannis Karachristos, "Die Genese der modernen Zivilisationsterminologie in den Sprachen Südosteuropas. Der griechische Fall", Österreichische Osthefte, 41 (1999) pp. 321-329.

"The incorporation of Phthiotis into the Ottoman administrative system: The kanunname of Zeitun" (in Greek), Proceedings of the 1st Conference on the History of Phthiotis, 3-4 November 2001, Lamia 2002, pp. 38-44.

"Migration from the island of Syros to Constantinople (1759 - 1818)" (in Greek), in: Asterios Argyriou (Ed.), The greek islands: From the Franks to the present. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Modern Greek Studies, Rethymno, 10-12 May 2002, Athens 2004, Bd. II, pp. 161-171.

"Kin Terminology and the Study of Kinship: A Case Study on the Greek Island of Syros (1750-1820)", History of the Family: An International Quarterly, 9 (2004), pp. 299-315.

"Theoretische Überlegungen zur Wahrnehmung der Migration. Am Beispiel von Migrationen griechisch-orthodoxer Bevölkerungsgruppen Kleinasiens", Wiener Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik. Beiträge zum Symposion Vierzig Jahre Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik der Universität Wien im Gedanken an Herbert Hunger, (Wien, 4.-7. Dezember 2002), [Byzantina et Neograeca Vindobonensia], Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2004, pp. 231-240.

Ioannis Karachristos, Michael Warlas, "Immigrants in Smyrna – Refugees in Greece: Subsequent transformations of identity among the Kytherian migrants", in: Maria Stassinopoulou - Ioannis Zelepos (Hg.), Griechische Kultur in Südosteuropa in der Neuzeit. Beiträge zum Symposium in memoriam Gunnar Hering, (Wien, 16.-18. Dezember 2004), [Byzantina et Neograeca Vindobonensia], Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2008, pp. 375-386.

Ioannis Karachristos, Michael Warlas, "Memory of local origin and identity among the descendants of Smyrna’ Kytherians" (in Greek), Proceedings of the 8th International Panionian Conference, Kythira , 21-25 May 2006, Kythira 2009, Bd. 3, pp. 128-138.

Ioannis Karachristos, Michael Warlas, "Education in the collective memory: The Genealogy and Oral History Project of the Foundation of the Hellenic World" (in Greek), in: Social Inequality and Education: Conference dedicated to 20 years since the establishment of.the Department of Education Schiences in Pre-School Ages, Alexandroupoli, 28–30 March 2008 (in print).

Ioannis Karachristos, Michael Warlas, "Narrating one’s Life Story: Storytellers, Storytelling Cultures and the Dimensions of Self-presentation among the greek-orthodox Αsia Μinor refugees", in Narratives across Time and Space: The 15th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research, Athens, 21-27 June, 2009. (in print).