2020 Volume 22 Pages 72-79
When entering the center of Athens, we first see the Hellenic Parliament once served as the palace of Kings Otto and George I. Then, along Panepistimiou Street, there are many historical buildings: Numismatic Museum (housed in the mansion of Heinrich Schliemann), Archaeological Society at Athens, Bank of Greece, and ‘the Trilogy’ of neo-classical buildings including Academy of Athens, University of Athens, and National Library of Greece. Most of all, the University of Athens played a significant role in the modernization of Greece in terms of human resource development as well as symbolism in the capital landscape. Well, what kind of role is the University of Athens playing in history education in Greece of today? How is it placed in the European and global contexts? In this paper, I analyze some characteristics of history education at the University of Athens, with a particular focus on the context of archaeology in Greece. In what follows, after an overview of the university (1), I will illustrate briefly the undergraduate curriculum (2) and the additional postgraduate programs (3) at the Department of History and Archaeology in the School of Philosophy. Then, within the framework of history and archaeology education in Greece, the activities of foreign schools in Athens will be highlighted (4). Finally, I will draw attention to the current situation of archaeological research and teaching in Greece under the global financial crisis (5).
