The 10th HO PhD Symposium on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus

The Call for submission of abstracts by doctoral students is now open and the closing deadline is 17 February 2023.  Further information and instructions for the submission of abstracts can be found here.

The PhD Symposium will bring together international PhD research from across the globe covering a broad range of fields within the social sciences. Students whose research is linked by the regional and national thematic focus on contemporary Greece and Cyprus will have the opportunity to present their work and receive critiques and feedback from an interdisciplinary audience comprising peers and experts.

The 10th Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposia became possible with the generous financial support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation.

About the Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposia

The Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium has been organised biennially since 2003 for students pursuing social sciences research on Greece and Cyprus. The aims of the symposia are to promote the exchange of knowledge between young researchers and to offer students a first opportunity to present their work and gain valuable feedback and critiques from an international audience comprising peers and experts.  Over the years the Symposium has become an established educational forum, and we are proud that many of its participants who went on to pursue successful careers consider their experience from the Symposium an important milestone in their development.

The PhD Symposia offer students a unique opportunity to test their ideas and findings with a wider international audience, and to establish new collaborative links across disciplines. Additionally, it enables young researchers to engage with the academic community of the LSE, and several other distinguished scholars who participate as discussants at the Symposium. The Hellenic Observatory PhD symposia are unique in their thematic focus on Greece and Cyprus which allows the exploration of research questions from several social science field perspectives. They provide an exceptional foundation for the development of innovative ideas. 

Symposium Format

The Symposium will be organised into parallel panel discussions based on disciplinary focus. Each panel will bring together 3 or 4 presentations linked together by thematic relevance. The panels will be chaired by a senior academic expert with extensive research and supervising experience at PhD level.

Students will be allocated to panels based on the topic of their research and will be invited to give presentations lasting approximately 10-15 minutes. The presentations will be followed by a discussion with the chair and a Q&A with the participants. Presenters will receive feedback from peers and academics whilst being exposed to new concepts, methods and content brought by the other participants.

The symposium will also feature two plenary sessions that will seek to address broader themes relating to Greece or Cyprus, or indeed questions of methodology and planning in the delivery of a PhD thesis. This will allow students the opportunity to gain new tools and fresh ideas which can be carried forward into their remaining years of study.

This year the plenary sessions will be delivered by Professor Kevin Featherstone, Hellenic Observatory Director, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies & Professor of European Politics, and Professor Stathis Kalyvas, Gladstone Professor of Government, All Souls College, University of Oxford.

Updates to the day’s proceedings will be added to the website as the Programme develops and nearer to the actual event date. The detailed programme of the PhD Symposium will be announced in May 2023.  The opportunity to register for the Plenary Sessions will also be made available in due course.

Selection Process

The Hellenic Observatory welcomes contributions from research students (current and recent) across any field of the social sciences whose PhD focuses on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. The Call for submission of abstracts is now open. 

Students are invited to submit proposals for presentations related to current or recent PhD research, displaying its originality.

The proposal will be in the form of an academic abstract (up to 500 words) and will be reviewed by a panel of academic experts comprising Hellenic Observatory scholars. Successful applicants will be notified by 13 March 2023 and will be invited to submit a longer paper of up to 4500 words by the 1st week of May 2023, outlining in detail their proposed presentation.

To submit an abstract for participation in the 10th Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium please complete the Abstract Submission Form and return it via e-mail to hellenicobservatory.phd@lse.ac.uk