EKT launches a new publishing collaboration with the Research Centre for the Humanities

The Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH) has begun collaboration with the National Documentation Centre (EKT) to make the research results of the studies it funds electronically available to the public through EKT's ePublishing service.

EKT's role within this collaboration with RCH is to provide the necessary infrastructure for the electronic publication and distribution of the series "PIXELS @ humanities" and to host digital monographs published by the institution, while the Research Centre for the Humanities is responsible for the scientific editing of the content of the publications.

The EKT ePublishing service, which consists of three platforms for managing, hosting and promoting scientific journals (eJournals), conference proceedings (eProceedings) and monographs (eBooks), covers all stages of the publishing process and is intended for academics and research bodies as well as folkloral institutions and cultural associations.

To date, 52 content providers have made use of the technological possibilities offered by the service and have digitally published 49 scientific journals, 9 conference proceedings and 18 monographs. The first issue of the "PIXELS @ humanities" journal is now available on EKT's eJournals platform. Also, through the eBooks platform, RCH has developed its own publishing, which hosts the publication 'Singing the Revolution'.

The publishing series "PIXELS@humanities"

The PIXELS@humanities series presents an overview of all research projects funded by the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH), in annually edited volumes. This series aims not only to disseminate research results to a wider research community but also to address the broader public in ways that will inform the public discussion of important themes and further encourage research and collaboration between researchers in these fields.

The projects presented here adopt an interdisciplinary approach, pose new theoretical questions or attempt to answer older questions that were thought to have been answered. They also try to define new fields as they surface through the historic, social and political transformations witnessed both locally and internationally.

The series attempts to highlight the broad spectrum of questions under examination and thus contribute to the discussion regarding the importance of the Humanities in contemporary societies.

The first issue of PIXELS @ humanities includes the research results of seven (7) studies conducted during  2018:

• Alcohol and anti-alcoholism in Greece (1870-1940), by Kostis Gotsinas. The aim of this postdoctoral research is to examine the spread of alcohol and the emergence of the concept of anti-alcoholism in Greek society. Its starting point is the 1870s, during which viticulture multiplied spectacularly in Greece, the systematic domestic distillery expanded and an increase in alcohol consumption was recorded. The study concludes with the 1930s, when anti-alcohol texts proliferated and the arguments of the debate crystallised.
• Adamantios Korais - Towards an Intellectual Biography: His medical work, by Constantin Irodotou. The bibliography on Korais has paid almost no attention to his written work on medicine. I propose to focus on this omission. The initial question of the proposed research is rather simple: Was Korais a doctor? The bibliography hitherto answers “rather no” . The research project that I propose focuses on the study of Korais’ theses on medicine, which lie outside the “canon” .
• The necessity of the 'useful lie' in the Platonic State, by Eleni Kaklamanou. In Plato's 'Republic',  he distinguishes between 'lies in the soul' and 'lies in words' and the incorporation of the latter in his ideal state through cases of useful lies. The aim of the present research is to examine in detail the 'useful lies' in the State, their different nature, and the difficulties created by their inclusion in Plato's ideal state.
• Towards an alternative historiography of modern Greek architecture (1945-1967), by Konstantina Kalfa. This historical research attempts an alternative historiography of modern Greek architecture. It focuses on the period 1945-1967, during which it is generally considered that architecture in Greece missed the opportunity to address the masses and to promote the home of the many as its objective, while urban planning was powerless to impose its plans.
• The island of the unmarried: The history of the Leros Psychiatric Hospital (1957-1995), by Danae Karydaki. The purpose of this research is to produce the first systematic historical record of the Psychiatric Hospital of Leros, from its foundation in 1957 until 1995, when the first stage of deinstitutionalisation was completed thanks to the action of the Leros Group.
• The open archaeological site as an alternative management model in an urban environment: The Archaeological Grove of  Plato's Academy and  Filopappou Hill, by Despina Katapoti, Ioulias Skounaki and Georgia Goumopoulou. Starting with  a description of the basic characteristics of the dominant model of management of archaeological sites, which is conventionally referred to as 'closed', the present study aims on the one hand to demonstrate the existence of exceptions to the rule and on the other to detect the possibilities and conditions of a different model of management of these spaces in the Greek urban environment, a model that is characterised as 'open'.
• Refugees from Greece and the Dodecanese in Turkey during the Second World War (1941-1944), by Alexandros Lambros. The subject of this study is the refugee flows from occupied Greece and the Dodecanese to Turkey between 1941 and 1944. The research is based on archival and bibliographic research in Greece and Turkey, inspired by the international literature on refugee movements and is part of the historical studies of population movements during the Second World War, and during the post-war period, in Europe.

More information about the publisher, the editorial board and the content of the journal is available on EKT's eJournals platform.

The digital monograph "Singing the Revolution"

EKT's eBooks platform  now hosts  the new series of publications from the RCH's Digital Library  entitled 'Digital Library 1821'. This is a series of original research on topics that show the European, transnational and global dimension of the Greek Revolution and is part of a broad research programme occasioned by the two hundred years of the Greek Revolution, which was begun in 2016.

The first issue of the series entitled Singing the Revolution by Lambros Liavas and Haris Sarris presents and frames the contribution of the Greek Music Centre 'Phoebus Anogeianakis'(KEMFA) in the formation of the Digital Archive 1821, highlighting the period of the Revolution and the music of the Revolution.The text is accompanied by multimedia (audio, video, video and hyperlinks), which essentially complement the experience of reading a scientific text on music.

In the first of the two articles, Lambros Liavas presents a general historical review entitled 'The songs of the Revolution of 1821: From the pre-revolutionary invasions of Otto's Athens'. Based on the testimonies and the material gathered, the article presents thematic units for the so-called bards of the Revolution, for the historical and klephtic songs, the musical instruments, the musical education in the newly formed state and for the transition from the folk to the urban song.

In the second article, 'Listening to the music of 1821'  Harry Sarris proposes a critical approach to the criteria and methods that help us look back and listen, in a way, to the music of the Revolution. Starting with the questions 'how did the music of 1821 sound' and 'how did these sounds come down to the present day' he attempts to evaluate and interpret the relevant sources and evidence, exploring the strong mediations that have shaped our current perception of soundscapes of the Revolution.

The RCH

The Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH), a non-profit civic company, started operating in January 2015. The main purpose of the  RCH is to fund research in the humanities through a process of public calls for the submission of research proposals from young researchers with doctoral degrees. These proposals will be evaluated by experts in each field working in Universities and Research Centres in Greece or other countries.

The RCH aims, among other things, to formulate an agenda for the diverse importance of the humanities, to hold a public debate on the results of research and their further dissemination to the scientific community and the general public through the organisation's workshops, conferences and meetings and the creation of a space for the emergence of new research trends and theoretical research within the international academic community.

An important activity of the RCH is the communication and co-operation with respective Centres and Institutions internationally, with the aim of exchanging scholarships, co-organising research programmes and other scientific activities.