SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME

Revisiting Antiquity in Modern European Literature & the Arts

 

ESCL 2026 SYMPOSIUM Athens, 20-21 February 2026

in collaboration with the  MA Programme :

 

‘Creative Writing, Theatre and Culture Industries’,

Theatre Studies Dept, School of Arts, University of the Peloponnese, and

The National Library of Greece (NLG), SNFCC

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PROGRAMME

Friday, 20  February 2026     Room of Multiple Uses, The National Library of Greece (NLG), SNFCC

9.00- 9.15        Registration - Coffee

9.15-9.30         Opening  of the  ESCL/ University of the Peloponnese Symposium

                        Szuszanna Varga, University of Glasgow, President of ESCL

                       Angeliki Spiropoulou, University of the Peloponnese, EC Member of ESCL                           Director of the MA in Creative Writing, Theatre & Culture Industries

9.30-10.30       Panel 1: Theatre Reception(s) of Antiquity I

Sergia Adamo, University of Trieste, Everything is Burning, Re-reading The Women of Troy in Contemporary European Theatre 

Sophia Tsatsou – Nikolouli, University of Thessaly, Antigone by Sophocles: Contemporary Readings and Creative Approaches

Anthofili Kallergi, University of Ioannina, The Reception of the Plautine Aulularia in Molière’s The Miser: Harpagon’s monologue (4.7)

Chair: Szuszanna Varga, University of Glasgow

10.30-13.00     Panel 2:   Literary Resonances of Antiquity 

Christos Argyropoulos, University of Athens/Saint Joseph University, ‘Enemy of Caesardom’: Interwar Anxieties and Classical Reception in Robert Graves’ 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God'

Chiara Protani, University of Bologna, The Unburied Body of Polyneices: Resonances of Classical Theatre in Contemporary Literature

Rosa Figueredo, Polytechnic University of Guarda: Revisiting Antiquity: Wole Soyinka’s version of a Greek Classic, The Bacchae of Euripides

Mario Meleiro, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, Revisiting the Classical Vocabulary in Ricardo Reis – Fernando Pessoa

13.00- 13.30   Break

13.30-15.00    Panel 3: Art Questioning Antiquity

Irene Gerogianni, Athens School of Fine Arts, Epic as Serial Form: Text, Textile, and Time in Bia Davou’s Work

Vilma Losytė, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, Revisiting Classical Art: The Venus de Milo as a Symbol of Inclusivity

Katerina Stefanaki, University of Athens, The Figure of the Minotaur in Early 20thC Avant-garde.

Dora Kechagia, University of the Peloponnese, Nobody’s Leda, A Contemporary Glance on the Myth of Leda and the Swan

Vasilis Stavrou, University of Athens, Art Imitates History: The Wife of Candaules Re-Imagined

Chair: Ioanna Papadopoulou, University of the Peloponnese

15.00- 16.00    Lunch  break (own arrangements)

16.00-17.30    Panel 4:   Rewritings of Mythology and the Classical

Mario Bosincu, University of Sassari, Friedrich Georg Jünger’s Remarks on Greek Mythology

Nikoletta Zampaki, University of Athens, Botanical Imaginaries in Ancient Greek and Modern Greek Lyric Poetry (20th c)

Ioanna Papadopoulou, University of the Peloponnese, Adaptations of Aristophanes' Comedies in Comic Books

Gema Dominguez Gonzalez, University of Alcalá, Ismene Re-Imagined: The Thucudidean Verion of the Greek Heroine by Natalie Haynes

Chair: Irene Gerogianni, Athens School of Fine Arts

17.30 – 19.00 Panel 5:   Rethinking Antiquity through Modernity

Manolis Simos, University of  Crete, Michel Foucault and the Ancient Art of Living

Georgia Giannakopoulou, Deree-The American College of Greece, Modern Antiquity – Building the “Golden Age” Beyond the Battles Between the Ancients and the Moderns

Melania Torok, University College London, New Woman, New Amazon: Changing Depictions in Classical and Feminist Literature

Metka Zupančič, University of Alabama, Hélène Cixous Deconstructing Oresteia in her 1994 Play La Ville Parjure ou le Réveil des Érinyes

Chair: Des O'Rawe, Queen's University Belfast 

19.00- 20.30     Poetry Reading by Alicia E. Stallings, University of Oxford 

20.30- 21.00     Wine and nibbles.               

21.00                Participant  dinner (optional- check in at Registration)

                                                  *****

Saturday, 21  February 2026,  Book Tower, The National Library of Greece (NLG), SNFCC

9.00               Registration- Day 2 of the ESCL Symposium/ 2nd Festival of the MA in Creative Writing,   Theatre and Culture Industries, University of the Peloponnese.

9.15- 11.00    Panel 6:  Activist and Pedagogical Applications of Antiquity

Rosy-Triantafyllia Angelaki, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,  Adaptations of Greek Antiquity in Twentieth-Century European Children’s Literature

Paraskevi Melachroinaki, University of the Peloponnese, Children’s Reception of the Trojan War in Primary School

Angela Constantinidou, Theatre artist, Open University of Cyprus, Recontextualizing Greek Tragedy: The Case of Theater of War

Christina Zoniou, University of the Peloponnese, From Tragedy to Action: Antigone as Political Technology of Participation 

Chair: Christina A. Oikonomopoulou, University of the Peloponnese,

11.00- 12.30  Panel 7:   Antiquity in/and the Performing Arts 

Des O'Rawe, Queen's University Belfast, Modern(ist) Antiquities: Experimental Documentary and Classical Greece

Katerina Kanelli, University of the Peloponnese, Hellenism in Contemporary Greek Dance

Marianna Koukoulekidou, Dancer/ choreographer, Clytemnestra … on drags: Gendered Representations and Rewritings of Antiquity in Ancient and Modern Performance

Afroditi Kairaki, Panteion University/The Hellenic Open University, From Ancient Greek Drama to Contemporary Cinema: Trigger Warnings and the Concept of Safe Space

Chair: Alexandros Efkleidis, University of the Peloponnese

12.30- 13.30   Panel 8:  Theatre Reception(s) of Antiquity II

Christina A. Oikonomopoulou, University of the Peloponnese, Heroes and figures of Ancient Greece in plays by Contemporary and Ultra-contemporary European French-speaking playwrights

Andriana Domouzi, University of Athens, Euripides Reimagined: Fragment, Myth and the Posthuman in Protesilaus and Laodameia by Haris Sakellariou

Dora Leontaridou, The Hellenic Open University, Contemporary Theatre Rewritings of Medea

Chair: Chiara Protani, University of Bologna

13.30- 14.30   Lunch break (own arrangements) 

14.30- 16.00   Opening of the 2nd  Festival  of MA in Creative Writing, Theatre &                                 Culture Industries. 

           Play Readings: MA Workshop in Playwriting taught by Akis Dimou (in Greek)

16.00-17.30   Discussion of Theodore Terzopoulos’ s Performance of Oresteia, produced by the National Theatre of Greece,  premiered at Epidaurus Theatre in 2024

Speakers:

       

Savvas Stroumpos, Actor/Director of Zero Point Theatre; Associate Director of 2024 Oresteia

Maria Sikitano, Dramaturg  of 2024 Oresteia

Irene Moundraki, dramaturg of the National Theatre of Greece and the Oresteia 2024

17.30-18.00   Coffee & snacks

18.00               End of ESCL Athens 2026 Symposium

18.15-20.30    2nd  Festival  of MA in Creative Writing Continued to 22nd Feb 

                                                                                                                 (in Greek)

                       Staged Plays by Xenia Kalpatzi and Meropi Papastergiou. (Facilitated by                                   playwright Akis Dimou).

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Scientific Committee:

Elena Anastasaki, University of Thessaly

Alexandros Efkleidis, Professor, University of the Peloponnese

Richard Hibbitt, University of Leeds, Vice-President of ESCL

Dimitris Kargiotis, University of Ioannina/ Université  de Strasburg

Vassiliki Kolokotroni, University of Glasgow

Apostolos Lampropoulos, Université  de Bordeaux-Montaigne

Yannis Leontaris, University of the Peloponnese

Christina Oikonomopoulou, University of the Peloponnese

Ioanna Papadopoulou, University of the Peloponnese

Angeliki Spiropoulou, University of the Peloponnese, EC Member of ESCL

Zsuzsanna Varga, University of Glasgow, President of ESCL

Metka Zupančič, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa

Organizing Committee:

Semina Gavrili, University of the Peloponnese

Evie Makariadou, University of the Peloponnese

Syriani Menagia, University of the Peloponnese

Dimitris Notaras, University of the Peloponnese

Despina Papadaki, University of the Peloponnese

Vicky Papaliosi, University of the Peloponnese

Meropi Papastergiou, University of the Peloponnese

Elias Polychronidis, University of the Peloponnese

Maria Sikitano, University of the Peloponnese

Giota Vamvaka, University of the Peloponnese

Vera Zervogiannaki, University of the Peloponnese

Angeliki Spiropoulou, University of the Peloponnese; Director of the MA Programme