Eventlist

Lecturers: Dr Kostis Karpozilos and Prof. Dimitris Christopoulos

Professor Dimitris Christopoulos and Dr Kostis Karpozilos will present a lecture entitled Human Rights in the Age of Inequality: xenophobia, exclusion and the myth of the strong leader, at the Greek Centre on Thursday 26 September. With this lecture will close the 2019 Greek History and Culture Seminars series, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

It is a common assumption that we have globally entered an era of exacerbation of social inequalities in an unforeseen manner at least for the Western World after WWII. Social policies of wealth redistribution are considered as outdated and responsible for major competitiveness deficit of developed economies. Within such circumstances, democracies are morally discredited and seem politically exhausted. Rule of law and human rights are often perceived as an unreasonable luxe, even more as a threat for the state security. Xenophobia, racism and the Far Right re-emerge relieved from the 20th century guilt whereas the discourse of the “strong leaders” becomes more and more authoritarian: from Russia to Brazil and from Turkey to the United States institutions.

Dimitris Christopoulos is a Greek academic, writer and activist. Ηe is a Professor at the Department of Political Science and History of Panteion University in Athens where he teaches ever since 2000. He has been elected President of the International Federation for Human Rights in 2016. FIDH Vice President in 2013 after having chaired the board of the Hellenic League for Human Rights, the biggest and oldest Greek human rights association, (www.hlhr.gr) for eight years (2003-2011).

Kostis Karpozilos is a historian and the director of the Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI). He has earned a degree in Modern Greek Literature at the University of Thessaloniki (2002), completed an M.A. in Historical Research at the University of Sheffield (2003) and a Ph.D. in History at the University of Crete (2010). His thesis focused on revolutionary diasporas in the United States and the trajectory of Greek-American radicalism in the 20th century.