Mountains of Greece: Heritage Narratives from the Past for a Sustainable Future
British School at Athens, 22-24 October 2025
Full programme and registration details here:
https://www.bsa.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Mountains-Conference_programme_final-2.pdf
Wednesday 22 October
18:00 – 19:15 – Opening event: Writing Greece: An evening with Sofka Zinovieff and Julian Hoffman
19:15 – 20:30 – Reception
Thursday 23 October
Session 1, Thursday a.m.
9:00 – 9:30 – Welcome: Rebecca Sweetman, Jason König, British Ambassador to Greece Matthew Lodge
9:30 – 11:00:
Elena Kountouri (Hellenic Ministry of Culture), Sophia Zoumbaki (National Hellenic Research Foundation): The world of the shepherd: Responses of Greek research projects and administrative initiatives to the challenge of preservation of the tangible and intangible heritage in mountainous archaeological sites of Greece
Brady Kiesling (Topostext): Remonumentalizing the Greek countryside
Vanessa Archontidou (Alpinist, Mountain Leader, European Climate Pact Ambassador, Founder: AWomanCanBe): Voices on the mountain: Women, wisdom, and the will to protect
11:00 – 11:30: COFFEE BREAK
11:30 – 13:00:
Kalliopi Stara (University of Ioannina): Vegetation imprints of the sacred in the cultural landscape of Zagori
Diana Fagoudi, John Iliopoulos (We4All): We4all and the global effort to protect and restore the ecosystems of our mountains
Kit Tan (University of Copenhagen): The botanical heritage of the Greek mountains with special reference to the Peloponnese
13:00 – 14:00: LUNCH BREAK
Session 2, Thursday p.m.
14:00-15:30:
Penelope Matsouka (Anavasi): A life’s journey on the Greek mountains, through mountaineering, nature protection projects, raising children, cartography, aerial photography
Tina Kalantzopoulou (Belgian School at Athens): The mountains of Crete in the Bronze Age: Current archaeological approaches
Socrates Koursoumis (Hellenic Ministry of Culture): Messenian Taygetos: Traces of ancient history and archaeological surveys in the western part of the mountain range
15:30 – 16:00 : COFFEE BREAK
16:00 – 18:00:
Bonna Wescoat, Bailey Green (American School of Classical Studies at Athens): Mount Fengari on Samothrace: In defense of mountain heritage
Myrsini Malakou, Julia Henderson (Society for the Protection of Prespa): Sometimes, you just need to change your altitude!
Stefanos Sidiropoulos (CEO of Trekking Hellas, Head of Bafi Refuge Parnitha): Mountain environments, outdoor activities and sustainable development: the work of Trekking Hellas
Maria Christodoulou (The Greek Herbalist): Medicine on the mountain: Ancient remedies from Dioscorides’ De Materia MedicaFriday 24 October 2025
Session 3, Friday a.m.
9:00 – 11:00:
Molly Greene (Princeton University): Mountains in the Ottoman centuries
Giannis Apostolou (All Souls College, Oxford): Erosion? What erosion? Land-use lifeways, environmental adaptability and community stories in the mid-montane landscapes of Grevena (Western Macedonia)
Fivos Tsaravopoulos, Konstantinos Karantzoulis (Paths of Greece): Paths of Greece: Creating sustainable hiking destinations
Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou (Barcelona Supercomputing Center): Engaging communities through landscape archaeology: A model from Zagori (NW Greece)?
11:00 – 11.30: COFFEE BREAK
11:30-13:00:
David Gilman Romano (University of Arizona), Dimitris Papakonstantinou (National Technical University of Athens), Nota Pantzou (University of Patras): The Parrhasian Heritage Park of the Peloponnesus: A progress report (60 minutes) (The Idea of the Parrhasian Heritage Park; Environmental planning in the Parrhasian Heritage Park; The Parrhasian Heritage Park Field School: Working with and for mountain communities)
Marilena Mela (Boulouki, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam): Sustaining by engaging: Roots and itineraries of Boulouki travelling workshop on the Epirus mountains
13:00 – 14:00: LUNCH BREAK
Session 4, Friday p.m.
14:00 – 16:00:
Alexis Katsaros (Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos): Rivers of the mountains, veins of life: Safeguarding the Aoos/Vjosa as a transboundary ecological and cultural corridor
Julian Hoffman (Author, The Small Heart of Things, 2013; Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save our Wild Places, 2020; Lifelines 2025): A common course: Stories from mountain rivers in Greece and Albania
Angeliki Kosmopoulou (Founder, Story Mentor): The mountain and the journey: Storytelling, trial, and transformation
Elena Scarsella (Barcelona Supercomputing Center): Mountains of Italy: A comparative view on orality and narratives from the past in the central Apennines
16:00 – 16:30: COFFEE BREAK
16:30 – 18:00:
Sylvian Fachard (University of Lausanne, Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece): Conducting archaeological survey in mountains: Cases from Greece and Switzerland
Yiannis Papadatos and George Tzoufras (Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens): The role of central administrative intervention on mountain exploitation: Insights from ethnographic and archaeological investigations in East Crete
Sotiris Tsoukarelis (High Mountains Social Co-operative): Mountains of change: Cooperativism for a sustainable rural future in Epirus
Both online and in-person registration options are available. There is no charge for registration. Please note that for in-person attendance we are asking audience members to register for the four sessions separately (i.e. Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, Friday afternoon), so anyone who would like to attend the whole conference will need to register for all four.
Organisers: Prof Jason König (University of St Andrews), Maria Christodoulou (The Greek Herbalist), Dr Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou (Barcelona Supercomputing Center), Prof Rebecca Sweetman (British School at Athens)
Generously funded by the University of St Andrews Impact and Innovation Fund.
For any questions please contact Jason König ([email protected]).