Courses

• H-214: Introduction to Social and Cultural History of Byzantium

• H-217: War and Society in Byzantium

• H-256: Byzantium and the West (11th-15th c.)

• Pr/S-030: Historiography of Byzantium

Biography

Yannis Smarnakis received his university degree in History and Archaeology from the University of Athens in 1993. His postgraduate studies were in Byzantine History at the Universities of Athens and Brussels. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Athens in 2005 with a thesis on the subject “Renaissance and Byzantium: The Case Study of Plethon”. He has taught courses of Byzantine History at the University of Ioannina and the University of the Aegean. In 2011 he was elected lecturer in Social and Cultural History of Byzantium at the University of Aegean. His research interests mainly concern the social and cultural history of late Byzantine era and the historiography of Byzantium.  

Selected Publications

Monograph

Byzantine Renaissance and Utopia: The Case Study of Plethon (in Greek, forthcoming).

Articles

• “Rethinking Roman Identity after the Fall (1453). Perceptions of Romanitas by Doukas and Sphrantzes” (forthcoming).

• “The Historians of the Fall (1453) and the Byzantine Identities”, Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, vol. 3, Sofia 2011, 134.   

• “A Contribution to the Archaeology of Modern Utopian Thought: History and Utopia in Plethon’s Oeuvre”, Historein 7 (2007), 103-113.

• “Ancient History and Hermeneutical Strategies in Plethon”, in Tonia Kioussopoulou (ed.), Proceedings of the International Congress: “1453: The Fall of Constantinople and the Transition from Medieval to Modern Times”, Herakleio 2005, 173-181 (in Greek).

• (with A.Vlachos), “Internet and Textual Representations of Virtual Cities: The Case Study of Multi User Domains (M.U.D.’s)”, in Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress: “The City in Modern Times. Mediterranean and Balkan aspects (19th – 20th centuries)”, Athens 2000, 285-295 (in Greek).

• “Social Hierarchies in Plethon’s Texts and their Models”, Symmeikta 12 (1998), 215-236 (in Greek).