The Artemis Azariadis Memorial Lecture in Greek Studies: American Ideas of Freedom in the Greek Enlightenment and the Greek Revolution

How did the American Revolution echo all the way to Greece? In this lecture, Dr. Paschalis M. Kitromilidis shows how the ideals of liberty and constitutional government that shaped the United States also inspired the Greek Enlightenment and fueled the Revolution of the 1820s. Visionaries like Adamantios Korais turned to America’s bold experiment in democracy as a model for natural rights and self-rule, while Benjamin Franklin became an emblem of wisdom and freedom in the Greek imagination. These transatlantic connections helped spark a powerful liberal-republican vision for a free Greek state, that captured the hopes of a generation. Yet after independence was won, that Enlightenment dream soon gave way to the rise of romantic nationalism and the realities of authoritarian politics. The story, as Dr. Kitromilidis tells it, is one of inspiration, transformation, and the struggle to keep the flame of liberty alive.

Paschalis M. Kitromilidis, Ph.D. Harvard University, has served Greek higher education at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens from 1980 to 2016. Originally a lecturer on the history of political thought in the Law School, he became Associate Professor (1983) and Professor (1987) of Political Science in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Political Science. He has been director of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies since 1980 and was Director of the Institute of Neohellenic Research / National Hellenic Research Foundation (2000-2011). He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard and Brandeis Universities, USA, Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge and at the University of Oxford, Directeur d’Études invité, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow, European University Institute, Florence and Visiting Professor, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Villa I Tatti, Florence. He is a life member of the academic council of the Greek Parliament since 2004 and an external member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts since 2020.

The Artemis Azariadis Memorial Lecture in Greek Studies is organized by the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis.