The next Inspiration Exchange event will take place on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at 5 PM in the ACT New Building Conference Room under the auspices of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service.
 

Mr. Giorgios Toulas, Editor of Parallaxi Magazine and guiding force behind the "Thessaloniki Allios" initiative, will engage in frank discussion on the prospect for volunteerism and service learning in the wider Thessaloniki community.


The Dukakis Center will also launch formally its Politis blog to mark the event, and will live stream the discussion.
 

Mr. Toulas will address the public in Greek.

Dr. Christos Pechlivanidis will deliver two interesting lectures on philosophy in Thessaloniki (April) and in Athens (May):
 

1. "Apagoge and Phantasia in Aristotle".

Lecture at the Department of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki: Old Building of the School of Philosophy (Ethnikis Amynis Str.), 1st floor - 215 hall, Wednesday, May 2nd at 19:30

Click here to view the poster.

2. "The concept of 'apagoge' in Aristotle's logical system".

Lecture at the Department of Philosophy and History of Science, University of Athens.

Athens: Zografou Campus, Main Building of the Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Teaching Classrooms, Monday, May 28th at 16:00

Κάντε κλικ εδώ για περισσότερες πληροφορίες.

Dukakis Center welcomes sociologist Berch Berberoglu

“Look out the window. See what is happening. Reality,” stated Berch Berberoglu to a roomful of twenty students and staff members. Professor Berberoglu, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and author of twenty-nine books, visited the American College of Thessaloniki on March 14, 2012, and gave a lecture on the global capitalist crisis and it’s origins, nature, and impact on the United States.
 

This was Berberoglu’s second visit to ACT. Born in Turkey and educated in the US from an early age, he first spoke in Thessaloniki in 1999.
 

“Are we marching in dangerous directions and times?” Professor Berberoglu asked the room. He declared that each and every individual has a large burden on his or her shoulders, the burden to address the current political and economical issues at hand. After discussing the origins, nature, and reasons for the crisis he proposed an economic remedy. The remedy calls for society to step outside of the framework of the existing capitalist system and to place the interests of the working class as the new focal point.
 

He encouraged the students and staff in the room to “argue, discuss, debate.” He then inquired, “Didn’t your mothers teach you that?” Indeed, Professor Berberoglu has sounded a call to action.

Lily Allen-Duenas

The Business Crisis Management Center (BCMC) is a new initiative undertaken by the MBA faculty at the American College of Thessaloniki.  The BCMC provides a platform for entrepreneurs to present the impacts of the current financial crisis on their businesses. The mission of the BCMC is to present tools and best practices available that can help them develop effective response measures. In addition to offering network opportunities, BCMC also provides access to library resources.

On March 7, Ms. Ioanna Tavanidou, ACT Finance Instructor and Unit Leader at the A6 Business Center of NBG, delivered a lecture on Business Debt Restructuring. The current institutional framework, the restructuring process, requirements and restrictions as well as examples of debt restructuring were analyzed under the prism of the current economic and financial conditions. In the discussion that followed, moderated by ACT faculty Manos Agrodimos, MBA students and alumni interacted with the speaker as well as with entrepreneurs and professionals and exchanged views on the topic.

The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service announces the following events during the week of March 12-16

Wednesday, March 14, 5-6:30 PM, Niarchos Teleconference Room
Dukakis Lecture: "The Global Capitalist Crisis: Its Origins, Dynamics, and Impact on the United States"
Berch Berberoglu, Foundation Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno

Thursday, March 15, 3-5 PM, Tiano Room, US Consulate General of Thessaloniki
Dukakis Round Table: "Trans-Atlantic Perspectives on the Crisis in Greece and the Eurozone"
Alan Cafruny, Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs, Hamilton College, and Alec Mally, Executive Director for Global Economic Affairs at Foresight Strategy and Communications
Moderator: David Wisner, Executive Director, Dukakis Center

Address inquiries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 

Dr. Panos Vlachos, ACT Vice President for Academic Affairs and Tarek Kouatly, Associate Director for European Enrollment Management speak about the use of Social Media in the educational programs of the American College of Thessaloniki, on last night's Restart TV show . Watch them here!

Richard L. Jackson, President of Anatolia and the American College of Thessaloniki from 1999-2009, visited campus during the week of February 21-25.

He met with current President Hans Giesecke and wife Susan, trustee Angelos Billis, American Farm School President Panos Kanellis and wife Eva, and other members of the extended Anatolia family.

The high points of Mr. Jackson's visit were two public talks, one a Dukakis Lecture on contemporary China, and the other an informal discussion of his 34-year career in the US Foreign Service. Also on the program was a class visit to students in Emily Bakola's film class at Anatolia.

Mr. Jackson's stay on campus coincided with the visit to Thessaloniki of Princeton historian Molly Greene, who joined Jackson, former Pinewood President Peter Baiter, and other local Princeton alumni for a taverna dinner.

Mr. Jackson currently resides near Palm Beach, Florida, although he has travelled frequently since his retirement, doing consulting on behalf of a consortium on international education. This was his second visit back to Thessaloniki since 2009.
 

Princeton Historian Molly Greene toured the campus of Anatolia and the American College of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, February 21, as part of a three-day visit to Thessaloniki.

Professor Greene sat with President Giesecke to exchange views on a range of topics, before doing some site-seeing on the upper campus. She looked at historical photographs in Stephens and Macedonia Halls, and saw the German bunker left behind by retreating Nazis in 1945.

She then had lunch with Anatolia and ACT faculty, including ACT's three Hellenists, Maria Kyriakidou, Aigli Brouskou, and Daphne Lamprou.

An expert in Greek society during the Ottoman occupation, Professor Greene was in town to deliver a formal lecture to students of Dimitris Stamatopoulos at the University of Macedonia. She also dined with local Princeton alumni, including Richard Jackson and Peter Baiter, former presidents, respectively, of Anatolia and Pinewood.

Anatolia and ACT have hosted notable personalities from Princeton in the past, including Fred Greenstein, Mark Beissinger, and Thomas Wright.

We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.
Margaret Mead

Crises carry with them not only danger, but also a window of potential, and it is at this time that new ideas and the commitment to act upon them have never been more needed. The Inspiration Exchange is an initiative that seeks to stimulate and support students in finding creative and courageous solutions to contemporary problems. The Inspiration Exchange series is dedicated to the belief that if given the trust and hope, young people can and will seize the opportunities to make the changes that the world needs. The initiative is a series of interactive explorations of how students can make a difference in their communities and can manage and run their own social projects to bring about change. The first event in the series took place in December 2011 with a presentation by Genevieve Laurier, President at Oxford Hub – a student generated and managed NGO that coordinates volunteering projects, training, community outreach and research in Oxford and other UK cities. Discussion focused on how students can take initiatives and harness their energy in favor of causes they espouse. The Inspiration Exchange series will be one of the cornerstones of ACT’s service learning project. Events will feature above all local community actors who are changing attitudes and approaches to civil society in Thessaloniki.