For the second time this month, the Dukakis Center at ACT and the Demos Center at ACG teamed up to co-host a roundtable session on the theme “The World in 2025.” The event, an integral part of the Demos Center’s “Voices of Democracy” series, took place on May 28, 2025, at the Demos Center’s Plaka facility in downtown Athens.

An all-star panel addressed an alert and engaged audience of students, expats, and local well-wishers for over two hours, adroitly moderated by the journalist Katerina Bakoyianni of Alter Ego Media. The architect of the evening’s proceedings, Mary Cardaras, Director of the Demos Center, invited a former diplomat, Brady Kiesling, a veteran journalist, Nikos Konstandaras of Kathimerini, an educator, ACG’s Effie Fokas, a human rights activist, and finally Gelly Aroni, Head of the Unit for Integration in the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors in the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, to share their perspective on the state of the world halfway through 2025.

The topics explored had to do with challenges to democratic systems worldwide, the state of human rights currently, the difficulties faced by policy-makers and senior civil servants in crafting and carrying out good policy, and finally the role and responsibility of the press in covering -- or not -- the long-term origins of populist movements in Europe and North America.

What is the mood of the moment? Are we facing possible annihilation owing to irresponsible policy choices? Or is the native optimism of the youth cohort many of those present partake sufficient to override any temporary pessimism? What of those pockets of society which resist reform and the clear will of the people, the vox populi? How do we best explain the continued appeal of populist political messaging?

Brady Kiesling evoked the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence in his intervention, lamenting that there no longer seems to be a “decent respect” to the opinions of humanity in how we behave toward one another, all the while noting that the legitimacy of a political system canot be bought or sold on the cheap. Effie Fokas urged the students in the audience not to lose heart, it being the role of youth in society to inspire hope. More broadly, Gelly Aroni challenged all present to look at themselves closely as they make their political choices, to understand where they stand in the electorate. Nikos Konstandaras closed the evening’s deliberation by inviting everyone to tell stories, to tell their story.

A lively reception followed the formal discussion.

The two May round tables (the first having taken place in Thessaloniki on May 14) brought to a rousing conclusion the 25th anniversary season of public service initiatives at the Dukakis Center. The Dukakis Center and the Demos Center will plan to co-host one or more events in similar fashion during the 2025-26 year, as the American College of Greece celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding.

A loving woman, wife, and mother, with a true desire for human rights activism and social work,who showed the world how vulnerability is not a sign of weakness.

A person’s legacy is measured by the lives they touch, the values they uphold, and the impact they leave behind. Katharine “Kitty” Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 88, leaving a legacy that should be cherished.

Committed to lifelong learning, Kitty pursued her education at Pennsylvania State University before earning a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Lesley College. During this time, she met Michael Dukakis. They married in 1963, the same year she earned her Bachelor's degree in Education, and later had two daughters, Andrea and Kara, whom they raised along with her son John from a previous marriage. She obtained a Master of Science in Broadcast and Film from Boston University’s School of Communications in 1982, followed by a Master’s in Social Work from the Boston University School of Social Work in 1992. Her dedication to education and public service was reflected not only in her academic achievements but also in her contributions to the community.

In 1976, a year after Michael Dukakis became governor of Massachusetts, Kitty, who was Jewish and was subjected to anti-semitism during her childhood, returned from her first visit to Israel “converted” by a new connection to Judaism. She wrote, “I hate to sound corny, but I had a spiritual awakening”. Following her visit, a subject most important to her was the Holocaust and its teaching. She engaged with Brookline educators who were in the process of establishing "Facing History and Ourselves," a now-national education program dedicated to teaching about the Holocaust and other atrocities, including the Armenian genocide. Additionally, in 1978, President Carter appointed her to the first President’s Commission on the Holocaust, which sought to build a Holocaust memorial museum in Washington, D.C. A decade later, when that panel was replaced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, she was appointed to the council by President George H.W. Bush, reflecting her commitment to Holocaust education and awareness.

Beyond being a leading voice in raising awareness of the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide, Kitty Dukakis was a steadfast advocate for the underdog, devoting herself to projects involving the homeless and political refugees. In 1979, she was appointed to the board of directors of the Refugee Policy Group and later joined Refugees International, working extensively on issues related to displacement and human rights. She played a pivotal role in addressing the Cambodian refugee crisis, organizing a mission to Thailand in 1981 that secured the release of 250 unaccompanied orphaned Cambodian minors, many of whom resettled in Massachusetts. Her commitment extended further in 1985 when she undertook a fact-finding tour of refugee camps in Thailand, leading to the establishment of the Refugees International/Cambodian Crisis Fund to support Southeast Asian refugees with family ties in the United States. Governor Dukakis stated that his wife had always been empathetic towards the powerless and had stated “She was a born social worker” in a 2016 interview. Her advocacy was marked by “honesty, compassion, and strength to public life,” and “Her legacy is one of service, resilience, and truth-telling” said Maria Ivanova, director of Northeastern University’s Policy School, in a statement.

Her unwavering commitment to openness and advocacy was equally evident in her work on mental health and addiction recovery, where she fearlessly shared her personal experiences to break stigma and support others in their recovery. Her struggles with substance use began in 1956 when she developed a dependence on amphetamines, a habit that persisted for 26 years. During her husband’s 1988 presidential campaign, she publicly disclosed her past addiction to diet pills and later spoke candidly about her battle with alcoholism. Following her husband's electoral defeat, she faced increased struggles with alcohol, prompting her to seek treatment through a 60-day program, though she later experienced a relapse. She chronicled these experiences in her 1991 memoir, Now You Know, where she explored the deeper-seated affliction of depression that contributed to her addiction. Recognizing that conventional treatments were ineffective in managing her depression, Dukakis turned to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 2001. She became a strong advocate for the benefits of its treatment, allowing producers from “60 Minutes” to document one of her sessions and later co-authoring Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy (2006). The treatment, she wrote, "opened a new reality for me… I used to deny when a depressive episode was coming on, to myself and others. I know how much it would hurt, how long the darkness would last. Now I know there is something that will work and work quickly. It takes away the anticipation and the fear.”

Beyond her personal journey, Dukakis worked to support others facing similar challenges. She and her husband hosted mental health support groups in their home, and she led a five-week community discussion group on spirituality and mental health with social worker Hadassah Margolis at Congregation Kehillath Israel. In recognition of her advocacy, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, named its addiction treatment center in her honor. Through her openness and activism, Dukakis significantly contributed to destigmatizing addiction and mental health treatment, leaving a lasting impact on public discourse and policy.

In a statement after her passing, she was described by her family as “loving, feisty, and fun, and had a keen sensitivity to people from all walks of life... She lived a full life fighting to make the world a better place and sharing her vulnerabilities to help others face theirs”.

Reflecting on her life, I am not only struck by her contributions but also by what she represents for my generation, especially for young women aspiring to enter the political and public sphere. At 22, I look at women like her with admiration and gratitude, recognizing the challenge she faced and the legacy she had left behind for those of us who seek to make an impact in the world. Arguably, Kitty Dukakis belonged to a generation of women who often had to navigate political and social landscapes that did not willingly welcome their voices. Looking back at that time, one rarely saw women next to political figures voice themselves the way Kitty did. Yet, she was the exception that forged her own path, not solely as the wife of a presidential candidate and governor, but as a fierce advocate for human rights, social work, and most exceptionally, the destigmatization of addiction and mental health. I think that even today, in a world where young women in leadership still face scrutiny and unrealistic expectations, Kitty’s transparency and resilience are empowering, and can be taken as a lesson demonstrating how true strength does not derive from the absence of vulnerability, but rather from the courage to confront it, own it, and use it to help the people around you. As a result, through challenging norms and expectations, Kitty expanded the space for women of new generations that might follow. I truly believe that Kitty Dukakis’s sense of responsibility toward humanity, which she demonstrated in many different ways throughout her life, will inspire young women to be compassionate, bold, and perseverant in the pursuit of their passions and ambitions.

In memory of Kitty Dukakis, whose legacy of compassion and service will never be forgotten.
Jana Chapovska (ACT Class of 2025)

Our fans were chuffed. Jaws dropped around the room. A lone, unnamed journalist who had stayed to the bitter end triumphantly called the scene before him an unqualified success -- "Με επιτυχία ολοκληρώθηκε!” he would write in his midnight lede.

The Dukakis Center at ACT thus brought its Silver Jubilee celebrations to a rousing conclusion this past Wednesday evening, May 14, in a star-studded round table session on the state of world politics halfway into 2025.

A SRO audience at Olympias Hall in the Vellidis Convention Center was treated to a veritable masterclass in international relations in the twenty first century. Co-hosted by the Dukakis Center and the Demos Center at the American College of Greece, and c0-moderated by David WIsner, Professor of International Relations at ACT and Executive Director of the Dukakis Center, and Nektaria Stamouli of Kathimerini and Politico Europe, a veritable who’s who of international relations experts from throughout Greece provided the analysis for well over two hours, to an audience whose attention never waned.

From the off it was evident that the quality of the discourse would be uniformly high -- as was acknowledged after hours by the participants themselves. One by one the featured panelists opined and offered their interpretations on how best to understand events unfolding almost in real time. Constantinos Filis, Professor of International Relations at the American College of Greece and Director of the Institute of Global Affairs, opened the discussion, followed by Maria Gavouneli, Professor of Law at the University of Athens and Director of ELIAMEP, Peter Gries, Professor of Chinese Politics, and Lee Kai Hung Chair and founding Director, Manchester China Institute, and Spyros Litsas, Professor of International Relations Theory, University of Macedonia.

How should one understand the leadership style and policy preferences of the Trump administration? How should Europe and the EU respond? How is one to make sense of developments in Russia, China, the Middle East, and elsewhere? What kind of world order is emerging -- bipolar, multipolar, multi-centric, to use Professor Filis’ term? Is the post-1945 liberal international order in its final death throes? A few themes were underscored repeatedly: trust in American leadership had been lost; Donald Trump’s motives and guiding principles are still open to interpretation; a recalibration, if not realigning, of the international order was of the essence. 

Not to be outdone, several members of the audience chimed in, asking probing questions of the panelists on such topics as different scenarios facing the EU and NATO, the ideological preferences of the American electorate, the specter of Greek-Russian relations, and the potential impact of AI and technological innovation in global politics. No one had the last word, fittingly, perhaps, given the contentious nature of the subject at hand and the multiform scholarly orientation of the panelists, who approached the topic from the perspectives of international diplomacy, international law, political psychology, and international relations theory,

Dr. Wisner left it to those present to attend the second “Voices of Democracy” round table on the same subject, to take place under the combined aegis of the Demos Center and the Dukakis Center in Athens on Wednesday, May 28.

On the eve of this encore appearance, it is worthwhile to recap what has been an extraordinary eighteen-month celebration, which began in late 2023 with a landmark poll and conference on the youth vote in the 2023 Greek parliamentary elections. In March and again in September of the following year Dukakis Center contributed to registering a record number of overseas Americans to vote, and then braved gale force winds and torrential rain to celebrate the year of global elections that was 2024. (Dukakis Center Director Wisner delivered a prescient presentation at Aristotle University Law School on the state of American media and democracy, and appeared occasionally on local television to assess the state of American politics.) 

Throughout the 2024-25 school year the Center hosted and underwrote public events for the benefit of ACT and public university students on and off campus, including the annual Kavala Summer School in August 2024, the Thrace Negotiation Tournament in March 2025, and, remotely, the annual Civic Learning Week, also in March. James Quirk and Sarah Snyder visited Thessaloniki from ACT’s study abroad partner American University, and Dr. Wisner hosted a fireside chat with Clay Shirky, Vice Provost for AI and Technology in Education at New York University at Beyond 2025 in Athens -- one fan later wrote on social media that the Dukakis Center session “was one of the standout moments of the conference.” A pair of senior interns paid tribute, finally, to former Anatolia College President Bill McGrew and to the late Kitty Dukakis. 

Planning is already underway for the 2025-26 academic year. The Center’s next major initiative will be a citizen-centric celebration ahead of the semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which actually launched during the Spring I 2025 semester. The project will entail recruiting teams of two or three study abroad students apiece to interact with inhabitants of Thessaloniki, to understand what they think about this important moment in American history. The Center will also host an event comparing the Greek Revolution of 1821 with the American Revolution of 1776.

The Dukakis Center will also hope to participate at next year's Beyond, and to host a small conference in Thessaloniki on Civic AI during the fall semester. A final year-long project will examine how American expats in Greece might fill the gap should the US Consulate General in Thessaloniki be downsized or even shuttered.

Thessaloniki International Book Fair returns this year from May 8 to May 11, 2025, at the facilities of TIF Helexpo, and we are thrilled to see our beloved alumni and teachers presenting their books or participating as speakers.

Below, you will find the schedule by day, along with the location of each speaker:

Thursday, May 8, 2025

POETRY BOX HALL – PAVILION 14 | 20:00 – 21:00
Ioannis Kantartzis ’91 presents his book "Invest Now. Thank Me Later."

Friday, May 9, 2025

LEXIS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 13:00 – 14:00
Anatolia HS professor Marios Kyparissis Moros and Iliana Magra ’12 present "Jacarandas" by Foivos Economides.

LEXIS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 14:00 – 15:00
Aigli Brouskou, Anthropology professor at ACT, participates in the presentation of Panagiotis Gouberis' book "Dad, Do You Miss Me? Stories Inspired by Parental Alienation."

LOGOS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 17:00 – 18:00
Anatolia HS professor and author Leon A. Nar participates in the presentation of Zoe Bozenberg's book "The Diagonal of the Square."

M. THEODORAKIS HALL – PAVILION 13 | 18:00 – 19:00
Aigli Brouskou participates in the presentation of Rika Benveniste's book "Louna. Essai de biographie historique."

LEXIS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 19:00 – 20:00
"70 Years Konstantinidis – 21 Years TIBF. Honoring the Fair and the Book."
Speakers: Evripidis Konstantinidis, ACT ’94 graduate and owner of the historic bookstore in Thessaloniki, and Leon A. Nar.

LOGOS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 19:00 – 20:00
Author and collector Yiannis Megas ’64 speaks at the presentation of Agis Pergantis' book "Once Upon a Time, There Was a City: My Neighborhood and Other Stories."

Saturday, May 10, 2025

COSMOS HALL – PAVILION 14 | 10:00 – 11:00
Poet Chloe Koutsoubeli ’80 presents "Paradise Birds" by Yiannis Paschos.

PHILOLOGICAL CAFÉ HALL – PAVILION 12 | 12:00 – 13:00

TRIBUTE: “Honoring author Periklis Sfyridis for his lifetime work.”. The Thessaloniki Society of Writers honors author, critic, publisher, and art collector Periklis Sfyridis (Class of '52) for his body of work and for his contribution and service to the city of Thessaloniki.

COSMOS HALL – PAVILION 14 | 13:00 – 14:00
AUTH professor Venetia Apostolidou ’79 and Leon Nar present Eleni Beze's book "New Life: Greek Jews after the Shoah. History, Memory, Identity (1944-1955)."

POETRY BOX HALL – PAVILION 14 | 14:00 – 16:00
11th Young Writers Festival – 1st Meeting
Petros Gioulekas ’18 participates.

DIALOGOS HALL – PAVILION 15 | 19:00 – 20:00
MOMus Artistic Director Maria Tsantsanoglou ’82 presents Apostolos Vettas' book "Scenes. Notes on the Art and Technique of Scenography."

M. ANAGNOSTAKIS HALL – PAVILION 15 | 21:00 – 22:00
Marios-Kyparissis Moros presents Dimitris Tziovas' book "History, Nation, and Novel in the Post-Dictatorship Era. Trauma, Memory, and Metaphor."

Sunday, May 11, 2025

POETRY BOX HALL – PAVILION 14 | 11:00 – 12:00
"Dogs Bark in Syllables" by Vagelis Evangelios.
Among the speakers: Chloe Koutsoubeli ’80.

M. ANAGNOSTAKIS HALL – PAVILION 15 | 12:00 – 13:00
"The Perpetuity of Jewish Trauma through the Books I Can’t Breathe by Luiz Schwarcz and One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank."
Among the speakers: Leon Nar.

BABEL HALL – PAVILION 14 | 13:00 – 14:00
"Aurelian" by Louis Aragon.
Among the speakers: Marios-Kyparissis Moros.

LEXIS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 13:00 – 14:00
"I Have No Oxygen."
Among the speakers: Chloe Koutsoubeli ’80.

POETRY BOX HALL – PAVILION 14 | 14:00 – 16:00
11th Young Writers Festival – 2nd Meeting
Petros Gioulekas ’18 participates.

LOGOS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 16:00 – 17:00
"Rio Grande" by Christos Hartomatsidis.
Among the speakers: Chloe Koutsoubeli ’80.

LEXIS HALL – PAVILION 12 | 17:00 – 18:00
Chloe Koutsoubeli ’80 presents her poetry collection "Post Office Box: Ark."

M. THEODORAKIS HALL – PAVILION 13 | 18:00 – 19:00
Alexandros Vildiridis ’10 presents his poetry collection "AprosDionysos."

On April 22, 2025, ACT Associate Professor of International Relations, Dr. Christos Aliprantis, delivered a lecture at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (GWU), titled "Who Governs the Periphery? Rethinking Sovereignty and Security Assistance in Cold War Greece."

The event was organized as part of Dr. Aliprantis' Fulbright Visiting Scholar residency at GWU and was moderated by Associate Professor Harris Mylonas of the GWU Department of Political Science and International Affairs.

The lecture drew a wide and engaged audience, including students, faculty, researchers, and members of the policy and diplomatic communities from both the United States and Greece. The event provided an opportunity for academic dialogue and exchange on issues related to international relations, Cold War history, and Greek foreign affairs.

Dr. Aliprantis' participation in the Fulbright Program reflects ACT’s ongoing commitment to fostering international academic collaboration and scholarly engagement on global issues.

Presented by The Dukakis Center at ACT and The Demos Center at ACG

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 7:00–9:00 PM
TIF – Helexpo, Vellidis Convention Center, Olympias Hall

Join us for an evening of insight and dialogue as leading experts in international relations, law, and global affairs come together to discuss the key geopolitical and democratic challenges shaping the year ahead.

This round table, part of the Voices of Democracy series and the concluding public event of the Dukakis Center’s 25th anniversary year, brings together distinguished scholars and policy thinkers from Greece and abroad for a thought-provoking conversation on the global landscape of 2025.

Featured Panelists

• Constantine Filis, Associate Professor of International Relations, American College of Greece; Director, Institute of Global Affairs
• Spyros Litsas, Professor of International Relations Theory, University of Macedonia
• Maria Gavouneli, Professor of International Law, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens; Director General, ELIAMEP
• Peter Gries, Professor of Chinese Politics, Lee Kai Hung Chair and founding Director, Manchester China Institute

Moderated by

• Nektaria Stamouli, Deputy Editor in Chief, Kathimerini English Edition; Eastern Mediterranean Correspondent, Politico Europe
• David Wisner, Professor of International Relations, ACT; Executive Director, Dukakis Center for Public Service

This event is open to the public and especially welcomes members of the local expat community, as well as students and faculty from ACT and public universities.

The Dukakis Center at ACT continued its silver jubilee celebrations with a special Dukakis Lecture on the role of expatriate Americans in founding educational institutions in Greece and throughout the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On Wednesday, April 30, guest speaker Sarah Snyder, Professor of Global Inquiry at American University in Washington, DC, delivered a lecture entitled "Building Educational Institutions Abroad: American Expatriates as Informal Diplomats" at the Emilio Riadis Congress Hall, TIF-Helexpo.

Professor Snyder’s lecture analyzed how expatriate communities throughout the Ottoman and post-Ottoman world founded permanent local institutions that marked their American identity in multiple ways. She profiled nineteenth-century missionaries like Daniel Bliss, who established the Syrian Protestant College, the predecessor of American University of Beirut; and Cyrus Hamlin, who set up Robert College in Istanbul. Snyder’s presentation also showcased the efforts of Americans who established overseas research centers, including Charles McKim, who created the American Academy in Rome; and William Goodwin, the first director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Professor Snyder’s principal point was that the endeavors of American faculty and staff revealed them as novel actors in U.S. foreign relations at the turn of the twentieth century.

Professor Snyder drew her material from her forthcoming book “Unofficial Diplomats, a history of Americans abroad and how they have influenced U.S. foreign policy, to be published by Princeton University Press next year. The book analyzes the impact of expatriates from early American missionaries through the kidnapping of American academics in Lebanon in the 1980s, and reveals a precocious American network throughout the region of schools, churches, clubs, and even cemeteries constructed by missionaries, teachers, businesspeople, and journalists.”

Joining Professor Snyder in a lively round table discussion following the lecture were representatives of three American educational institutions in Greece, Dr. Evi Tramantza, Director of Libraries, Anatolia College; Damiana Koutsomiha, Head Librarian, American Farm School; and Dr. Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, Doreen Canaday Spitzer Director of Archives, American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Evi Tramantza observed that Anatolia College, founded in Merzifon in 1886, closely resembled the schools discussed in Sarah Snyder’s lecture. Dr. Tramantza highlighted the importance of Carl Compton, who began teaching at Anatolia in 1913, relocated to Thessaloniki in 1925, and was named President of Anatolia in 1950. (It should be remembered that Anatolia College was compelled to leave Asia Minor after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.)

Dr. Tramantza and Damiana Koutsomiha, Head Librarian at the American Farm School, emphasized the American values of problem solving, team work, learning by doing, humanitarian service, and community building as being an essential legacy of the founders of their school. Ms Koutsomiha also underscored the long-term impact of American schools overseas like the American Farm School, while also pointing out the uniquely pragmatic concerns of the Farm School’s missionary founders.

Dr. Vogiekoff revealed that while the American School of Classical Studies in Athens has traditionally had as its mission to train Americans classicists and archeologists to appreciate Greece and transmit that knowledge to compatriots in the U.S., the School has more recently begun supporting Greek scholars with no necessary American connections. It might be said also that the School embodies characteristic values of research excellence and professionalism which are often associated with American academic institutions stateside.

David Wisner, Executive Director of the Dukakis Center, reminded the audience in concluding remarks that Anatolia College began a new chapter in its history in 2013 when a Hellene, Dr. Panagiotis Vlachos, was named the school’s twelfth President. This sentiment of reciprocity also animates the Dukakis Center, which not only brings American speakers like Sarah Snyder to Greek audiences in Thessaloniki, but also showcases accomplished Hellenes to American students attending ACT.

Following the event Dr. Wisner enthused, “This was among the most meaningful and moving of any of the events I have organized at the Dukakis Center since its launch over 25 years ago. Congratulations to our local participants, and heartfelt thanks to the American leadership at these institutions for giving our Hellenic colleagues space to absorb and bring to life the “American” values of which Ms Koutsohiha spoke, for instance, and to add through their own personal example what is best in traditional and contemporary Greek culture.”

Earlier in the day on April 30 David Wisner accompanied Professor to the studios of DION TV where she sat for a wide-ranging interview with Dr. Dimitra Makri.

Presented by The Dukakis Center at ACT and The Demos Center at ACG

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 7:00–9:00 PM
TIF – Helexpo, Vellidis Convention Center, Olympias Hall

Join us for an evening of insight and dialogue as leading experts in international relations, law, and global affairs come together to discuss the key geopolitical and democratic challenges shaping the year ahead.

This round table, part of the Voices of Democracy series and the concluding public event of the Dukakis Center’s 25th anniversary year, brings together distinguished scholars and policy thinkers from Greece and abroad for a thought-provoking conversation on the global landscape of 2025.

Featured Panelists

• Constantine Filis, Associate Professor of International Relations, American College of Greece; Director, Institute of Global Affairs
• Spyros Litsas, Professor of International Relations Theory, University of Macedonia
• Maria Gavouneli, Professor of International Law, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens; Director General, ELIAMEP
• Peter Gries, Professor of Chinese Politics, Lee Kai Hung Chair and founding Director, Manchester China Institute

Moderated by

• Nektaria Stamouli, Deputy Editor in Chief, Kathimerini English Edition; Eastern Mediterranean Correspondent, Politico Europe
• David Wisner, Professor of International Relations, ACT; Executive Director, Dukakis Center for Public Service

This event is open to the public and especially welcomes members of the local expat community, as well as students and faculty from ACT and public universities.

Following the centennial of Anatolia College in Thessaloniki's establishment and to commemorate its 25th anniversary season of public service initiatives, the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service at ACT, has invited Sarah B. Snyder, Professor of Global Inquiry at American University in Washington, DC, to deliver the Silver Jubilee Dukakis Lecture.The event will take place on Wednesday, April 30, 6 PM, at Emilio Riadis Hall, TIF-Helexpo.

It will also include a round table discussion on the founding of American educational and cultural institutions in late and post-Ottoman Greece, featuring: Dr. Evi Tramantza, Director of Libraries & Archives, Anatolia College, Damiana Koutsomiha, Head Librarian, American Farm School, and Dr. Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, Doreen Canaday Spitzer Director of Archives, American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

The lecture will be based on Professor Snyder's forthcoming book, "Unofficial Diplomats," which illustrates how private American citizens shaped the place of the United States in the world throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, serving as unofficial diplomats, representing the United States when formal relations did not exist or functioning as informal ambassadors to foreign communities alongside official US representatives. Of particular interest to Anatolia College stakeholders are the efforts of expat Americans to create schools, colleges, and other cultural institutions in Greece and Ottoman Asia Minor.

The lecture will contextualize the transformation when Anatolia migrated to Thessaloniki and elucidate the efforts of American expats — missionaries and secular figures alike —who contributed to and continue contributing to the school's well-being and renown. The event will also be an opportunity to take stock of the many lectures and other extracurricular activities that have contributed to forging Anatolia's unique identity over the decades.

Representatives of Anatolia College, the American Farm School, and the American School of Classical Studies will join Professor Snyder for a post-lecture discussion. These institutions were all created by American expats during a formative period of US foreign relations.

The lecture and round table will be in English and are open to the public.

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

About Sarah Snyder

Sarah B. Snyder is a historian who specializes in the influence of non-state actors such as human rights activists and expatriates on US foreign relations. She is the author of prize-winning scholarship, including four books and numerous scholarly articles.

She is the author of From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed US Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press, 2018). The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations awarded it the 2019 Robert H. Ferrell Prize for distinguished scholarship in the history of American foreign relations. Her first book, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network, (Cambridge University Press), analyzes the development of a transnational network devoted to human rights advocacy and its contributions to the end of the Cold War. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations awarded it the 2012 Stuart Bernath Book Prize for best first book by an author and the 2012 Myrna F. Bernath Book Award for the best book written by a woman in the field in the previous two years.

Her current research studies the influence of expatriates on US foreign relations in such places as the late Ottoman near East. In addition to her current position at AU, she has taught and lectured at UCL, Yale, and Georgetown. Professor Snyder is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

• Named in honor of former Governor of Massachusetts (and Greek-American) Michael Dukakis, the Dukakis Center is an independent, non-partisan administrative unit of the American College of Thessaloniki, the university division of Anatolia College. The primary mission of the Dukakis Center is to encourage young people to take an active interest in public affairs. The Center is celebrating its 25th anniversary season of public service initiatives in 2024-25.

The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service organized a session at this year’s Beyond technology forum and exhibition, which took place at the Metropolitan Expo Centre in Athens. David Wisner, Executive Director of the Dukakis Center, hosted a fireside chat on “AI, Social Contracts, and Digital Literacy” with Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody (2008) and Vice Provost for AI and Technology in Education at New York University. The Dukakis Center was acknowledged as a supporting institution at the Beyond forum.

Beyond was launched at TIF - Helexpo in 2021 by Helexpo board president Tasos Tzikas. According to the event organizers, “the exhibition serves as a hub for networking, knowledge sharing, and hands-on experience with pioneering innovations.” The 2024 iteration focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and was attended by a record number of participants and visitors. Beyond 2025 focused likewise on “confronting the practical and sometimes harsh realities of artificial intelligence as it integrates into various aspects of society.” 

The Dukakis Center session, entitled “AI, social contracts, and digital literacy,” took place at a prime afternoon hour on the second day of the conference, Saturday, April 5, following a session featuring senior administrators from three Greek public universities. 

The discussion with Clay Shirky focused on three lines of inquiry: the line leading from the development of the Internet in ca. 1992, the importance of which Professor Shirky described in his 2008 book Here Comes Everybody, to the appearance in 2022 of ChatGPT; Shirky’s role at NYU and the challenges he faces as lead edtech administrator for NYU’s global operation; and the broader social implications of the emergence and widespread application of AI technology. 

Named a “Top 100 Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy in 2010, Clay Shirky has published six books and appears frequently in the mainstream media. At New York University since 2001, his current role includes designing, developing and enhancing all academic aspects of technology-based teaching and learning. Mr Shirky also has teaching affiliations at NYU with the Arthur L. Carter Center of Journalism and the Tisch School of the Arts. In 2014-2017, he served as Chief Information Officer at NYU Shanghai. 

The Dukakis Center session was well attended, with some 100-120 people in the audience. One attendee, Luca Moreno, founder and CEO of the Italian AI firm Nextatlas, later wrote on social media, “this was one of the standout moments of the conference, such a great conversation with the brilliant Clay Shirky!”  

On the eve of the opening ceremony of Beyond 2025, Dr. Wisner and Mr. Shirky were also invited by the conference organizers to interact with a select group of Beyond participants in a three-hour closed-door leadership dialogue on policy implications of the current AI vogue. The session was moderated by Jovan Ratkovic, sometime foreign policy advisor to Serbian President Boris Tadić. One of the key exchanges featured Vassilis Koutsoumpas, Digital Policy and AI Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, and Panagiotis Vlachos, Secretary for Public Sector at PASOK-KINAL and cofounder of “Vouliwatch,” who reviewed the policy priorities of leading Greek political parties. Discussion also focused on the policy and regulation apparatus of the EU and of individual EU member states, and political economy dimensions of approaches taken to regulation in the EU and in the US.

The organizers of this year’s Beyond estimate that over 15,000 people visited the exhibition and/or attended the forum between April 4 and 6. Untold numbers of visitors will have seen the Dukakis Center logo at select points in the expo center; ACT was the only academic institution listed among sponsors and supporting institutions. The exposure should clear the way for ACT to play a modest role throughout Greece in matters of information technology. Indeed, the policy ecosystem is still fluid enough for knowledgeable ACT stakeholders to be involved in meaningful ways.

Chief takeaways from the forum were as follows: the widespread adoption and development of AI is a significant turning point in terms of the impact of technology on society globally, but is still misunderstood. (As Clay Shirky quipped, “whatever works is no longer AI.”) Nonetheless, the mood was generally optimistic and distinctly non-partisan.

The Dukakis Center will follow up by taking the following actions: supporting IT faculty and staff strategically to attend such events and indeed, hosting guest speakers in areas which correspond in-house research strengths; networking with Greek and international colleagues exploring dimensions of AI most of interest to faculty in the humanities; reviving a discrete policy engagement within the Dukakis Center in the field of civic tech and civic AI; and, finally, arranging annual participation in and attendance at Beyond Thessaloniki going forth.

Incidentally, the Dukakis Center has organized events previously with two of the principal organizers of Beyond, now in its fifth year. Both Anastasios Tzikas, President of the Board of Helexpo, and Mihalis Stangos, Managing Director and CEO of MSCOMM, have spoken under the Dukakis Center banner, most recently in May 2020, when Mr, Tzikas appeared in the landmark Zoom webinar entitled “Φέτος το φεστιβάλ θα είναι διαφορετικό.”  Dr. Wisner has appeared meanwhile at Helexpo, having presented Spyros Katsoulas’ book Διλήμματα στο Τρίγωνο in May 2023 at the Thessaloniki International Book Fair.