The Bissell Library proudly hosted the annual AMICAL (American International Consortium of Academic Libraries) conference 2017 at the Bissell Library, this year from 17-20 May with the theme: Centering on learning: Partnerships and professional development among librarians, faculty and technologists. 141 delegates from American University Libraries outside the US came from 20 counties.

The two outstanding invited speakers were:

Prof Christine Bruce, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane Australia talked on: Building information land learning experiences through partnerships.  

Kristen Eshleman, Director of Digital Innovation from Davidson College US talked on: Stronger together: More than incremental change.

The keynotes as well as more talks and panel presentations were recorded and can be now watched from the AMICAL Consortium website www.amicalnet.org/ and to our facebook page: www.facebook.com/bisselllibrary

Prof Christine Bruce who is a top theorist on Information Literacy in the world also offered a morning seminar to all our Library staff across the school and advised our Information Literacy strategy across the institution. She has now been interviewed by major Greek media outlets with the hope to influence national policy in promoting reading, learning and libraries.

We had amazing feedback and it has been a fantastic learning, sharing and networking opportunity. 

ACT welcomes Northeastern University professor Carlene Hempel and 18 Journalism students from the Northeastern College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD). As part of their program “Dialogue in Civilizations”, the group will spend 3 weeks in Thessaloniki and 2 weeks in Athens reporting on crisis, culture and community in Greece.

Drawing from a mixture of ACT classes, guest lectures and site visits organized by ACT, as well as their own on the ground reporting, the students will be creating an online multi-media magazine featuring both print and broadcast work to document this international experience.

Florence Messager: A Retrospective. 

Join us for the opening on May 3rd at 19:00 at the Bissell Library.

For more information on the artist: http://www.florencemessager.com/

On April 3 the Dukakis Center and Exostis Free Press co-hosted at WE a presentation of The Itinerary: Tracing the Refugee Routes, a new book by renowned photojournalist Dimitris Bouras and friends documenting the plight of Syrian refugees in Greece.

Joining Mr Bouras were fellow photojournalist Nick Paleologos and journalist Patrick Strickland (Al Jazeera); Dimitrios Goulis, Director of the 67th Thessaloniki Elementary School (the local school that embraced refugee children); and Maria Fardela of Exostis and Lambrini Nassis of ACT and the Dukakis Center.  Journalist Kiki Tsiligeridou of TV100 and Amagi Radio moderated the event, which was also attended by a small group of refugees.

Dimitris Bouras is a SBALA alumnus (Class of 1994) who has spoken at ACT on a number of occasions. A celebrated photojournalist who has traveled widely in the Middle East and the former USSR, he will begin lecturing on photojournalism at Cambridge University in the fall.

The Dukakis Center has a standing interest in the plight of migrants and refugees in Northern Greece. In November 2015 a group of interns took a master class in photojournalism with Dimitrios Bouras. One of their assignments was to participate in a study trip to the makeshift refugee camp in Eidomeni, near the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where they served lunch on a soup line and took photographs of conditions in the camp.

Other recent Dukakis Center fieldwork includes study abroad service learning research projects; alumni volunteer efforts, and senior practitioner research activities.

"Masterclass", "Testimonial". These are the words the came to mind to those listening to John Koenig speak about the most current round of diplomatic talks on the so-called Cyprus question. The setting: Daios Hotel in downtown Thessaloniki (located on the site of the old US Consulate General of Thessaloniki). Some sixty denizens of the city had assembled to hear a former adopted son, John Koenig, recount his experience as US Ambassador to Cyprus. The experience was illuminating.

Recently-retired after a 31-year career in the Foreign Service, Koenig had just recently returned to Thessaloniki with his Greek-American wife Natalie after a fourteen-year absence. The purpose of his visit, ostensibly, was to deliver a Dukakis Lecture and to meet with other members of the Center's Honorary Advisory Board.

Koenig's career had carried him from Southeast Asia to the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. By chance as much as anything a Europeanist, his two tours in Cyprus and two in Greece (including three years from 2000-2003 as Consul General of Thessaloniki) make him unique in the history of American diplomacy for his accumulation of local and regional expertise.

Earlier in the day Ambassador Koenig had sat with students at ACT to talk about his experience as the #2 US diplomat at NATO. Now the topic was one that was most dear to his heart of diplomat's hearts: a resolution to the division of the island of Cyprus into two major, protagonist sides, one Greek, the other Turkish.

The graveyard of diplomats, as the island is known to insiders, Cyprus was the place of Koenig's greatest personal successes and most disheartening professional setbacks. The endgame in the current talks is in site, Koenig explained, all that is needed is the final effort. Will it happen?

Ambassador Koenig staged his return to Thessaloniki at a banner moment in the history of the Dukakis Center. Commemorating five years since the old Dukakis Chair had been transformed into an academic center, and celebrating a burgeoning local partnership with the evening's co-hosts, the Navarino Network, the Center was organizing the 150th public lecture in the renowned series of Dukakis Lectures. (Incidentally, Ambassador Koenig first made an appearance in the Dukakis series in October 2000 at a round table dedicated to the then-upcoming US Presidential election.)

On the evidence of this early spring evening on the Thessaloniki waterfront, the Koenigs will return. Sooner, rather than later.

Friday, March 31,10:00-14:30

Bissell Library, Anatolia College of Thessaloniki

How can we combine tradition and cultural heritage with new technologies and innovation, and in the meantime keep authenticity intact?

Admission is free. Please note that the conference will be held in Greek.

In order to secure your seat RSVP at http://culturecrises.weebly.com

a lecture by Professor Aristotle Tziampiris

On Wednesday March 15^th, 2017, from 10:30 to 12 noon, Dr. Aristotle Tziampiris, Professor and Chair at the Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus and an Anatolia College alumnus (Class of 1988) presented at the ACT Audio-Visual Room a lecture titled: “Israeli-Greek Cooperation in the New East Mediterranean”.  

It was an event organized by the ACT, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences with the support of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service and it was well attended by Anatolia College and ACT colleagues and a good number of ACT and Study Abroad students.

The lecture offered a unique and stimulating perspective into the topic and it was followed up by a thought-provoking discussion.

Another success for the Entrepreneurship Hub of the Anatolia School of Business followed the presentation of MITEF Greece startup Competition 2017, held at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) on December 5, 2016, at the Bissell ACT Library. MIT Enterprise Forum Greece announced the 25 semifinalist teams shortlisted to proceed to the next round of MITEF Greece Startup Competition, one of which graduated from VentureGarden of Thessaloniki and the second was one of the winning teams of John and Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Award Competition 2015.

Specifically, the first group is QBRIQ - Mobile App Service Checking Customer Reward Trataro - graduated from the 5th round of VentureGarden and the second, 3easyR - Web app for easier reading on the internet from people with learning difficulties - winner in the Annual Entrepreneurship Competition of John and Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Award Competition 2015 organized by the Entrepreneurship Hub of the Anatolia School of Business.

Because the event was co-organized by MITEF Greece Startup Competition, Anatolia School of Business and VentureGarden participants had the opportunity to learn about the competition. For the next three months, the semifinalists will attend an intensive mentoring program and will have the opportunity to improve their business skills, acquire appropriate knowledge and the ability to have access to a network with successful mentors and entrepreneurs in Greece and abroad.