Guest Authors

Other authors who have contributed essays to From The Archivist’s Notebook (arranged alphabetically):

Tom Brogan, archaeologist, Director of the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete, and a long-time resident of Greece, writes about his culinary coming of age, from the farms of Indiana and the dormitory food of an English University, to his discovery of (and falling in love with) ethnic cuisines. His recent encounter on the island of Crete with Madhur Jaffrey, the guru of Indian cuisine, prompted Tom to review two of Jaffrey’s cookbooks and his own slow path into the kitchen.
Food and Travel: The Slow Road to Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian and Cretan Kitchen

Jacquelyn Clements holds a PhD in Classical Archaeology from Johns Hopkins University, and is an aspiring photographer. She has contributed to The Archivist’s Notebook a fun essay about living in Greece in the early 1910s. She drew her inspiration from the letters that a young bride, Zillah Pierce Dinsmoor, sent from Athens to her mother in America.
Letters from a New Home: Early 20th-Century Athens Through the Eyes of Zillah Dinsmoor

Jack L. Davis, Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati and a former director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2007-2012), frequently contributes essays to The Archivist’s Notebook. Here are some of his essays:
Dollies and Doilies: Priscilla Capps Hill and the Refugee Crisis in Athens, 1922-1941
Communism In and Out of Fashion: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Cold War
Archives from the Trash: The Multidimensional Annie Smith Peck—Mountaineer, Suffragette, Classicist
A Mycenaean “Matter of Fact”: Part II, Joe Alsop’s Greek Bronze Age Archive at the University of Cincinnati
A Mycenaean “Matter of Fact”: Part I, Joe Alsop Reports on the Greek Bronze Age
I Once was Lost but Now I’m Found”: The Search for Missing Archives, Marion Rawson, and the Excavations of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos
Unbalanced Academics, Scribblers, and an “Odd Christmas”
An Archival Paradox, the Expédition de Morée, and a Mysterious Love Affair
Barbarians at the Gate

Vivian Florou studied archaeology and cultural heritage management, and has recently co-edited with Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan and Jack L. Davis, a collection of essays, entitled Carl W. Blegen: Personal and Archaeological Narratives (Atlanta: Lockwood Press 2015). She has contributed two essays: one about  high-society Greek women in the decades between the two world wars and how the traditional festive costumes that they wore on their social outings defined the aspirations of their class; and recently, a second one about Anna Apostolaki placing this remarkable woman in the cultural milieu of the early decades of the 20th century and at the center of the feminist movement in Greece.
On the Trail of a Greek Bourgeoisie Clad in Traditional Garb
Anna Apostolaki: A Forgotten Pioneer of Women’s Emancipation in Greece

Maria Georgopoulou, Director of the Gennadius Library, inspired by the inauguration of the Makriyannis Wing in early June 2018, contributed an essay about the festivities that took place during the dedication of the Library in April 1926.
Blending Two Cultures: The Gennadius Library Dedication in 1926

Alexandra Kankeleit is an archaeologist who specializes in the study of Roman mosaics, has also since 2016 been part of an extensive project of the German Archaeological Institute (Athens and Berlin), titled The History of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens during the National Socialist Era. As part of the project, she has examined a host of bibliographic and archival sources in both countries that document the activities of the German archaeologists in Greece from 1933 until 1944. A list of her most recent publications can be found on Alexandra’s own website.
“The Haughty Arrogance of the Nordic people”: A Scandal in the German Colony of Athens on the 20th of April 1935.

Despina Lalaki holds a PhD in Historical Sociology from the New School university while she currently teaches at the The New York City College of Technology-CUNY.  For the writing of her doctoral thesis, titled “Digging for Democracy in Greece: Intra-Civilizational Processes during the American Century”(2014), Dr. Lalaki made extensive use of the American School’s Administrative Records. Her essay here draws inspiration from an unpublished manuscript by archaeologist Carl W. Blegen, titled “The United States and Greece” and written in 1946-1948.
On Communism and Hellenism: An Archaeologist’s Perspective

John W. I. Lee, Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, contributed an essay about John W. Gilbert, the first African-American student to participate in the Regular Program of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) in 1890-1891. Lee is writing a book about John Wesley Gilbert, the early history of the ASCSA, and the development of archaeology in Greece.
An African American Pioneer in Greece: John Wesley Gilbert and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1890-1891

Clayton M. Lehmann, Professor of History at the University of South Dakota, contributed an essay about American college students coming to Greece, as part of study-abroad programs.  Lehmann was a Regular Member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1982/3, lived in Greece while he wrote his doctoral dissertation, and has returned often, three times as the Director of the Summer Session for the American School and regularly since 2005 as one of the professor-captains of the University of South Dakota’s short-term faculty-led study-abroad program “The Isles of Greece!”.
Imagining and Reimagining Greece

Lisabeth Ward Papageorgiou has studied Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York University and has catalogued Homer A. Thompson’s papers and, most recently, Oscar Broneer Papers for the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She has contributed to the Archivist’s Notebook an essay about Nancy Mitford’s visit to the Athenian Agora during the reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos in 1955.
That Unspeakable Stoa

Christopher Richter, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Hollins University, with research interests in visual and textual narratives, contributed to “From the Archivist’s Notebook” a story about a woman traveler, Gertrude Harper Beggs (1874-1951). Beggs, after attending the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1911-1912, published a travel book about Crete in 1915. Richter, who co-teaches travel abroad courses in the Mediterranean with his wife and fellow faculty member, Christina Salowey (ASCSA student 1990-1992), has developed a special interest in past travelogues about Greece and Turkey.
“The Four in Crete”: A Travel Book Leads to an Archival Adventure

Dylan Rogers holds a PhD from the University of Virginia, and he has been Assistant Director at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens since 2015. His essay to “From the Archivist’s Notebook” was inspired by his summer experience at the American School. On hearing that each Summer Session Director is given the title “Gertrude Smith Professor,” he embarked on a quest to find out more about Smith—and to find out what her story exactly was. She must have had a passion for Greece, but why? And in what ways did she spread this love to others?”
Gertude Smith: A Classic American Philhellene
“If a Jesuit should prove not to know Latin we’d better shut our doors!”: Catholic Clergy at the ASCSA, Pt. I
“Anything to restrain the reverend father”: Catholic Clergy at the ASCSA, Pt. II

Betsey A. Robinson, Professor of History of Art at Vanderbilt University, has contributed an essay about the history of the reconstruction of the Lion of Amphipolis in the 1930s and the people who spearheaded it; she also reminded us of recent work by the American School in the area, in 1970. Her essay was based on extensive archival research she conducted in the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens a few years ago, which resulted in an article entitled “Hydraulic Euergetism: American Archaeology and Waterworks in Early-20th-Century Greece,” in Philhellenism, Philanthropy or Political Convenience? American Archaeology in Greece, ed. Jack L. Davis and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan (Hesperia 82: 1, special issue), Princeton 2013, pp. 101-130.
The Pride of Amphipolis

Curtis Runnels, Professor of Archaeology at Boston University, has contributed two fascinating essays about unknown moments in Heinrich Schliemann’s life. He is also the author of The Archaeology of Heinrich Schliemann: An Annotated Bibliographic Handlist (Archaeological Institute of America; available also as an ebook from Virgo Books). Runnels, who passionately collects old books, frequently comes across hidden treasures.
How Modern Greek Came to America
“All Americans Must Be Trojans at Heart”: A Volunteer at Assos in 1881 Meets Heinrich Schliemann
Who Went to Schliemann’s Wedding?