This course focuses on the history of Modern Greece (1800 to the present) and starts with two weeks intensive reading and discussion of key historical events before moving to Athens for a month. In Greece, the course combines in-class sessions with mostly on-site teaching to provide in-depth understanding of major developments in social, cultural, economic and political history of Greece since 1800.

The course starts by exploring the history of Ottoman and Venetian areas that formed the Greek State and includes themes such as: the Revolution of 1821, economic and social change in the nineteenth century; Greece in the Balkans; WWI and the interwar period; war and occupation in the 1940s; emigration and the Greek Diaspora; the 1967-1974 dictatorship and the post-1980s period of European integration, to the present and recent crises and challenges.

Teaching is based primarily on experiential learning through visits to museums that provide a unique insight to modern and contemporary history and present-day Greece, as well as visits to historical archives and research centres to understand how historians do research. In the second week of the course, students may have the opportunity to visit the island of Syros for a three-day summer school in Greek and Mediterranean history offered in association with the National Research Institute, as well as a two-day trip to the island of Hydra.

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Applications for this course will be accepted until January 23, 2026 at 12 p.m. EST.

Students must use their YorkU e-mail address to apply as e-mail addresses from outside the York organization are not supported by the application platform. If your @my.yorku.ca e-mail address is not working, please input your YorkU e-mail address using only @yorku.ca.

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Prerequisites: None. History students may have preference.