Events Calendar – British School at Athens

image: Hotel Formentor, Mallorca by bemhuesca, used under CC BY SA 2.0

The Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History in conjunction with The British School at Athens

Everyday Life Under Dictatorship in Southern Europe

Speakers: Prof Kate Ferris (University of St Andrews), Dr Huw Halstead (University of Edinburgh), and Dr Yannick Lengkeek (University of Birmingham)

Respondent: Dr Daniel Knight (University of St Andrews)

Chaired by: Dr Michalis Sotiropoulos (University of Edinburgh)

Abstract: When people think of dictatorship, they often conjure an image of an all-powerful leader ruling over a populace alternately roused in nationalist fervour or cowed in fearful subservience. Whilst this doubtless captures crucial aspects of the dictatorial experience, it portrays those who lived through dictatorship as principally passive historical actors, carried along by the charismatic currents of those in power. In this seminar, three scholars who work in the field of everyday life history (or Alltagsgeschichte) challenge this overly simplistic picture.

Three short papers will be presented based on collaborative research on the dictatorships of Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal, and Metaxas and the Colonels in Greece. Attention will be paid to how dictatorship affected – and was affected by – the intimacy of social bonds between friends, relatives, and neighbours (Ferris), the practices of leisure and play both in and outside the home (Lengkeek), and the experience of time spent alone, whether in loneliness or solitude (Halstead). This will reveal that Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Greeks living through dictatorship were active agents in their own histories – imbalances in power notwithstanding – operating in ways both normative and non-normative. In the process, it will be demonstrated that the “big picture” of dictatorial rule is woven from the threads of everyday life.

Daniel Knight will respond to the papers with a social anthropologist’s perspective on everyday life and dictatorship, followed by a discussion with the panellists and the audience chaired by Michalis Sotiropoulos.

The event will be followed by an informal wine reception.

This is a hybrid event. All welcome!

Please register via Eventbrite to help us with catering numbers.

Friday 4 April 2025, 5:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. GMT

Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre, Doorway 1, Old Medical School, EH1 2QZ

Hybrid event

To attend the event in-person in Edinburgh, please register here

To attend the event online via Teams, please register here. The link to join the session online via Teams will be circulated prior to the event.