ASCSA Archives Annual Lecture 2024
The Other Athenians: Members of a Foreign School at Athens (in English)
Lucile Arnoux Farnoux Université de Tours
Alexandre Farnoux Sorbonne Université
01/02/2024 – 19.00 (EET)
Conférence hybride | Inscription au webinaire
ASCSA | Cotsen Hall, Anapiron Polemou 9, Kolonaki 10676
The history of the École française d’Athènes is intricately entwined with that of the city of Athens and its people. This connection has been rich and mutually beneficial. The École française has played a role in the city’s urban and social history, and Athens has been a place of learning for the resident French academic community. As a result of this bidirectional relationship, the École française had a unique, but not very well-known, history in its host city. By establishing itself in the capital city of the new state in 1846, the École française did not just set up shop in the “homeland of art and literature.” It also put down roots in a land where its members discovered a living, spoken Greek language, and people who were both heirs to a prestigious past and actors in an unpredictable present. For many members of the École française, the city of Athens was their first “school” in Greece.
Lucile Arnoux-Farnoux and Alexandre Farnoux have recently published a fascinating account of the history of the École française d’Athènes, titled, À l’ombre du Lycabette: L’École française et la ville d’Athènes (Athens 2022). That account will serve as the basis for their joint lecture (delivered in English).