Lecture by Dr. Kostis Kornetis, “Memory, Conflict and Democratization in Post-Junta Greece”

Introductory remarks, by The Honorable Ioannis Stamatekos, Consul General of Greece in Los Angeles

Q&A moderated by Simos Zenios, Associate Director, UCLA SNF Hellenic Center

Lecture by Professor Kostis Kornetis

In this talk, Professor Kostis Kornetis will examine how distinct political generations experienced and remember the transition from authoritarianism to democracy in Greece, known as Metapolitefsi, since 1974. Its central claim is that the 2008-2012 economic and social crisis triggered a radical re-evaluation of democratization by turning the conflicting generational recollections of these events into pivotal components of current political contestation. To demonstrate this, Dr. Kornetis tells the oral (hi)stories of transition and its legacy across time, beyond institutional achievements and setbacks, which was the standard trope of narrating this story until all too recently. The study draws on in-depth interviews and a close analysis of a selection of memory scapes (texts, images, and music) of the 1970s to make sense of the different generational ways in which the past is being remembered and contested at present, arguing that “small” and “private” histories matter. As such, it introduces to the literature and public debate the crucial role of generational memory in shaping the political, social, and cultural developments of the entire post-authoritarian period in Greece and beyond.

Professor Kornetis teaches contemporary history at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). He has taught at Brown University, New York University, and the University of Sheffield, and was a CONEX-Marie Curie Experienced Fellow at Carlos III, Madrid, and Santander Fellow in Iberian Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He is the author of Children of the Dictatorship. Student Resistance, Cultural Politics and the ‘long 1960s’ in Greece (Berghahn Books, 2013 – recipient of the Edmund Keeley book award of the MGSA) and co-editor of Metapolitefsi (Themelio, 2015), Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the “Long 1960s” (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Rethinking Democratisation in Spain, Greece and Portugal (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). His second book on the generational memory of the transitions to democracy in Southern Europe is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Parking Information:

Parking for Royce Hall is available in Parking Structure 5 located at: 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095.  Parking Structure 5  is accessible from Royce Drive, south of Sunset Boulevard, and west of Hilgard Ave (in the northeast section of the campus).

No parking attendants will be on-site at the parking structure, and Pay-By-Space/Visitor Parking is extremely limited in this lot, so we highly encourage you to purchase a parking permit in advance:

• To save time, you may purchase your parking permit for $15 in advance using Bruin ePermit: https://bruinepermit.t2hosted.com/pnw2/selectevent.aspx. Select “UCLA Royce Hall,” then “Dr. Kostis Kornetis Lecture.” With the advanced parking permit, you can park anywhere in Parking Structure 5 EXCEPT in the Pay-by-Space section. For instructions on how to use this portal, please click here.
• To purchase a permit when you arrive at Parking Structure 5, please park ONLY in the Pay-By-Space/Visitor Parking area on the rooftop of this structure, and proceed to the Self-Service Pay Station machine to pay by credit card (the parking on this level is very limited).
• Guest drop/Ride-share drop off is closest at the turnaround at the front of Royce Hall located at: 10745 Dickson Court, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
• Accessible parking: If you have accessibility needs, you may park in the Pay-By-Space/Visitor Parking area on the rooftop (level 5) of this structure, and proceed to the Self-Service Pay Station machine to pay by credit card.  Please visit our Campus Accessibility Map to view related information.

This event is the second in a series of events held in collaboration with the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for this pilot program, which seeks to create networks across the West Coast of North America and between the West Coast and Greece. For more information about this collaboration, please visit https://hellenic.ucla.edu/ucla-sfu-pilot-program/

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