The Institute of Historical Research (IHR/NHRF) belongs to the National Hellenic Research Foundation, one of the largest Research Centers in Greece, founded in 1958. It is a non-profit Research Foundation supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs in Greece. The objective of the Institute of Historical Research is the study of the political, economic, social and cultural history of the Hellenic area and the regions where Hellenism has been active, from prehistoric antiquity to the modern era. The study of the history and culture of Byzantium comprises the fields relating to the past of medieval Europe, the Balkans and the wider area of the eastern Mediterranean and is based on the critical approach of primary sources from literary sources, both philological and archival, as well as objects of art and archaeological findings. The Institute is a partner of international academic organizations and has established partnerships with European and International Programs. Α useful library consisting in two specialized sections of some 50.000 titles in subjects of immediate reference to its current research projects was built up in the course of the National Foundation lifetime. The Section of Byzantine Research publishes regularly volume series on Byzantine History and Culture such as Monographs, the Sources from Athos Archives, and special issues on Byzantium Today and the Research Library, also Scientific Journals, as well as Edited Collective Volumes and Conference Proceedings (https://history-bookstore.eie.gr/en/list-of-publications/).

Among the significant Awards is the distinction in the framework of the evaluation by the International Committee for the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, on which the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation has been classified as 1st among the Greek Institutes of Social Sciences and 11th among the Research Institutes of all scientific disciplines of the country

(http://excellence.minedu.gov.gr/draseis/listing/796-iie;

http://eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ihr/index-en_IHR_about.html;

http://excellence.minedu.gov.gr/en/draseis/listing/1460-iie, created on 07 September 2015)

Staff

MARIA LEONTSINI

Maria Leontsini is senior researcher at the Program “Social and Daily Life in Byzantium” at the Institute of Historical Research-Section of Byzantine Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Athens, Greece. She studied History at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Ioannina (Greece, 1986). She has completed her master’s degree in the field of “Historical Geography of the Byzantine World” at the University of Paris-I (1988). She gained her Ph.D. at the University of Athens (2001), where she specialized in Byzantine History. Title of the Ph.D. thesis: Constantine IV (668-685). The last emperor of the Early Byzantine Period, Institute of Byzantine Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Monographs 7, Athens 2006 (in Greek). Her research focuses on the society and institutions in Byzantium, aspects of everyday life, and the social context of consuming and diet behaviors. She also studies issues referring to the cross-cultural exchanges between Byzantium and the East. She is currently in charge of the metadata catalogue and the quality control of the metadata contents within the project: “BYZART – Byzantine Art and Archaeology on Europeana Art Collection”. She is a member of the Administrative Council of the Greek Committee of Byzantine Studies.
She has corroborated to national and international projects on Byzantine History and lately to projects on the culture of diet in the Mediterranean during the Byzantine period, with conference papers and lectures. Her publications include a book, chapters in collective works, a number of articles and conference reports.

VASILIKI ZORBA

Degree from the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Athens. Postgraduate degree [MA Master of Arts] with specialization in Byzantine Archaeology, at the University of Athens. Her Ph. D. dissertation intitled The Wall-Paintings of the Monastery of Saint-Nicholas at Aetos (1692) and the Monumental Painting of 17th century in Aetoloakarnania in 2017. She was accepted as an independent researcher, at Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, in 2018, to study the topic “Giovanni Bellini and Byzantine Art”.
Since 2010, she has worked as a contract archaeologist in various Ephorates of Antiquities. She speaks fluent English and French and she has a good knowledge of Italian.
Currently, she has been employed as a collaborator on contract on the projects “Athonite Digital Arc” (documentation of Athonite archives) and ‘’BYZART – Byzantine Art and Archaeology on Europeana Art Collection’’, at National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) in Athens.
Her research interests focus on the post-byzantine art, with particular emphasis in the areas of Northwestern Greece under the Ottoman rule.

STYLIANOS LAMPAKIS

Stylianos Lampakis is Research Director at the Institute of Historical Research-Section of Byzantine Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece. He finished his Graduate Studies at the University of Athens, Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Philology) (1973-1977) and he gained a Ph.D. in Byzantine Philology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ioannina (1982). Title of the Ph.D. thesis: Infernal Journeys in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Literature. (in Greek).
His Main research area of interest is Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Literature, especially of the Palaeologan era.
He is Author of seven books (four of them in collaboration with other colleagues), and more than fifty scientific articles in periodicals and acts of congresses, as well as a considerable number of popularised articles and entries in prosopographical lexika and other works of reference.
He is a member of the editorial Board of the e-journal Byzantina Symmeikta, a member of the Administrative Council of the Society for Byzantine Studies and of the editorial board of its review (Ἐπετηρίς Ἑταιρείας Bυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν) and a member of the Greek Comittee for Byzantine Studies.