Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History: Songs of Refugees
28/02/2023 (Seminars)
Bank of Greece, DIESOI
The Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece, in the context of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History, which is jointly organised with the Athens University of Economics and Business and Panteion University, invite you to the lecture entitled:
Songs of Refugees
Speaker: Elias Papaioannou (London Business School)
A few words on the topic:
The speaker will present results from an ongoing research project undertaken in collaboration with Vassilis Logothetis (University of Ioannina) and Stelios Michalopoulos (Brown University). Collecting data for a period spanning the last 100 years, the researchers look into the political identity of refugee neighbourhoods in Greek urban centres, as well as their cultural expression, as shown in the songs of artists of refugee descent. Using machine learning techniques, the topics and emotions of the corpus of Greek songs is extracted, differentiated by the refugee background of artists. Preliminary results confirm and quantify refugee’s overwhelming support for El. Venizelos’s “Liberal Party”. At the same time, by comparing refugee settlements with neighboring areas quarters of locals, the research finds an increase in percentages favouring the Left. Political affiliations with the Left persist after World War II and the restoration of democracy, in 1975. The observed political expression moves in tandem with a particular artistic identity. Specifically, in the 1920s to 1940s, refugee songs emphasize poverty, social exclusion, ill fortune and the deplorable living conditions in temporary settlements. After World War ΙΙ, even as the economic gap with the indigenous population narrows, artists from Asia Minor and Pontos continue to write songs to celebrate persistence, social justice and equality, thus revealing a potential mechanism for intergenerational transmission of the refugee identity.
The lectures are held at the Museum of the Bank of Greece, at 3, Amerikis Street, Athens, and are open to the public, without requiring prior registration. The lecture will be in Greek.
The complete programme of upcoming lectures is available on the website of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History.
Relative links:
Poster of the event