Director’s Report: Spring 2008

I am pleased to say that I am as enthusiastic about the state of the School in Athens as I was on the day that I assumed my present position last summer.  I have been astounded by the increase in the scale of the activities conducted under the auspices of the School since I was a regular member.  The richness of our programs and the size of the communities that we serve are simply astonishing and should be a source of pride to us all.

Let me summarize events for you that have occurred since Shari Stocker, my wife, and I arrived in Greece at the end of June 2007.

At the end of June the School organized a party in the gardens to bid farewell to Steve Tracy and June Allison and to welcome us.  Several hundred guests from the foreign schools and the Greek community were in attendance, as was Mary Sturgeon, Chair of the Managing Committee.

The summer schools were once again a resounding success.  But last summer we have reason to celebrate not only the achievements of our long-standing archaeological and historical summer sessions, but the summer program in Byzantine Greek organized under the auspices of the Gennadius Library.

Mary was present in Athens for much of the summer and it was thus possible for her and me to talk with all senior staff of the School, and together to visit archaeological projects currently operating on the Greek mainland (including Lykaion, Corinth, Mitrou, Korphos, and the Athenian Agora).  This time together afforded an exceptional opportunity for us to build consensus between the Managing Committee and the staff of the School in Athens.  A later visit from Irene Romano achieved the same result in regards to our staff in Princeton.

In addition to professional obligations, there have been many social, which have been extremely pleasurable to accept.  Highlights of the summer included the opening of the Praxiteles Exhibition at the National Museum of Athens.  This spring we have been privileged to witness the reopening of the Piraeus Museum.

The lecture and entertainment program of the School has been somewhat expanded, this with enthusiastic support from the Trustees.  The program of lectures this year covered the entire history of Greece, in accordance with the mission statement of the School, and was mailed to the entire American School mailing list.  The lectures included those organized by Maria Georgopoulou, by Sherry Fox, and myself. 

Of the many changes at the School this year, perhaps chief among these has been the coming-on-line of the new Internet site for the School.  This attractive and informative medium for disseminating information about the work of the entire community of ASCSA has received much positive comment here in Athens and from friends aboard.  Its success has resulted from close collaboration between staff in Athens and in Princeton, not least Charles Watkinson, Chuck Jones, and Irene Romano.

In December, in partial fulfillment of an obligation in a major grant from the EU via the Information Society of Greece, we hosted a one-day conference in Cotsen Hall to publicize the progress made in delivering resources from our archives to scholars and the general public through “portals” on our Internet site.  The event was attended by several hundred individuals and established us immediately as one of the leaders in the delivery of digital information in Greece.

In May, the final presentation of the project will be held in the Megaron Mousikis.  Several hundred thousand documents and images from the archives of the School will then be on-line, including many of John Gennadius’s scrapbooks, Dorothy Burr Thompson’s photographs of Greece, the Corinth excavation records, and archives of the Dragoumis family.  In addition, a general education module on the Athenian Agora Excavations will be premiered.

This spring we have also been able to reach out to parts of Greece beyond Athens.  On March 20, the Department of Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki hosted the first ever Open Meeting of ASCSA in northern Greece.  Despite a general transit and garbage collection strike, some 150 were in attendance.  In addition, visiting professors at the School, the Wiener Laboratory Professor and both Whitehead Professors, have been offering lectures at provincial universities (Volos, Ioannina, Rhodes, Rethymnon, and Kalamata), with support of a grant-in-aid from the American Embassy.

The Open Meeting in Athens, held a week prior to that in Thessaloniki, was the first to be video-taped.  A goal was to organize presentations so as to capture the activities of the School as a whole, not only the achievements of the excavations, of which we are, of course, justifiably proud.  In the Open Meeting I was able to announce publicly for the first time the transfer to the Gennadius Library of archives of the Konstantinos Tsatsos, former president of the Greek Republic.  The video can be downloaded from the School’s web site at: http://apollo9.ascsa.edu.gr/media/Open_meeting/. 

Also of great significance have been visits by two consultants supported by the Mellon Foundation, Don Skemer and Dilys Morris.  Skemer and Morris have examined operations both of the Blegen and Gennadius libraries and have prepared evaluations and recommendations that suggest both how we might reorganize space within these facilities and how we might improve operating procedures.  It should be obvious that any changes to the organizational structures of the libraries will have an impact on our thinking about the Master Plan for infrastucture of the School as a whole.  There is general agreement that consolidated archives and technical services are desirable, that the main stacks of the Gennadius should be opened, and that rare books and special collections should be curated separately.

In regards to the further improvement of electronic resources I must point out that our weakest link in Athens is IT.  We have hit a wall, beyond which no additional development will be feasible without more staff, most probably a programmer who can take on the laborious tasks of software development and implementation, while network and server maintenence would remain in the hands of Tarek Elemam, and user services would be coordinated by Nikos Manias.

The new first-year students arrived at the School at the beginning of September and were led on trips in the fall, by John Oakley, the Mellon Professor, Guy Sanders, Bob Bridges, and myself.  Nancy Bookides and Judy Barringer offered their expertise at Olympia, while this year’s Carpenter Professor, Bill Caraher served in a specialized capacity by sharing with the students his expertise in Late Antique and Medieval matters, rather than leading an entire trip, as had recently been the practice.

Corinth and the Agora both enjoyed successful programs of excavation last summer, about which you will read in their separate reports.  This spring’s training session at Corinth has begun.  John Camp has been resident in Athens all year.  His presence, together with an especially experienced group of visiting academics, including Tim Gregory, Alicia Simpson, and Peggy Mook as NEH fellows, Floyd McCoy as Wiener Laboratory Professor, and Barbara Barletta and Kirk Ormand as Whitehead Professors, has offered students of the School a particularly rewarding experience.

Relations with the U.S. government and other American agencies in Greece remain warm.  The Fulbright Program has again awarded three fellowships to support students in participation in our program.  In February we enjoyed a visit from the new U.S. Ambassador, Daniel Speckhard, and his wife, and the DCM, Thomas Countryman, attended the Open Meeting in Athens.  We continue to receive support also from our colleagues in the Association of American Colleges in Greece.

The educational program for members has now largely concluded.  Seminars were offered this winter by Floyd McCoy, Barbara Barletta, and Kirk Ormand, each attended in approximately equal numbers.  This year there were two optional spring trips, one to Ionia, led by John Camp, the other, a long-week in Malta, organized by John Oakley and Amelia Brown, a former fellow of the School who lives in Malta.  Once again, some 350 students and faculty have enjoyed the services of the School in Athens during the winter months.

In June, my wife and I look forward to accompanying the ASCSA trustees to Albania.  We are especially excited that we will be accompanied by Iris Pojani, Director of Tourism for Albania, and we will have knowledgeable guides at Butrint (Bouthrotos), Apollonia, Durrës (Dyrrachium), and the other sites that we visit.

I should, as always, acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of my staff in Athens, as well as their exceptional efforts this year on behalf of the development of our electronic resources.  These ventures could hardly be a success without the long hours many of them have invested, often far beyond the call of contractual duties.

Finally, I draw your attention to the departure of the Head Librarian of the Blegen Library, Charles Jones.  His talents will be much missed, but already the MC is moving to find a qualified replacement.  In the meantime, Natalia Vogeikoff is serving admirably as Acting Blegen Librarian.  We also now say goodbye to John Oakley, who returns to the College of William and Mary after three years of distinguished service as Mellon Professor.  We look forward to the arrival of his replacement, Margaret Miles, at the end of June, and that of Denver Graninger as Carpenter Fellow.

We look forward to seeing many of you in Greece during the rest of the year.