On Thursday, January 15, 2026, at 7:30 p.m., Stathis Kalyvas, professor of political science at the University of Oxford, will be in conversation with Elias Kanellis at the Athens Conservatory. Stathis Kalyvas is a figure whose work is seen as a catalyst for ideological and political conflict. He is a thinker who has methodically challenged established certainties regarding the interpretation of our recent history, and this makes him interesting—and unexpected.

As a political scientist, Stathis Kalyvas has had a decisive influence on the way in which recent Greek history is discussed, since his research on the Civil War and forms of political violence changed the way we talk about one of the darkest periods in the country’s history. In 1997, while searching for primary sources in the Peloponnese, he investigated the forms, dimensions, and practices of violence during the Civil War. This research resulted in the chapter “Red Terror: Leftist Violence during the Occupation” in a collective publication edited by Mark Mazower, which sparked a renewed discussion of the Civil War, the demystification of left-wing victimhood in the name of post-Civil War persecution of communists, and a new scientific approach to a politically turbulent era. His intervention there and his subsequent work on the Civil War, in collaboration with Professor Nikos Marantzidis, have made him a key figure in a revisionist reading of recent Greek history.

Studying the data also contributes to a different interpretation of the dictatorship, since in his new book (in collaboration with Natasha Triantafylli) he approaches the period of the junta, and in particular the three years from 1970 to 1973, not as a graveyard of ideas but as a battleground between the living forces of society and the authoritarianism of the regime, resulting in an unexpected cultural renaissance between 1970 and 1973.

Stathis N. Kalyvas has a long academic career. He worked successively at Ohio University, New York University, and the University of Chicago, and then served as Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Since 2018, he has been Professor of Political Science at the University of Oxford, Gladstone Chair, and a fellow of All Souls College.

He is the author of the books Disasters and Triumphs: The 7 Cycles of Modern Greek History (Papadopoulos Publications, 2015), which was the basis for a popular series of historical documentaries with the same title, and Civil War Passions: 23 Questions and Answers about the Civil War (with Nikos Marantzidis, Metaixmio Publications, 2015). Metaixmio Publications has also released the books Where Are We and Where Are We Going? Navigating the Crisis (2009-2016) and Gazing into the Future (2016), The Greek Dream: A Conversation with Kostas Giannakidis on the Past and Future of Greece (2020). A few weeks ago, he released another book in collaboration with Natasa Triantafylli, Big Bang 1970-1973: The flourishing of culture during the years of dictatorship, which explores how a politically dark era was at the same time culturally vibrant and how this reality was misunderstood and silenced after 1974.

The event is part of the first cycle of public discussions entitled “They Are Greece Too – Discussions at the Athens Conservatory,” co-organized by The Books’ Journal magazine and the Athens Conservatory.