Sports Society and Culture: Exploring Excellence

Fourth International Scholars’ Symposium
July 6–July 9, 2015
Ancient Olympia, Greece

The International Olympic Academy (IOA), in cooperation with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS), is organizing the Fourth International Scholars’ Symposium on “Sports, Society, and Culture” in Ancient Olympia, July 6–9, 2015. As in the past years, the Symposium will host scholars from around the world and bring together more than a hundred students and professors from Greek and American Universities.

Topic

Building on some of the themes that were developed in the previous years, the specific topic of the 2015 Symposium is “Exploring Excellence.” Its purpose is to explore the notion of excellence as it was experienced in the ancient and the modern Olympic tradition and life.

Structure

Rather than placing emphasis on lectures, this year’s Symposium will be based on innovative educational methods such as blended learning and student workshops. Students will have access to a set of core readings and presentation abstracts in advance of the Symposium. Presentations will be short, and followed by workshops during which the students will have the opportunity to discuss the readings and reflect on the themes of the presentations in small groups. Click here to view the program of the Symposium and read the abstracts of the presentations.

Faculty

This year’s Symposium faculty will include Gregory Nagy (Harvard University and CHS), Ewen Bowie (Oxford University), Ioannis Petropoulos (Democritus University of Thrace and CHS), Lucia Athanassaki (University of Crete), Stamatia Dova (Hellenic College, Holly Cross and CHS), Paul Christesen (Dartmouth College), Charles Stocking (University of Western Ontario and CHS), Janice Forsyth (University of Western Ontario).

Participants

The Symposium will accept up to 85 student participants and is addressed only to students from the following Departments:

A/A	University	School	Department
1	National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	Law	Law
2	National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	Philosophy	History and Archaeology
3	National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	Philosophy	Philology
4	National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	Physical Education and Sport Science	Physical Education and Sport Science
5	Panteion University of Social and Political Science		International, European and Area Studies
6	Panteion University of Social and Political Science		Political Science and History
7	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	Philosophy	Philology
8	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	Law	Law
9	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	Philosophy	History and Archaeology
10	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	Physical Education and Sport Sciences	Physical Education and Sports Science
11	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	Physical Education and Sport Sciences	Physical Education and Sports Science in Serres
12	University of Crete	Philosophy	History and Archaeology
13	University of Crete	Philosophy	Philology
14	University of Crete	Philosophy	Philosophy and Social Studies
15	University of Crete	Social Sciences	Political Science
16	University of Peloponnese	Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences	Sports Organization and Management
17	University of Peloponnese	Humanities and Culture Studies	History, Archaeology and Cultural Resources Management
18	University of Peloponnese	Humanities and Culture Studies	Philology
19	University of Patras	Humanities and Social Sciences	Philosophy
20	University of Patras	Humanities and Social Sciences	Philology
21	Democritus University of Thrace	Classics and Humanities Studies	Greek Philology
22	Democritus University of Thrace	Classics and Humanities Studies	History and Ethnology
23	Democritus University of Thrace	Physical Education & Sports Science	Physical Education & Sport Sciences
24	Democritus University of Thrace	Law	Law
25	American College of Greece
26	Mediterranean College
27	Ionian University		History
28	University of Ioannina	Philosophy	Philology
29	University of Ioannina	Philosophy	History and Archaeology

*** Please note that the Symposium is open to up to 85 undergraduate students who are in their senior year of studies (4th year and above), as well as postgraduate students (Masters and PhD students) of the same collaborative departments.

Participation and Logistics

The International Olympic Academy will facilitate the transportation of the participants by bus from Athens to Olympia on Monday July 6 and from Olympia to Athens on Thursday July 9.

Accommodation (double room) and meals (Breakfast, Lunch) on the IOA premises will also be offered by the International Olympic Academy.

This is a non-fee-based event, and the participants will be given certificates of attendance during the closing ceremony of the Symposium.

Online Application and Contact Information

The application is now closed.

The deadline for all submissions was Monday, May 25, 2015.

Once you have completed your application, the organizers of the Symposium may contact your referees by Friday, May 29, 2015.

Selections will be made by June 12. The selected participants will receive acceptance messages via email.

For more information please contact IOA Academic Programs Coordinator, Mr. Panagiotis Trikaliotis – email: p.trikaliotis@ioa.org.gr & phone: 210 6878810 (Monday to Friday: 9:30am to 2:30pm) and/or CHS Programs Assistant, Ms. Christina Lafi – email: clafi@chs.harvard.edu.

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