Announcing Dr. Andreas Avgousti as the 2019/2020 Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellow

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce that Dr. Andreas Avgousti has been selected as the 2019/2020 Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Avgousti studied political science at Columbia University, where he received his PhD in 2015 and holds a BSc (First Class) and an MSc (Merit) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Portland State University and has previously held the post of Lecturer in Core Curriculum at Columbia University.

During his time at the Centre, Dr. Avgousti will finalize his book manuscript, entitled Recovering Reputation: Plato and Demotic Power. Currently under review at Oxford University Press, the manuscript is an exercise in the history of political thought intended for those who are cynical about reputation and its democratic potential. It aims to show that reputation is worth thinking about by engaging with Plato, an author with whom we do not readily associate this concept. Dr. Avgousti's work on the ancient Greek concept of reputation extends beyond Plato, with a view to expanding our own ways of thinking about it. To that end he is writing two article-length pieces: "Constituting Reputation: A Study of Aristophanes’ 'Lysistrata' and 'Assembly-women'” and "Reputation as a Problem and Reputation’s Problems in Isocrates." These articles will continue to take shape during his time at the Centre.

Lastly, Dr. Avgousti is excited to be at the Centre during a formative time for his next book-length project in comparative political theory. The project examines how populist actors form their publics and respond to their judgment; its subjects are St. John Chrysostom, a prolific and charismatic orator from the Byzantine era, and Archbishop Makarios III, the postcolonial populist leader and first President of Cyprus.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Avgousti to the Centre’s intellectual community at Simon Fraser University in September.