Yannis Hamilakis (, ; born 1966) is a Greek
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and writer who is the Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies at
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
. He specialises in archaeology of the prehistoric
Aegean as well as
historical archaeology
Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with places, things, and issues from the past or present when written records and oral traditions can inform and contextualize cultural material. These records can both complement and conflic ...
, including
ethnography
Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
and
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
. His research interests include
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
,
postcolonialism
Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...
, and
migration studies
Migration studies is the academic study of human migration. Migration studies is an interdisciplinary field which draws on anthropology, prehistory, history, economics, law, sociology and postcolonial studies.
Origin and development of migration ...
.
Career
Hamilakis was raised in
Sitia
Sitia (Latin language, Latin and Italian language, Italian) or Siteia (, ) is a port town and a municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece. The town has 11,166 inhabitants and the municipality has 20,438 (2021). It lies east of Agios Nikolaos, Cre ...
, a town in
Crete
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
. He received his BA in History and Archaeology from the
University of Crete
The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion.
There are 16 main undergraduate ...
in 1988, followed by an
MSc and PhD from the
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...
. From 2000–2016, he was Professor of Archaeology at the
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
. From 2012–2013, Hamilakis was a member of the Princeton
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
. He has also been a Fellow at the
American School of Classical Studies
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA; ) is one of 19 foreign archaeological institutes in Athens, Greece.
It is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). CAORC is a private not-for-profit federati ...
, Athens;
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
; the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
; and the
Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". , Los Angeles.
Hamilakis has published papers on a wide variety of topics in archaeology and beyond. His most recent work involves the excavation of a
Middle Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wi ...
tell site in central Greece, where he also hosts a range of art projects, including a theatre-archaeology program. He is a prominent advocate of combining ethnography, art, and community engagement in archaeological fieldwork, in the interest of "a politically committed archaeological and academic practice, devoted to social justice."
He has also written on the politics of pedagogy and his attempts to create a "border pedagogy" in his teaching.
Hamilakis has been involved in a number of excavations in Greece, including serving as a director at the field projects at
Koutroulou Magoula and
Kalaureia
Kalaureia () or Calauria or Kalavria () is an island close to the coast of Troezen in the Peloponnesus of mainland Greece, part of the modern island-pair Poros.
Strabo describes the coastwise journey along the Ermioni, Hermionic Gulf:
:The gulf b ...
. Hamilakis sits on the editorial boards of the
Annual Review of Anthropology
The ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' is an academic journal that publishes review articles of significant developments in anthropology and its subfields. First published by Stanford University Press in 1959 under the name the ''Biennial Review of ...
, the
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, the
Classical Receptions Journal, the
Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
, the Annual of the
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...
, the
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
The ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'' (JRAI) is the principal journal of the oldest anthropological organization in the world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Articles, at the forefront of the di ...
, Archaeologies: The Journal of the
World Archaeological Congress
The World Archaeological Congress (WAC) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization which promotes world archaeology. It is the only global archaeological organisation with elected representation.
Established in 1986, WAC holds an internat ...
,
Research in Archaeological Education, ''Current Swedish Archaeology'', ''Forum Kritische Archäologie'', the ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' and the WAC Research Handbooks in Archaeology. He has also contributed to non-scholarly publications including
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
and the
London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review of Book ...
. Hamilakis is the author of more than 130 articles and has authored, edited, or co-edited eleven books, including a 2007 volume entitled ''The Nation and its Ruins: Archaeology, Antiquity and National Imagination in Modern Greece'' which won the Edmund Keeley 2009 Book Prize, awarded by the
Modern Greek Studies Association, and was shortlisted for the 2007
Runciman Award
The Runciman Award is an annual literary award offered by the Anglo-Hellenic League for a work published in English dealing wholly or in part with Greece or Hellenism. On some years the prize has been awarded jointly and shared between two or mo ...
.
Selected publications
As author:
* ''The Nation and its Ruins: Archaeology, Antiquity and National Imagination in Modern Greece'', Oxford University Press, 2007. .
* ''Archaeology and the Senses: Human Experience, Memory, and Affect'', Cambridge University Press, 2013. .
* Hamilakis, Y. and Ifantidis, F. 2016. ''Camera Kalaureia: An Archaeological Photo-ethnography , Μια Αρχαιολογική Φωτο-Εθνογραφία'' Oxford: Archaeopress.
* Χαμηλάκης, Γ. 2012. ''Το Έθνος και τα Ερείπιά του. Αρχαιότητα, Αρχαιολογια, και Εθνικό Φαντασιακό στην Ελλάδα''. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις του Εικοστού Πρώτου (translated by Nektarios Kalantzis).
* Χαμηλάκης, Γ. 2015. ''Η Αρχαιολογία και οι Αισθήσεις. Βίωμα, Μνήμη, και Συν-κίνηση''. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις του Εικοστού Πρώτου (translated by Nikos Kourkoulos).
* Greenberg, R. and Hamilakis, Y. 2022. ''Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[Reviewed in: ]
As editor:
* Rainbird, P. and Hamilakis, Y. (eds) 2001 ''Interrogating Pedagogies: Archaeology in Higher Education''. Oxford: BAR/Archaeopress. Pp. 120 ().
* ''The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories'', Lexington Books, 2003. .
* ''Labyrinth Revisited: Rethinking Minoan Archaeology'', Oxbow, 2002. .
* ''Thinking Through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality'', Kluwer/Plenum, 2002. .
* Kotjabopoulou, E., Hamilakis, Halstead, P., Gamble, C., and Elefanti, V. (eds). 2003. ''Zooarchaeology in Greece: Recent Advances''. London: BSA. ().
* Hamilakis, Y. and Duke, P. (eds) 2007. ''Archaeology and Capitalism: From Ethics to Politics''. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
* Hamilakis, Y. and Labanyi, J. (eds) 2008. ''Remembering and Forgetting in Europe’s Southern Periphery''. Special Issue of the journal, History and Memory (vol. 20, issue 2).
* Carabott, P., Hamilakis, Y. and E. Papargyriou, E. (eds) 2015. ''Camera Graeca: Photographs, Narratives, Materialities.'' London: Ashgate.
* Hamilakis, Y. and Jones A. (eds) 2017 ''Archaeology and Assemblage'' (special thematic issue of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal vol. 27(1).
* Hamilakis, Y. (ed.). 2017
016
The Home Guard Special Division 016 (; abbreviated as HV-016) is a former military unit of Norway, that was a part of the Home Guard. It was established after 1985 to "stop terror- or sabotage actions that could weaken or paralyze Norway's abili ...
''Archaeologies of Forced and Undocumented Migration'' (Special, thematic issue of the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 3(2).
* Hamilakis, Y. and Momigliano, N. (eds) 2010. Α''ρχαιολογία και Ευρωπαϊκή Νεοτερικότητα. Παράγοντας και Καταναλώνοντας τους “Μινωίτες”''. Αθήνα. Εκδόσεις του Εικοστού Πρώτου (μτ. Νίκος Κούτρας).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilakis, Yannis
Living people
Brown University faculty
American archaeologists
Greek archaeologists
University of Crete alumni
Alumni of the University of Sheffield
1966 births
People from Sitia