From July 1–7, 2024, the 48th International Byron Conference of the International Association of Byron Societies was held in Athens and Messolonghi, under the title “Lord Byron: The Pilgrim of Eternity.” The conference was organized by the Byron Society of the Holy City of Mesolonghi and was held under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture. More than 100 participants and 67 speakers from 48 universities in Europe, Canada, the U.S., South America, South Africa, the Middle East, and Asia took part in the conference.

On July 4, the administrator of the “Philhellenes of History” page, Giorgos Giannikos, presented his research as a speaker under the title: “The Death of Lord Byron in the English-Language Press of Canada in 1824.” This study examined how English-language Canadian newspapers covered the death and burial of Lord Byron, as well as how the event was linked to the revolutionary events taking place in Greece at that time.

This school year, the “Philhellenes of History” continued their educational visits to schools and their presentations on the theme of philhellenism during the 1821 Revolution.

On Friday, June 15, 2024, teacher and website administrator Giorgos Giannikos visited the Children’s Creative Activities Center (KDAP) at the 21st Elementary School of Kalamata and presented the “Philhellenes of 1821” program. The students learned about important philhellenic figures and interesting aspects of the philhellenic movement during the years of the Revolution. After the end of the presentation, it was time for arts and crafts! The children crafted and painted their own paper “Philhellenic plate,” modeled after 19th-century philhellenic ceramics.

On Monday, 19 June 2023, an interesting educational seminar was held in the event hall of the 8th Kalamata School District, attended by approximately 300 teachers. The seminar was titled: “Best Practices – Methodological Approaches & School Activities for the 2022–2023 School Year.” The workshop was organized as part of a series of planned feedback-oriented activities by the elementary schools of the 2nd Unit of the Regional Education Directorate of Messinia, and was organized by the Education Advisor for that Unit, Mr. Michael Polychronopoulos.

One of the presentations was titled: “Creating a Blog—The Philhellenic Movement During the Years of the Revolution,” presented by Giorgos Giannikos, a teacher and the head of our website’s writing team. The topic of the presentation was a lesson taught to sixth-grade students at the 1st Elementary School of Western Mani on the subject of Philhellenism during the 1821 Revolution. The speaker also discussed how a website with historical content can serve as a source of information and presented teaching suggestions for further educational use of the topic of philhellenism.

On Thursday, 1st June 2023, the “Philhellenes of History” visited the facilities of the Kalamata Public Vocational Training Institute (IEK) as part of a presentation on Philhellenism from the past to the present.

Students from the “Museum and Archaeological Site Guards” and “Hospitality Management” had the opportunity to learn about interesting aspects of the Philhellenic movement, with a focus on the years of the Greek Revolution of 1821. Reference was also made to the present day, highlighting “traces” of Philhellenes in modern Greece and around the world, such as Philhellenic landmarks, artifacts, and more. The presentation was given by Giorgos Giannikos, a member of our website’s writing team.

Warm thanks to Ms. Irini Pyromali, a professor at the Kalamata Vocational Training Institute (D.I.E.K.), as well as to the administration of the Institute for the invitation and their cooperation.

On Thursday, 25 May 2023, the sixth-grade students of the 1st Elementary School of Western Mani attended a lesson on Philhellenism and the Greek Revolution of 1821. The students learned about both well-known and unknown figures of the philhellenic movement who were active during the Greek War of Independence, as well as interesting aspects of the philhellenism in the first half of the 19th century.

The presentation was given by the school’s teacher and member of our website’s writing team, Giorgos Giannikos. Warm thanks to the school’s principal, Ms. Athanasia Katsika, for her cooperation and initiative.

From 15 to 17 March 2023, the National Library of Greece at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation hosted the international conference “Philhellenism and the Greek Revolution of 1821: Toward a Global History.” The conference was organized by the British School at Athens (BSA) in collaboration with the National Library of Greece (NLG).

The administrator of our website, Giorgos Giannikos, participated as a speaker, presenting a paper titled: “The Greek Revolution and the African American Press: The Philhellenic Stance of the Newspaper ‘Freedom’s Journal’.” The talk took place on 15 March 2023 and outlined how the African American newspaper covered the revolutionary events in Greece between 1827 and 1829, as well as how its philhellenic stance was expressed.