The Balkans in the Cold War (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan: 2016) co-edited with Svetozar Rajak, Konstantina Botsiou & Evanthis Hatzivassiliou

Positioned on the fault line between two competing Cold War ideological and military alliances, and entangled in ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, the Balkan region offers a particularly interesting case for the study of the global Cold War system. This book explores the origins, unfolding and impact of the Cold War on the Balkans on the one hand, and the importance of regional realities and pressures on the other.  Fifteen contributors from history, international relations, and political science address a series of complex issues rarely covered in one volume, namely the Balkans and the creation of the Cold War order; Military alliances and the Balkans; uneasy relations with the Superpowers; Balkan dilemmas in the 1970s and 1980s and the 'significant other' – the EEC; and identity, culture and ideology. The book’s particular contribution to the scholarship of the Cold War is that it draws on extensive multi-archival research of both regional and American, ex-Soviet and Western European archives.

Greece, the EEC and the Cold War, 1974-1979. The Second Enlargement (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan: 2014)

Greece, the EEC and the Cold War, 1974-1979 explores the history of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the turbulent decade of the 1970s and especially the Community's response to the fall of the Greek dictatorship and the country's application for EEC membership. The thesis constitutes the first multi-archival study on the second enlargement of the EEC, drawing in fact on British, French, German, Irish, American, EEC and Greek archives. Thanks to its novel Community-centred approach, Eirini Karamouzi's work reveals the rationale behind the Nine's acceptance of the Greek application and details the dynamics of the accession negotiations in the evolving environment of detente and the rise of the Left in Southern Europe.

Taking you from the height of the Roman Empire to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, this module is an introduction to the dominant narrative of History, from a European perspective (though the module ventures widely beyond Europe when appropriate). Each lecture looks at a particular historical 'turning point', while the weekly seminar takes a more thematic approach, tackling historical notions such as revolutions, progress, globalisation and renaissance. By the end of the module, you'll have a sense of the broad sweep of History, fascinating in itself but particularly useful for single and dual honours students as preparation for more detailed study at Levels II and III. You will also have an appreciation of the importance of periodisation (how historians divide up time), and the problematic concept of modernity. This module is explicitly intended to aid with the transition to the study of History at University.

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This course looks back at key developments in the political, social and cultural history of the twentieth century. Its aim is to broaden students' views of twentieth-century history by highlighting the ways in which barbarism and civilising forces went hand in hand in forging twentieth-century history. Rather than proceeding purely chronologically, this module focuses on a series of key themes that have shaped twentieth-century history, such as, for example, globalisation and fragmentation; revolutions; the political, social and cultural history of war; and democracy and mass politics. Each topic is introduced by a series of four lectures given by a subject specialist. An accompanying seminar programme allows for the in-depth discussion of specific issues and case studies.

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This module examines the changing patterns of politics, society and culture in Europe from the end of the Second World War to the student protests of 1968, introducing students to the study of the contemporary period as well as providing an overview of European history in this crucial period. We will examine the similarities and differences between political, social and cultural developments in different nations in the post-war world, examining how life in these societies came to be framed by the memory of the Second World War as well as by the realities of the Cold War. The module looks at the establishment of peace in Europe and how this came to be defined by affluence, at least in the west. We will also examine the changing nature of politics and society during the 1950s and 60s, culminating in pivotal year, 1968.

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The end of the Cold War has generated voluminous academic literature within the ever expanding and multifaceted historical research on the study of the Cold War era. Whether or not one sees it as the result of US pressure, Soviet economic decline, Gorbachev’s new thinking, the end of the Cold War still captures the academic and public interest. Based upon a wealthy variety of primary sources recently released and for its most part digitalized and/or published, this course will explore why and how in the second half of the 1980s the apparently secure world transformed itself into the sudden, rapid and relatively peaceful breakdown of Eastern European communism, then German unification and ultimately the end of the USSR and its empire.. Ultimately, the course asks the students to consider the meaning and significance of the end of the Cold War for world history. Was 1989-91 an epochal moment? Did it represent a triumph for the West, for liberal capitalism, or for democracy? The course also explores the possibilities and difficulties of writing about very recent events: can we think historically about processes and developments, which are still ongoing? The discussion in each seminar will draw on a combination of primary and secondary material.

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What is Cold War? How many of the post-war conflicts and tensions did it encompass? Should we approach it as a global conflict, a bipolar rivalry, a struggle for Europe and the Third World? Conceptualizations of the Cold War and historical investigations of its dynamics have substantially changed over time. How is the Cold War understood in an expanding and diversifying historiographical field? New critical approaches question its nature, scope, reach and implications. Conceptual precision and specificity seem to be giving way to a wider understanding of the Cold War as an era that encompassed different and at the same time interconnected conflicts and transformations. Today we study it not so much as an ideological and security issue but rather as a crossroad of cultural, transnational, local and global perspectives. As a result, its definition has grown more elusive and contested while historical research has become increasingly multifaceted.

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ThinkCreate is a core compulsory module for all Level 1 students. It gives first-year Arts and Humanities students the opportunity to engage with questions and problems that are of relevance to their own disciplines of study and the world around us.

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