Program: Arizona in the Aegean is a newly-established summer study-abroad program based on the Greek island of Paros in the Cyclades, an archipelago of over 20 islands in the Aegean Sea. Throughout history, the inhabitants of the Cyclades have transformed their environmental resources (e.g., sun, wind, water, soil, clay, marble, obsidian, and emery) into powerful machinery or symbolically charged works of art. Laden with the history of nine millennia, the Cyclades have seen a succession of civilizations, including those of the Minoans, Greeks, Romans, Venetians, Byzantines, and Ottomans. Throughout the centuries, the Cyclades have been the homes of traders, farmers, artisans, poets, and pirates who capitalized on abundance and strategized against scarcity. Dr. Eleni Hasaki, Associate Professor of Classics in the School of Anthropology and Classics Department is the director of the Arizona in the Aegean.

Mission: In antiquity, maritime routes connected the Cycladic islands to each other and to other parts of the Mediterranean. The Arizona in the Aegean Program maintains this strong sense of connectivity through interdisciplinary studies of both ancient and modern societies. By providing an intellectual home for faculty from various disciplines including Anthropology, Architecture, Art, Classics, Economics, Engineering, Geology, and History, The Arizona in the Aegean program aims to offer a dynamic interdisciplinary curriculum which will invite students to explore the connectivity between periods, cultures, and disciplines.Students from the above disciplines—and a host of others—will find the program meaningful as they explore the connections between periods, cultures, and disciplines.

Windmill at Paroikia Port, Paros

Curriculum: In Summer 2012 the course ANTH 341/CLAS 341, “Mediterranean Craft Technologies and Environmental Strategies: Past and Present” will be offered (6 credits). It is an intensive 4-week course (June 3-30, 2012), taught in English. Most weekends are free. Syllabus available upon request. Students will visit ancient production sites, such as marble quarries and pottery workshops, and study how ancient and modern craftspeople transform their natural resources into works of art in the archaeological museum of Paros. Through interviews with the active community of traditional craftspeople on Paros student will also realize how toolkits and techniques have changed little since antiquity. Interviews with farmers and fishermen and visits to folklore museums on the island will invite students to critically compare ancient and modern environmental strategies. This immersive learning with scholarship, hands-on replication projects, and interviews with craft practitioners will equip the students with unique experiences and critical skills that can be used most beneficially for the study of ancient and modern societies, their technologies, and economies in the Mediterranean and beyond.The required textbook for the course is Oleson, J. P. (ed.) 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, Oxford; an online library of articles as pdfs will also be available.

Location: Paroikia (Paros) and fieldtrips to neighboring Cycladic islands. Due to the nature of the course, most of our time will be spent outdoors on Paros itself and on neighboring islands (e.g., Naxos, Delos, Santorini, Siphnos). Famous in antiquity for its marble and honey, modern Paros retains many of its traditional roots, making it an ideal setting for a diachronic exploration of key archaeological and anthropological questions about how humans utilize environmental resources and cope with and challenges. The island vibrates with cultural and intellectual events during the summer. Paros has a vibrant cultural community with lectures, conferences, art shows taking place during the summer.

Professor Eleni Hasaki at Despotiko Excavations, Paros

Faculty: Dr. Eleni Hasaki  (a native Greek) will teach the inaugural course in June 2012. She is a Mediterranean archaeologist who studies the craft technologies of classical antiquity, the spatial organization of workshops, craft apprenticeship, and the negotiation of social status through industries. She has been conducting research and fieldwork on Paros for over ten years. She has extensive experience teaching and leading study abroad programs. More recently, in 2009, as the Gertrude Smith Professor, she co-directed the prestigious and rigorous Summer Study Program of the American Classical Studies at Athens. Faculty who work in the Cyclades or nearby areas, will be invited to participate as guest-speakers enriching thus the curriculum.

Accommodations: While on Paros, students will be housed in double-occupancy hotel rooms in a family-managed hotel “Aegeon”, ca. 300m from a bathing beach at Paroikia. The hotel is ideally located close to restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, banks, and bookstores. The hotel manager Mr. Efthimios Kydonieos is a local Parian who proudly promotes his island and his country to hosts of tourists for over 30 years. Watch his welcoming video. For more views of the hotel, the rooms, the common areas and the swimming pool, click here. 

Meals: Breakfasts and partial meals (both prepared and served at the Hotel) during the week are included in the program fees.

Finances: Information about program costs, financial aid and study abroad scholarships can be found at UA Study Abroad. Select List of Grants:

Eligibility and Application: University of Arizona and non-University of Arizona students, with a minimum GPA of 2.5, are encouraged to apply. Please apply online. Deadline: February 15, 2012

University of Arizona Sponsors: School of Anthropology; Department of Classics; Study Abroad & Student Exchange

Useful Links: parosweb. 

Information: Please contact Dr. Eleni Hasaki. Dr. Hasaki will also attend the APA/AIA Annual Meeting held at Philadelphia from January 5-8, if any students would like to schedule a meeting.