Our research
Discovering the Hellenic world within and beyond Greece
The AAIA supports research on Greece and the Hellenic world from antiquity to the modern day across a range of arts and humanities disciplines.
We facilitate permit applications for our members to undertake archaeological fieldwork and museum collection study, acting as the formal liaison with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. Permits for archaeological fieldwork are issued to the AAIA, not individual members or their institutions.
If you are interested in developing a fieldwork project (excavation or survey), please contact the Director and the Archaeological Research Facilitator in the first instance. For permits to undertake study in a museum, please contact the Archaeological Research Facilitator directly.
We offer fellowships, scholarships, and bursaries for Australian university students, early career researchers, and established scholars. These are provided through our institutional members, regional Friends groups, and the AAIA.
For opportunities offered by institutional members and Friends groups, please refer to their individual listings. For funding provided directly through the AAIA, see below:
Through our Athens centre, Australia-based researchers can apply for any ERC scheme as the lead researcher (Principal Investigator, or PI, in ERC terminology). This includes the Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants.
The project must also fit into one of the AAIA’s research themes and be oriented towards the Arts and Humanities.
A condition of every ERC grant is that the PI must spend at least 50% of their time within Europe for the duration of the project.
To meet these and additional ERC requirements, the PI must be employed directly by the AAIA-A for the % of time the PI plans to be in Europe to undertake the project. The AAIA-A must also manage the financial and administrative aspects of the project. These are ERC conditions.
Funding can be used to undertake project-related work in Australia, but only where the Australian institution acts as a Beneficiary Institution as part of the ERC project. For example, this could be to employ an Australian specialist for two months for a discrete aspect of the project or to undertake laboratory analyses at an Australian university.
For further information, please see the slideshow from our September 2024 EURAXESS-hosted AAIA-ERC information session.
In addition, we have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questionsabout this unique opportunity for Australian-based researchers.
You are also encouraged to watch the on the Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant schemes to learn more about them.
If you are interested in applying for ERC funding through the AAIA or have further questions, please contact .
The AAIA Higher Degree by Research Fellowship supports students to spend time in Athens (or elsewhere) to pursue their dissertation research.
The Fellowship provides $2500 for travel expenses and up to twelve consecutive weeks of accommodation in the AAIA Hostel in Athens without charge.
The Fellowship must be undertaken in its entirety between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
The closing date for applications is 31 October 2024.
Please submit all applications to: arts.aaia@sydney.edu.au
HDR Application Form
HDR Application Guidelines
HDR Terms & Conditions
This Scholarship, generously funded by Mr Nikolaos Galatis, is open to students enrolled full-time in a Masters by Research or PhD degree at any Australian university that is an institutional member of the AAIA.
It is open to research across all fields of Greek Studies up to 1453 AD.
The Scholarship provides $3000 for travel and accommodation to Greece and/or neighbouring countries where there is material or sites relevant to the applicant’s research.
The Scholarship must be undertaken in its entirety between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
The closing date for applications is 31 October 2024.
Please submit all applications to: arts.aaia@sydney.edu.au
Kallinikos Notes for Applicants
Kallinikos Terms and Conditions
Sustainable Environments takes a broad view of what an environment might be (e.g. the natural environment, the built environment, or even a linguistic environment) to emphasise how our understandings of these environments in the past can encourage sustainable practices today.
Decentred Narratives seeks to ensure better representation of social and cultural groups beyond the classes and societies that have hitherto dominated our understanding of the past.
Migrations and Mobilities considers the experiences of those who moved and settled elsewhere in the past and the long-term impacts of such activities on cultural practices.
Conflicts and Reconciliations examines the experiences of conflict and legacies of war on individual and group levels from across a range of disciplines.
Intangible Experiences brings to the fore non-material features of the lived experience to create a more enriched understanding of what it was like to live in the past.
Directors: Dr Dimitrios Athanasoulis (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades); Dr Emlyn Dodd (Institute of Classical Studies, UK).
Directors: Dr Panagiota Kasimi (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Corinthia); Dr Susan Lupack (Macquarie University).
Directors: Dr Lesley Beaumont (University of Sydney); Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA; University of Sydney); Dr Paul Donnelly (University of Sydney).
Originally excavated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Andros island site of Zagora is famous for its well-preserved Early Iron Age settlement. These renewed excavations use cutting edge methodologies to better understand the site’s manufacturing and processing activities, hydrological infrastructure, and animal husbandry practices.
Directors: Professor Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University, USA), Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA; University of Sydney), and Dr Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory (AAIA).
The Australian Paliochora-Kythera Archaeological Survey (APKAS) investigates the diachronic development of the cultural landscape of northern Kythera from prehistoric times to the present. The project utilises surface survey, historical/archival sources and anthropological methods to address questions relating to site location, settlement patterns, and factors influencing occupation and site abandonment.
Directors: Associate Professor Tom Hillard (Macquarie University); Associate Professor Lea Beness (Macquarie University); Dr Richard Jones (University of Glasgow).
Directors: Dr Craig Barker (University of Sydney). Senior team led by Emeritus Professor J.R. Green (University of Sydney) and Dr Smadar Gabrieli (University of Western Australia).
Directors: Dr Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory (University of Sydney); Dr Konstantinos Trimmis (University of Bristol); Dr Konstantina Kalogirou (Cardiff MET University).
An AAIA collaboration with five European research institutions through an Erasmus+ Key Action 2 research grant to study mobility in South East Europe through object biographies.
Director: Professor Alexander Cambitoglou (AAIA; University of Sydney).
Prior to fieldwork, the Chalkidikian site of Torone was primarily known via ancient written sources as an Archaic-Classical polis, with some Hellenistic and later remains visible. These excavations extended its history back to the Final Neolithic and exposed Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Director: Professor Alexander Cambitoglou (AAIA; University of Sydney).
Zagora is located on the western coast of the island of Andros. These original excavations revealed a uniquely preserved Early Iron Age settlement. Evidence suggests it was occupied 900-700 BCE, although its sanctuary was visited well into the fifth century BCE. Two final publication volumes to date have been produced:
Cambitoglou, A., Coulton, J.J., Birmingham, J. and Green, J.R., Zagora 1. Excavation of a Geometric Town on the Island of Andros. Excavation Season 1967; Study Season 1968-1969, Athens, 1971.
Cambitoglou, A., Birchall, A., Coulton, J.J. and Green, J.R., Zagora 2. Excavation of a Geometric Town on the Island of Andros. Excavation Season 1969; Study Season 1969-1970, Athens, 1988.
Phone: +61 2 9351 4759
Email: arts.aaia@sydney.edu.au
Phone: +30 210 924 3256
Email: aaia@otenet.gr
Alexander Mazarakis Ainian, born in Athens in 1959. He studied History of Art and Archaeology at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and completed his PhD at the University of London (UCL) with a scholarship from the "A. Onassis" Public Benefit Foundation. He initially worked as an archaeologist at the Greek Ministry of Culture. He taught for eight years at the Department of History of the Ionian University and since 1999 he is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Thessaly. He served as head of the department, director of graduate studies, director of the Laboratory of Archaeology and of the Archaeological Collection of the Archaeology Dpt. Since 2017 he is the director of the University of Thessaly Press. He has taught at the postgraduate programs of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the National Technical University of Athens and as a Visiting Professor at Paris I/Panthéon-Sorbonne, at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and at UCL-Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) and continuously during the acad. years 2013-14 to 2015-16 in Paris IV-Sorbonne. He was awarded the prestigious “Chaire Internationale Blaise Pascal” for 2012 by the French state. He has directed several European and National Research Programs. His field projects include Skala Oropos and Vari in Attica, Kythnos in the Cyclades, Soros in Magnesia, Kefala on Skiathos. In 2004 he organized the archaeological exhibition "Archaeological Explorations" at the University of Thessaly. He organized 11 international conferences, as well as workshops. He has given numerous lectures and participated in congresses in Greece and abroad (Europe, USA and Canada). He has published several books and studies dealing with Early Iron Age Architecture in Greece, Homeric questions, and the results of his excavations, in Greek, English, French, German and Italian. He has also edited the volumes of the Proceedings of 11 International Conferences. He is a member of the scientific editorial boards of recognized scientific journals and publications, such as Hesperia, Pharos, Centre Camille Julien (Aix-Marseille). He is a member of the Archaeological Society at Athens, the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, ICOM-Greece etc. In 2016 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris and in 2024 received a honorary doctorate by Paris 1/Panthéon-Sorbonne. Please see the events and news page for dates.
