Angelika Hudler

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Academia

I am a PhD-student since November 2018 and conduct my project at the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (OeAW DOC-fellow 2020-2023). My supervisors are Univ.-Prof. Maria Stassinopoulou and ao. Univ.-Prof. Fritz Blakolmer.

Since my MA-studies in Classical Archaeology (University of Vienna, until 2018), my research focuses on the sociocultural reading of archaeological artifacts and activities from the perspective of reception studies. I am interested in the manifold meanings and functions archaeological material represents, from epistemic objects to national heritage, commodities or media of social practices. When participating in seminars on Greek history and antiquities policies in nineteenth-century Greece, I found these research fields to unite my interest in Greek culture and historical material studies. I consider artifacts, the heterogeneity and mutability of their use and meaning, important sources for the humanities.

Research interests: cultural history of archaeology in Greece, antiquities management (focus on the nineteenth century), object biographies, history of collections, historical biography

Current research project: My PhD project is called “Small Archaeological Artifacts as Witnesses of History: Collecting Activities in the Life of Athanasios S. Rousopoulos (1823-1898)”. I approach Athanasios Rousopoulos’ collecting of Greek antiquities from a biographical angle, both as the collector and his objects are concerned. Rousopoulos was a scholar of Archaeology and professor at the early Athens University whose business as dealer with Greek antiquities characterizes him as a controversial figure at a time when archaeological material was a central pillar of Greek nation building. Employing object biographies as the central method, I discuss archaeological artifacts as cultural artifacts of Rousopoulos’ biography, in his professional occupation as professor and art dealer as well as social attributes of his household.

My project was begun with six months of research in Athens (fellow of the ATHENS fellowship at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Athens), where I had the opportunity to study documents from the Historical Archives of the Archaeological Service, the Archaeological Museum at Athens and other institutions that were and are important bodies of Greek cultural heritage protection. In addition to these sources of antiquities’ administrative history, I work with Rousopoulos’ correspondence, museum inventories, as well as biographical material from family archives.

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