Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy is a multi-year project that aims to explore and bring awareness to the rich, complex, and remarkable historical and cultural heritage of Mount Athos in Greece, and its connection to Princeton. The project has available a month-remote research opportunity.

In 1929 a group of three men, including Princeton alumnus and architect Gordon McCormick ’17, traveled to Mount Athos on an expedition “to obtain cinematographic and pictorial record of life and architecture of ancient monasteries.” A 33-minute film, a rare and early cinematic documentation of Mount Athos, and 336 photographs are what survive from that journey. They were discovered late in 2017 in the Visual Resources Collection, in the Department of Art & Archaeology. The project was titled “No Woman’s Land” and was aimed at conveying images from the “strange” world of Mt Athos which was (and continues to be) inaccessible to women. The successful applicant will have access to the entire collection, including the film, prints, and lantern slides.

We will offer a remote research opportunity centered on the 1929 expedition in spring/summer 2024. This could focus on the travelers’ connection to Thessaloniki, analyze the film as an example of early Hollywood salvage ethnography or expand on the significance of expeditions to Mount Athos in the twentieth century. The successful candidate should hold a PhD or be in the late stages of completion (ABD) and have a background in art history, history or film studies. This opportunity offers a stipend of $2,500 and has been generously funded by the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, with the support of the Dimitrios and Kalliopi Monoyios Modern Greek Studies Fund and Art & Archaeology Department at Princeton University.