Anastasia Karakasidou ( el, Αναστασία Καρακασίδου) is an American scholar. Her expertise is archeology and anthropology. She is currently appointed as professor of Anthropology at the

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

Early life

Karakasidou was born on 7 September 1956 in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

, Greece. Her father was a

Karamanlides The Karamanlides ( el, Καραμανλήδες; tr, Karamanlılar), also known as Karamanli Greeks or simply Karamanlis, are a traditionally Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia. The ...

refugee from

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...

, and her mother was a native Greek from Thessaloniki.

Career

In 1975, Anastasia Karakasidou began her studies in chemistry and later, in archeology and anthropology at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She participated in an ethno-archaeological study of the Langadas area at the Archaeological Department of

Thessaloniki University Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region o ...

. In 1992, she graduated from

, where she holds a Ph.D. and in 1993 she was active as a scholar at the

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. She was also a lecturer in the State University of New York.

Studies

Between 1990 and 1991, she conducted studies on the Slavic-speaking population in the area of Northern Greece with title: "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood. Passages to nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870 - 1970"., the publication of which were met with criticism in Greece, which at that period, was at odds with the neighboring Republic of Macedonia (now

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

) due to the

Macedonia naming dispute The use of the country name "Macedonia (terminology), Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the North Macedonia, Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Balkans#W ...

. Additionally, Karakasidou and her family received threats for their lives by nationalist Greek circles and was even warned by the British

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

for her safety. Due to the negative reactions it received and fears for reprisal on the staff, its publication was cancelled by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

and was published by the Chicago University instead. Outside the United States, the book was also published in 2002 in the then Republic of Macedonia and, in 2008, in Bulgaria. Her survey of the Florina region was published in 2002.Karakasidou, Anastasia. Cultural illegitimacy in Greece: The Slavo-Macedonian "non-minority", in: Minorities in Greece: Aspects of Plural Society, HURST & COMPANY, LONDON. 2002, pp. 122-164

Notes

External links

Karakasidou's biography on Wellesley College's site.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karakasidou, Anastasia 1956 births Greek emigrants to the United States Living people