Anchoring Athenian Democracy: Origins, Crises, Legacies

We are pleased to announce the MA/PhD course Anchoring Athenian Democracy: Origins, Crises, Legacies (Spring 2026), which offers an in-depth, interdisciplinary exploration of ancient Athenian democracy as a historically embedded and continually re-evaluated political system. The course is a collaboration between Oikos, Anchoring Innovation and the Dutch Institute in Athens. Combining theoretical reflection with close engagement with literary, epigraphic, and material evidence—and culminating in an excursion to Athens—the course examines the democratic experiment from its archaic origins through moments of crisis to its long and contested afterlives. In connection with the course, three expert meetings will be organised during the year, open to all OIKOS members, bringing together leading scholars from the Netherlands and abroad to discuss Athenian democracy and its legacies in later political thought and practice.

Please see the course manual for more information.