Notes From The Border: Refugee Lives and Necropolitics In The Aegean, August-November 2015

In August 2015 Katerina Stefatos and Dimitris Papadopoulos spent a few weeks (August 4-20) on the Greek island of Lesvos in what was initially planned as a trip to visit family and friends. Their trip quickly morphed into an impromptu ethnographic fieldwork at the three main refugee camps in Mytilini, the island’s major town. This paper is based on some first ethnographic notes from the field drawing on interviews and discussions with refugees, locals, and volunteers at these camps in an attempt to unfold the refugees’ tumultuous and often deadly journey to an imagined Europe but also to explore the political tensions and contestations within the local community against the background of a parallel Greek financial and socio-political crisis. Chloe Howe Haralambous spent her summer (June to August) on Lesvos, primarily in the north-east part of the island (at Kleió, Tsónia, Sykaminiá, Mólyvos), working closely with refugees, volunteers, NGOs, and helping organizing makeshift dwellings for the refugees or coordinating their transfer to medical centers and to the port of Mytilini. The text has been updated based on recent developments on the island and our ongoing personal communication with some of the refugees, volunteers and locals

Engendering the nation: women, state oppression and political violence in post-war Greece (1946-1974)

The PhD thesis: Engendering the Nation: Women, state oppression and political violence in post-war Greece (1946-1974), addresses the gendered characteristics of political violence during the 1946-1974 period in Greece. The phenomenon of political violence and state oppression against politically active women is analysed through the prism of nationalist ideology, both as a legitimising mechanism for the continuation of abuse and terrorisation, but also as a vehicle for re-appropriating gender roles, power hierarchies, sexual stereotypes and social norms. Research focuses on (1) the gender-specific ways women were persecuted, incarcerated and abused and the causes of this gender-based violence; (2) the ways in which the nationalist, official discourse made use of gender characteristics in order to enact this type of abuse and oppression. Accordingly, the phenomenon of political violence against women dissidents is examined through the main analytical categories of gender and nationalism. This thesis provides a history and analysis of political violence against women in the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the period of weak democracy (1950-1967) and the military dictatorship (1967-1974), respectively. The overall aim of the research is to bring forward the downplayed gendered characteristics of state-perpetuated violence and repression, and analyse them within the nationalist ideology and the ascribed traditional gender roles through which the oppressive mechanisms were institutionalised and authorised. In this respect, the experience of women as political detainees is reconstructed through an analysis of the sites and practices of political violence, terror and torture as operated and implemented by the state and its agents. PhD research draws on gender studies and discourse analysis and seeks to situate the Greek case within a feminist critique that emphasises the politics of gender and the dominant discourse of nationalism

Geometry and slip rate of the Aigion fault, a young normal fault system in the western Gulf of Corinth

The Aigion fault is one of the youngest major normal faults in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, with an immature displacement profile. Based on geometry, slip rate and comparison with regional faults, we estimate the fault system length at ~10 km. We find the slip rate of the fault system is ~3.5 ± 1 mm/yr decreasing to ~2.5 ± 0.7 mm/yr close to its eastern tip. Complex fault geometry and displacement profiles on the shelf east of Aigion are consistent with the latter as the eastern tip location. Analysis of slip on this fault system and the established fault to the south (Western Eliki Fault) suggests that slip was transferred rapidly but not homogeneously between the two faults during the period of contemporaneous activity. Together with a lack of evidence of lateral propagation at the eastern fault tip in the last 10–13 k.y., we suggest that the fault developed and established its current length rapidly, within its 200–300 k.y. history. These results contribute to our understanding of the process of northward fault migration into the rift and the development of new normal faults

New 234U-230Th coral dates from the western Gulf of Corinth: Implications for extensional tectonics

We derive rates of uplift of ∼0.7–0.8 mm/yr for the western end of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, using geomorphic paleaoshoreline modeling. We calibrate the modeling with new 234U-230Th dates on the coral Cladocora caespitosa collected from raised marine terraces uplifted in the footwall of the active Psathopyrgos fault, the only major active normal fault, reported on published maps controlling the downthrown Rio Straits at the western end of the Gulf of Corinth. In this area of high (15–22 mm/yr) extension rates measured with GPS, the ratio of uplift-rate to extensional velocity is 0.025–0.035, much lower than values of 0.15–0.25 found further east in the gulf. These low values imply that if GPS extension rates are correct then mechanical/kinematic models developed for the eastern and central gulf may not be applicable to the western gulf

Rapid spatiotemporal variations in rift structure during development of the Corinth Rift, central Greece

The Corinth Rift, central Greece, enables analysis of early rift development as it is young (<5Ma) and highly active and its full history is recorded at high resolution by sedimentary systems. A complete compilation of marine geophysical data, complemented by onshore data, is used to develop a high-resolution chronostratigraphy and detailed fault history for the offshore Corinth Rift, integrating interpretations and reconciling previous discrepancies. Rift migration and localization of deformation have been significant within the rift since inception. Over the last circa 2Myr the rift transitioned from a spatially complex rift to a uniform asymmetric rift, but this transition did not occur synchronously along strike. Isochore maps at circa 100kyr intervals illustrate a change in fault polarity within the short interval circa 620-340ka, characterized by progressive transfer of activity from major south dipping faults to north dipping faults and southward migration of discrete depocenters at ~30m/kyr. Since circa 340ka there has been localization and linkage of the dominant north dipping border fault system along the southern rift margin, demonstrated by lateral growth of discrete depocenters at ~40m/kyr. A single central depocenter formed by circa 130ka, indicating full fault linkage. These results indicate that rift localization is progressive (not instantaneous) and can be synchronous once a rift border fault system is established. This study illustrates that development processes within young rifts occur at 100kyr timescales, including rapid changes in rift symmetry and growth and linkage of major rift faults