Conference Highlights Columbia Partnerships and Opportunities in Greece

The May 2026 conference — "Rethinking Area Studies, the Disciplines, and the Policy Sciences for the Twenty-First Century: China, Russia, and Transatlantic Perspectives" — brought together scholars from Columbia and Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, which is partnering with Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute on a dual master's degree that is the first of its kind in Greece.

Panteion has a long tradition of excellence in international relations, political science, sociology, and European studies. Konstantinos Tsimonis, assistant professor in Chinese politics and academic lead of the Institute of International Relations China Program, has been instrumental in building Panteion's expertise in East Asian studies and in laying the academic groundwork for the dual degree collaboration with Columbia. 

Following opening remarks at the conference from Stathis Gourgouris, professor of classics, English, and comparative literature and director of Columbia's Program of Hellenic Studies, Athens Center Director Stefanos Gandolfo discussed the value and ambitions on the collaboration, which combines Columbia's M.Sc. in Global China with Panteion's M.A. in Regional Studies: East Asia.

Scholarly Discussion on Teaching Human Rights 

The conversation on human rights featured insights from an exceptional collection of academics, including Alex Cooley, Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, and chair of the Athens Center's Faculty Advisory Committee, who chaired the discussion.

The panel included Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia, and Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations at Columbia — two of the University's most distinguished voices on political authority and global order. Eugenia Lean, professor of Chinese history and vice provost for faculty affairs at Columbia, discussed differences in how American and European institutions have traditionally studied China, and what a renewed area studies might look like in practice.

Asking the Important Questions in Area Studies

Zoe Zongyuan Liu, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, brought her expertise in Chinese political economy to multiple sessions at the conference, including a roundtable on professional pathways and the session on what new area studies should look like. Stefanos Gandolfo also participated as a lead speaker on designing graduate training for an era of global risk — the very challenge that the Columbia-Panteion dual degree is built to address. 

Andreas Gofas, professor of international relations and director of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, delivered a thought-provoking and strikingly original intervention that challenged participants to step back and examine the very analytical lenses through which we study and interpret these critical regions of the world. His remarks were a reminder that the most important questions in area studies are not only about China and Russia, but about the assumptions, frameworks, and blind spots we bring to them — a fitting provocation for a conference committed to rethinking the field from the ground up.

The conference was a vivid expression of the Athens Center's core mission to build lasting, multilevel, and intellectually substantive connections between Columbia University and the Greek academic community. Deep collaboration of this kind — spanning joint research, curriculum development, student training, and public scholarly exchange — is built over many years, through sustained trust between institutions and individuals, and through a shared conviction that scholarship is enriched when it crosses borders. The dual degree between Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Panteion stands as a model for what transatlantic academic cooperation at its best can achieve, and the Athens Center is proud to have played a central role in nurturing it.