Theodor Pelekanidis is a theorist of history and historian of the modern period. He has recently been a Post-doc visiting scholar and lecturer in the University of Oulu, where he has taught a course about the theoretical perspectives of the Holocaust historiography. Pelekanidis received his Ph.D. in history from the Humboldt University in Berlin in 2021, analyzing the implications of the postmodern theory in historiography, with a special focus on the Holocaust and genocide. He has completed MA degrees in modern Greek and global history and in political theory and philosophy (Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki). His work has appeared in Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History and Historein, and has been presented in numerous international conferences around the globe. At the moment two of his works are under publication: his monograph on the postmodern theory of history and the Holocaust historiography, as well as a translation in Greek of Hayden White’s selected texts.

The Anthropocene as a challenge to historical knowledge: How can historians deal with climate change

This research proposal is a continuation of previous running project titled “The Anthropocene as a challenge to historical knowledge: in what kind of event are we living?” (July-December 2021) with the support of the DAAD Post-doc Research Scholarship at the University of Oulu, Finland. The general title “The Anthropocene as a challenge to historical knowledge” can be seen as the title of a future book, while the subtitles are to be understood as the topics/names of the different chapters. Therefore, “In what kind of event are we living?” is going to be the topic of the first chapter, and “How can historians deal with climate change?” is the topic of the second. In the first running proposal, I am investigating the qualities of what has been proposed as the new geological epoch of the “Anthropocene” and what they mean for our historical understanding in matters of both time and space. In the second research proposal developed in the next pages, I delve deeper into this question by focusing on two main aspects that have arisen through my initial research on the topic. Firstly, on the new paths that the idea and the concept of the Anthropocene open for the historical studies in terms of periodization, of the understanding of time, linearity, event and the dichotomy between natural and human history. And secondly, on the importance of history in providing an historico-political background on the discussion on the Anthropocene and critically examine policies and practices of government, intergovernmental organizations as well as multinational corporations and their responsibilities for what by consensus is recognized as a climate change crisis.

Monograph(s)

Pelekanidis Theodor, How to write about the Holocaust: Postmodern theory of history in Praxis, Routledge 2022 (in print).

Articles (peer-reviewed)

Pelekanidis Theodoros, “Manifesting practical pasts: legacies of a declining postmodernism”, Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History (48.2), 2021, 183-199.

Pelekanidis Theodoros, “I anaparástasi tou Olokaftómatos ypó to prísma tis metamontérnas theorías: mia néa provlimatikí” (The representation of the Holocaust under the prism of the postmodern theory”), Syghrona Themata,137, April-June 2017.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS (selection)

Pelekanidis Theodoros, “Das Tor zur Festung Europa: Griechenland und die “Migrationskrise”” (The gate to „Fortress Europe: Greece and the „Migration Crisis”), Library of the German Parliament, 2019.

Pelekanidis Theodoros, “O Chítler fovótan ton Pólemo? I germanikí prótasi eirínis tis 6is Oktovríou 1939“ (“Was Hitler afraid of war? The German peace proposal of October 6, 1939”), Istorika Themata, 146, January 2015.

SCIENTIFIC EDITING

Lampe R. John, Iordachi Constantin (ed.), Battling over the Balkans, Central European University Press: Budapest, New York 2020.

Ayman Αborabh, The Lantern: Political Philosophy and The Arab Spring, Troubador: Leicestershire 2018.

TRANSLATIONS (in Greek)

White Hayden, To Város tis Istorías (The Burden of History), Collection of Essays (trans. T. Pelekanidis), Epekeina, Trikala 2021 (in print).

Zetkin Clara, Anamníseis apó ton Lénin (Erinnerungen an Lenin, transl. T. Pelekanidis, D. Souftas, K. Souftas, K. Ksilogianni), Thessaloniki 2014.