Biography

Nikolaos Mavropoulos has studied Balkan studies (BA) and European History (MA) in Greece. In 2014 he was awarded with Sapienza University’s PhD fellowship. As a PhD candidate he carried out his research project, entitled “The Japanese expansionism in Asia and the Italian expansion in Africa: A comparative study of the early Italian and the early Japanese colonialism”. His doctoral thesis was based on research in libraries and archival collections in Italy, Japan and England over a period of 3 years, and uncovered important parallels in the early colonial endeavours of two latecomers to the drive for imperial expansion, Italy and Japan. In September 2019 he received his doctoral degree from Sapienza University of Rome, Department of History, Culture, Religion.

This year at EUI will be dedicated to turning his PhD dissertation into a book and to laying the groundwork for his next major research project: “The Greek community in early colonial Eritrea”. The objective of the latter is to shed light on the mindset of Greek migrants in late 19^th century Eritrea, who found themselves situated among the Italian ruling class and the colonized native populations. The project will provide a contribution to ongoing postcolonial debates surrounding racism, social change, identity, settler colonialism and colonial capitalism.

Nikolaos is a member of EAJS (European Association for Japanese Studies) and of the Institute for the History of Italian Risorgimento. His research interests revolve around Imperial antagonisms, migration, colonialism and contemporary and modern history in a global context. He is currently investigating the Greek minorities in Africa in the 19th century.