AHI Noon Forum in Commemoration of the Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922

WASHINGTON, DC—On October 5, 2007, AHI hosted a Noon Forum at the Hellenic House in commemoration of the Smyrna catastrophe of 1922. The topic of the presentation was “America, Greece and the Asia Minor Catastrophe: Then and Now.” It was presented by Dr. Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, St. John’s University.

BIO FOR DR. CONSTANTINE G. HATZIDIMITRIOU

Constantine was born in NYC in 1951 to parents who had recently emigrated to the US from war-torn Greece. He received his B.A. (1973) from Colgate University in history and education; M.A. (1975) Teachers College in Social Studies Education (with a full fellowship); M.Phil (1980) and Ph.D. (1988) from Columbia University in Byzantine, Ottoman and Balkan history. As a Gennadius Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1978-9), he discovered the “lost” manuscript of the Chronicle of Galaxeidi and returned to Greece (1981-1985) as the Educational Counselor of the U.S. Consulate and Fulbright office in Thessaloniki, headmaster of Anatolia College’s English Language Center, and an assistant professor at the American College.

From 1985-89, he was an Assistant to the Dean, Director of Admissions, and Director of the Grants Development Office at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. From 1989 -2003 was on the Superintendent’s staff in Community School District 30 where he served as Director of Grants Development, Option/Magnet Schools, Director of Technology and Director of Funded Programs. During this period Dr. Hatzidimitriou secured over 40 million dollars in federal, state and city grant funds for the implementation of innovative educational programs in CSD 30’s 32 K-9 schools. With the reorganization, of the NYC Dept. of Education in 2003, he first held the position of Senior Grants Officer of Region 3- Queens for 154 K-12 schools in CSD 25, 26, 28, 29 and then became Director of School Improvement and Social Studies Education for the same Region. Among his numerous awards and citations are: Hellenic Educator of the Year (1995) ; two Queens Borough President’s Citations for Excellence in Community Education; a NEH Fellowship; Recognition by President Clinton in 2000 for his contributions to scholarship on the history of Greek- American relations; and most recently (2007) the distinguished Social Studies Educator award from the Greater Metropolitan Social Studies Association of New York.

Dr. Hatzidimitriou is also the author of two books: American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna (2005) and Founded on Freedom and Virtue: Documents Illustrating the Impact in the United States of the Greek War of Independence (2002) in addition to many articles in scholarly journals in the fields of Byzantine and Modern Greek history and education. He has also taught at Columbia University, the New School of Social Research, Bank Street College, Saint John’s University, the University of Thessaloniki and various CUNY colleges.

Please find Dr. Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou’s presentation and a photograph from this event attached.

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For additional information, please contact Georgia Economou at (202) 785-8430 or georgia@ahiworld.org. For general information regarding the activities of AHI, please view our Web site at https://www.ahiworld.org.