Staff Profiles

Brief Bio:

Dr Konstantina Maragkou is a Contemporary Historian with a particular interest in the political and diplomatic aspects of the Cold War and the histories of activism. Following studies at Cambridge, London, and McGill Universities, she held fellowships at LSE, NYU, and Yale, where she has also taught extensively. She has won several grants, given presentations, written articles, contributed book chapters to edited volumes, and turned her largely extended thesis on Anglo-Greek relations during the Greek Colonels’ regime into a book published by Hurst & Co / OUP USA.

Areas of Expertise:

Cold War, Twentieth Century History of Greece, Human Rights Activism, Anglo-Greek relations, Anglo-American relations.

Previous Positions:

Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow & Guest Teacher, Department of International History, LSE

Lecturer in European Studies and History, History Faculty & Macmillan Center, Yale University

Visiting Lecturer & Post-doctoral Associate, Hellenic Studies Program & History Faculty, Yale University

A.G. Leventis Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, European Institute, LSE

Visiting Research Fellow, Remarque Institute, New York University

Research Intern, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)

Languages:

Greek, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish

Scholarships and Funding:

Newcastle University, School Research Committee Fund (2021-22)

EU Marie Curie International Fellowship (2014-16)

Princeton University Library Grant (2014)

Yale University, Council of European Studies, Faculty Grant (2013)

The A. Whitney Griswold Faculty Research Fund, Yale University (2013)

Poynter Fellowship Grant, Yale University (2013)

Kempf Fund, Macmillan Center for Area and International Studies Grant (2013)

Yale University, Council of European Studies Faculty Grant (2012)

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library Grant (2011)

Yale University, Council of European Studies Faculty Grant (2011)

John F. Kennedy Foundation Research Grant (2007)

Kokkalis Foundation Grant (2005)

London Hellenic Society Prize at the 2005 Postgraduate Essay competition

Alexander S. Onassis Foundation Scholarship (2002-2004)

A. G. Leventis Foundation Grant (2001-2004)

Cambridge European Trust Award (2000-2003)

Lyndon Baines Johnson Research Grant (June-July 2003)

Members’ History Research Grant (March & April 2003)

Newnham College Research Grants (2000-2004)

HIS1100: Evidence & Argument

HIS1103: History Lab II

HIS2240: Greece from ancient time to the 21st century

HIS2304: Crafting History

HIS2316: Researching History

HIS3000: Reading History

HIS3020: Writing History

Konstantina's current project derives from research pursued during her recent tenure of a Marie Curie Senior Fellowship and deals with the fascinating subject of Human Rights history. More specifically, it investigates the impact of the Greek Colonels’ abusive regime on the emboldening of the international human rights regime, with specific reference to the criminalisation of torture, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Following the unearthing of a fascinating private archive, she has also started a side project on the evolution of female activism on human rights and environmental issues since the 1960s.

• Maragkou K. Activists without borders: Transnational campaigning during the Greek Case, 1967-69. In: Kostis Kornetis et al, ed. The 1969 'Greek Case' in the Council of Europe : A Game Changer for Human Rights?. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
• Maragkou K. Britain, Greece and the Colonels, 1967-74: Between Pragmatism and Human Rights. London: Hurst & Co; OUP USA, 2020.
• Maragkou K. The Beckets vs. the Colonels: A study in the micro-evolution of global human rights activism in the ‘long 1960s’. In: Klapsis A; Arvanitopoulos C; Hatzivassiliou E; Pedaliu EGH, ed. The Greek Junta and the International System: A Case Study of Southern European Dictatorships, 1967–74. London: Routledge, 2020, pp.149-163.
• Maragkou K. Cold War in the Aegean: Favouritism in NATO’s Southeastern flank: The case of the Greek Colonels, 1967–74. In: Risso L, ed. NATO at 70: A Historiographical Approach. London: Routledge, 2019.
• Maragkou K. The Greek Case at the Council of Europe: Unknown Facets from the Triumph of Human Rights (in Greek). In: Vlachopoulos S; Kairidēs D; Klapsēs A, ed. Η δικτατορία των συνταγματαρχών : ανατομία μιας επταετίας Η δικτατορία των συνταγματαρχών : ανατομία μιας επταετίας / The Dictatorship of the Colonels: Anatomy of a 7-yr rule. Athens: Ekdoseis Savvalas, 2019.
• Maragkou K. The Relevance of Détente to American Foreign Policy: The Case of Greece, 1967–1979. Diplomacy and Statecraft 2014, 25(4), 646-668.
• Maragkou K. British reactions to “the rape of Greek Democracy”. Journal of Contemporary History 2010, (45).
• Maragkou K. From Détente to Afghanistan: NATO’s second-generation challenges (in Greek). Diethnis kai Evropaiki Politiki (International and European Policy) 2010, 17.
• Maragkou K. Anglo-Greek relations in the 1960s (in Greek). In: Manolis Vassilakis, ed. From the Unrelenting Struggle to the Dictatorship. Ekdoseis Papazissi, 2009.
• Maragkou K. Favoritism in NATO’s southern flank: the case of the Greek Colonels, 1967-1974. Cold War History 2009, (3).
• Maragkou K. Anglo-American attitudes towards Konstantinos Karamanlis during the Greek Colonels’ regime (in Greek). In: Konstantinos Svolopoulos et al, ed. Konstantinos Karamanlis in the Twentieth Century. 2008.
• Maragkou K. The foreign factor and the Greek Colonels’ rise to power on 21^st April 1967. Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 2006, 6.