We are delighted to invite you to attend The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award Ceremony 2025, under the joint sponsorship of the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation, and in partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King’s College London.

An evening dedicated to good books, Anglo-Hellenic friendship relations, and an incisive lecture.

Since 1986, the Award has rewarded annually the best book or books published the previous year in English about some aspect of Greece. The Award this year goes to the winner of the best book published in 2024.

Our chair of judges, Sofka Zinovieff, will announce the winner, who will attend the event and speak about the winning book.

The keynote speech will be given by Professor Elias Papaioannou of the London Business School, on ‘Uprootedness, Human Capital and Anatolia Imprints’. 

Abstract: The abrupt exodus of nearly a million Christian Orthodox from Anatolia over a century ago reshaped Greece’s social and demographic fabric. Today, four in ten Greeks trace their lineage to these refugees—yet the long-term effects of their displacement on Greece’s human capital remain largely underexplored. How did forced migration influence educational trajectories across generations? Did refugees adapt by investing in portable skills, or did they struggle to catch up with the autochthonous population?

Using large data on refugee origins, settlements, and education over three generations, strong evidence emerges for an ‘uprootedness hypothesis’: while initially lagging behind, refugees in rural areas surpassed locals in educational attainment, favouring degrees with global mobility—engineering and medicine—while locals leaned toward law and other home-biased fields. Beyond history, the case offers timely lessons for today’s migration crises and demographic deficits. Displacement, if properly supported, can drive long-term resilience and economic growth.

 The event will be hosted and addressed by Professor Kevin Featherstone, chair of the Council of the League, and Professor Gonda Van Steen, director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies. A reception will follow.

This event will be in person, and streamed via Zoom. Please ensure you register here to attend in person and here to attend via Zoom.