Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Gelina Harlaftis

Director of IMS-FORTH, Professor of Maritime History
Centre of Maritime History

Gelina Harlaftis is Director of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) since 2017 and member of the Academia Europaea since 2022. She has graduated from the University of Athens and has completed her graduate studies in the Universities of Cambridge (M.Phil.) and Oxford (D.Phil.). She started her academic career at the University of Piraeus (1990-2002), continued at the Ionian University (2003-2018), and is presently Professor of Maritime History in the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete. She was President of the International Maritime Economic History Αssociation (2004-2008). She was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University and an Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., International Visiting Scholar in the Business History Program, Harvard Business School. She has published 31 books in English, Canadian and Greek publishing houses and over 70 articles in edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals. Her last books are Creating Global Shipping: Aristotle Onassis, the Vagliano Brothers and the Business of Shipping, c.1820-1970, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019 and Onassis Business History, 1924-1975, Leiden, Brill, 2023.

Selected Publications