Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Apostolos Delis

Principal Researcher
Centre of Maritime History

Apostolos Delis born in Volos-Greece in 1971. He studied Ancient History in the Universities of Siena and Bologna and Maritime Archaeology and History in the University of Bristol. He completed his PhD thesis in 2010 in the Ionian University with subject: “Hermoupolis (Syros): the shipbuilding centre of the sailing merchant marine, 1830-80”. During the academic year 2010-11 worked as a post doc researcher in the Centre de la Méditerranée Moderne et Contemporaine (CMMC) of University of Nice in the program ANR/NAVIGOCORPUS: Corpus des itinéraires des navires de commerce, XVIIe-XIXe siècles. Since 2012 worked as a researcher in the Institute for Mediterranean Studies/ FORTH in two research projects: 1) “ELISTOKAINO”: the History of Innovation in Greece, 19th-20th centuries with subject: Innovation in the Greek and Mediterranean Shipbuilding Technology, 19th-20th centuries and 2) “Thalis”: The Black Sea and its port-cities, 1774-1914. Development, convergence and linkages with the global economy, (http://blacksea.gr/) with subject: The port of Marseille and the Black Sea trade in the nineteenth century. In September 2016 won a prestigious Horizon 2020 European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 2016 entitled “Seafaring Lives in Transition. Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping during Globalization, 1850s-1920s”, which explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. His research interests lie in the maritime economic and social history, history of technology of the sailing ship, the shipbuilding industry, port history and the institutions of shipping business. He is author of a monograph entitled Mediterranean Wooden Shipbuilding. Economy, Technology and Institutions in Syros in the Nineteenth Century, Leiden, BRILL, (2015), whereas he has published in Greek and international journals and collective volumes such as  European Review of Economic History, Urban History, International Journal of Maritime History, History of Technology.

Selected Publications