On October 2 and 3, 2009 the Alpha Bank Historical Archives organised its annual international conference. The event took place at the Banknote Museum of Corfu and its topic was “Society and Politics in South-Eastern Europe during the 19th Century”.
Twenty historians from countries of Southeastern Europe and from specialised Institutes of France, England and Germany participated in the conference. Nathalie Clayer, Research Manager at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, Tassos Anastassiadis, member of the École Française d’Athènes and Kostas Kostis, Professor at the University of Athens and Academic Advisor of Alpha Bank, were the organising agents. The main objective of the thematic modules of the conference — Politics and Society in South-Eastern Europe in the 19th century — was to study the modernisation of processes in the Balkan countries; a topic which apart from having a historical dimension, is always dominant on the public agenda.
The conference discussed the issues associated with the modernisation of the political system in the various countries of South-Eastern Europe, the relations between the state and the church, the role of political elites, matters of political culture, the institution of monarchy and, furthermore, the relations between political behaviours and education.