ATHENS – The College Year in Athens (CYA) Virtual Lecture Series continues on Wednesday, October 26, 12 PM (ET)/7 PM (Athens) via Zoom, with guest speaker Lou Ureneck, author, professor, and visiting fellow of the Institute of Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts at The American College of Greece in Athens.

In the lecture titled Smyrna, September 1922, Prof. Ureneck will be discussing the events that occurred in Smyrna in September of 1922 and how the American humanitarian rescue mission saved tens of thousands of refugees in the last violent episode of the 20th century’s first genocide.

Facilitating the discussion will be CYA President Alexis Phylactopoulos, whose mother had fallen victim to the events that transpired at the time and became a refugee.

Based on eyewitness accounts, documents, and survivor narratives, Ureneck will discuss the harrowing story of an ordinary American and a principled Naval officer who, horrified by the burning of Smyrna, led an extraordinary rescue effort that saved a quarter of a million refugees. The discussion is especially relevant in this centennial year of the Smyrna Catastrophe.

Register online for the lecture: https://bit.ly/3V9X7O0.

After registration, you will receive a Zoom confirmation email to join the discussion. You may ask questions through the Chatbox or Q&A feature on Zoom. If you cannot attend the ‘live’ event but would like to receive a recording of the lecture, please register and it will be sent to you 1-2 days after the event.

For a better understanding of the events, CYA recommends purchasing Ureneck’s book Smyrna, September 1922 (titled The Great Fire, in the hard-cover edition) online: https://amzn.to/3CEh4Ft or at your local bookstore.

Lou Ureneck is a writer and professor currently serving as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts at The American College of Greece in Athens. He has taught various courses, including business and economics journalism at Boston University and Ukraine National University in Kyiv and has written three books. His book Backcast won the National Outdoor Book Award for literary merit in 2007. Prof. Ureneck has taught in professional settings as a writing coach for media and research organizations, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, Nieman Reports, and Field & Stream.

In 2015, he received the Hellenic Heritage Award and was the Eleftherios Venizelos Chair in Modern Greek Studies at the American College of Greece in Athens. In October 2018, the New England Academy of Journalists named him a recipient of the Yankee Quill Award, New England’s highest individual award for Journalism. He frequently serves as a source on the business of journalism for news organizations. Ureneck has been inducted into the Maine Journalism Hall of Fame.

Ureneck received his BA in English from the University of New Hampshire in 1972, was a Nieman Fellow and editor in residence at Harvard University in 1994-95, and a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2011, teaching at the National University in Kyiv.

More information about CYA is available online: https://cyathens.org.