Manolis Mavromatis earned his Bachelor of Arts in History in the American College of Greece with Full Honours, receiving the Outstanding Graduating Student Award while completing a minor in Archaeology. He completed his honour’s thesis “Excavations in the Athenian Agora: A century of issues and an ongoing debate” while participating in the aforementioned excavations in the summer of 2018. During his first and second years he volunteered at the Wiener Lab of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens which was his first glimpse of the interdisciplinary nature of Archaeology. In 2021 Manolis received his MSc in Archaeology with Distinction from the University of Oxford focusing on Prehistoric Archaeology. His background in history combined with his newly acquired knowledge in Archaeology and his interest in political theory culminated in his thesis “Politics and Archaeology in Knossos: From Kalokairinos to the Present Day” which won the MSc Archaeology Dissertation Prize.
During his studies Manolis became interested in the influence of colonialism, imperialism, and nationalism on early archaeology from China to Europe. His participation in European (Erasmus+) and Greek projects involving digital humanities and cultural heritage management inspired him to continue his academic career at ISAW. He recently participated in the ongoing digitization of a small museum on the Greek island of Alonissos which helped him gain a glimpse of curatorial procedures which he hopes to expand during his time at ISAW. He intends to focus on Prehistoric Aegean Archaeology and the ever-evolving field of digital humanities, as well as expand his understanding of critical and Post-Colonial Archaeology. Manolis is particularly interested in the post-colonial study of Minoan Archaeology, our relationship with the material culture of the past, as well as the chronological gap that exists between the Thyra explosion and the final collapse of the Minoan civilisation.