Ilias Yarenis

Ilias Giarenis was born in Athens. He is a historian and Byzantinist, Professor of History of Byzantine Education and Literacy at the Department of History and Digital Humanities, Ionian University. Member of the Board of Governance of Ionian University (2024-2028), and Vice-President of the Centre of Studies of Ionian (2025-present).He is also the Chairman of the Foundation's Committee for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Ionian Academy (2022-present).

He served as Vice-Rector of the Ionian University (2020-2024). He assumed the duties of Vice-Rector for Finance, Quality Assurance, and Student Welfare (2020-2022) and Vice-Rector for Quality Assurance, Student Welfare, and Lifelong Learning (2022-2024). He was President of the Quality Assurance Unit (2020-2024) and President of the Center for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning (2022-2024) of the Institution. At the same time, he was President of the Ionian University Committee for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the 1821 Revolution (2020-2021).

He has participated in international conferences in Greece and other European countries (Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Hungary, and Croatia). His current research interests focus on Byzantine scholarship and education, the world of Byzantine books, and the reception of Byzantium in modern and contemporary Greece.

He has written on the fall of Constantinople in 1204 and its consequences for the Byzantine world and the Balkans, on the empires of Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus, as well as on social and intellectual activity in the Palaeologean Era. Among his publications are: Η συγκρότηση και η εδραίωση της αυτοκρατορίας της Νίκαιας. Ο αυτοκράτορας Θεόδωρος Α΄ Κομνηνός Λάσκαρις (=Establishment and Consolidation of the Empire of Nicaea. Emperor Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris), Athens 2008 (second edition, Athens 2009), and Ο βυζαντινός λόγιος Νικόλαος Μεσαρίτης. Κείμενα και Μελετήματα (=The Byzantine Scholar Nikolaos Mesarites: Texts and Studies), Athens 2022.

He had the scientific direction of the Greek editions of the books: Averil Cameron, The Byzantines (=Οι Βυζαντινοί, Athens, 2009), and Christopher Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon. The Last of the Hellenes (=Γεώργιος Γεμιστός Πλήθων. Ο τελευταίος Έλλην, Athens 2025).

He has co-edited collective volumes on Byzantine topics, including: Βησσαρίων εκ Τραπεζούντος του Πόντου. Λόγιος του βυζαντινού και του δυτικού αναγεννησιακού 15ου αιώνα (=Bessarion of Trebizond. Scholar of the Byzantine and Western Renaissance 15th Century), Thessaloniki 2017; Λόγιοι και Λογιοσύνη στο Βυζάντιο (=Scholars and Scholarship in Byzantium), Thessaloniki 2019; Bibliophilos. Books and Learning in the Byzantine World. Festschrift in Honour of Professor Costas N. Constantinides, Berlin-Boston 2021.