Dimitra Kardakaris
Dimitra-Chrysoula Kardakari is a historian specialising in maritime and economic history, focusing on Greek shipping from the 19th century through the mid-20th century. She earned her PhD in History from the Ionian University in 2025, with a dissertation titled The Evolution of Kasiot Shipping Enterprises from Local to Global (19th Century – Eve of World War II). She also holds a Master’s degree in Educational Sciences, specialising in Special Education and Teaching Individuals with Oral and Written Language Disorders, through a joint program between the Hellenic Open University and the University of Thessaly. Additionally, she is a graduate of the Department of History at the Ionian University. Dr. Kardakari’s research career is closely linked to the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS/FORTH), where she has participated in a series of funded projects. From 2023 to 2024, she worked as a researcher in the MareChronStat project, which aimed to create a maritime historical database covering 1931–1939, funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation under the “Small Grants Scheme.” In 2022, she was involved in the NAUS Project, which focused on documenting Greek shipbuilding heritage and the Navarino and Salamis naval battles, in collaboration with the Eugenides Foundation. In 2021, she was responsible for organising and classifying maritime history archives, while between 2018 and 2020, she was a postgraduate fellow in the ARCHERS Program (Stavros Niarchos Foundation), working on cultural heritage preservation and digital documentation. Her academic achievements have been recognised with several awards and scholarships, including the Kaftanzoglio Award from the Academy of Athens (2013), and fellowships from the Carswell-Kulukundis Foundation, the Leventis Foundation, the Short Sea Shipping Owners Association, and Bureau Veritas. She has also received travel and research grants from the Society of Nautical Research (2019) and the Aegeas Institute (2022). Dr. Kardakari has published articles in scholarly volumes and the national press, exploring business maritime history, the island of Kasos, and the presence of women in shipping from the late 19th century to the eve of World War II.
Selected publications include:
- Kardakari, D. (2024). The Use of Limited Liability Companies in Greek Shipping in the Early 20th Century: The Corporate Structures of the Kulukundis Shipping Enterprises. In: Greek Merchant Shipping in the Era of Eleftherios Venizelos, National Hellenic Research Foundation – Institute for Mediterranean Studies.
- Kardakari, D. (2016). The “Liberty Ships” and the Contribution of Manolis Kulukundis. In: The Liberty Generation: Seventy Years Since the Rebirth of the Greek-Owned Fleet. Naftika Chronika Editions.
- Kardakari, D. (2015). Manolis Kulukundis: One of the Patriarchs of 20th-Century Greek Shipping. In: Leading Figures of Greek Shipping in the 20th Century. Naftika Chronika Editions.