What are Polistories?
The idea for the Polistories Podcast was born during Covid-19 quarantine. One could say that it is a child of isolation, of infinite hours in front of the computer looking for common ground with the rest of the world; when the power of community and group became evident, because that is exactly what has been threatened. Polistories aspire to be various different reflections of the city’s history as well as of Greek-Austrian and Greek-German relations. As the podcast intro indicates, the Polistories series tell stories. Many different stories, stories of the city, stories of politics, stories of culture and stories of brutality, stories of everyday life and stories of milestones; stories that take us to strange, obscure and unexpected sides of our city, where the city interacts with the history of others; stories that look for hidden places and points of contact, stories that stir memories. The goal is to rediscover our true stories, because stories may not change the world but the world cannot change without them.
Team
Conception, text writing & audio production Katerina Zachou
Katerina Zachou is an assistant professor at the School of German Language and Literature of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her research interests include 20th and 21st century literature, theatre and theatre pedagogy http://www.del.auth.gr/el/tmhma/drastiriotites/theater-ag as well as Greek-German relations. She has been involved for years in the city of Thessaloniki, in terms of its history and its intersections with the history of the Germans, Austrians and other “Franks” (i.e. Europeans), as well as with the complex Greek-Greek relations.
Podcast translation into German Michaela Prinzinger
Michaela Prinzinger, born 1963 in Vienna with a PhD in Modern Greek Studies, lives and works in Berlin and Leiden/Netherlands. She has translated numerous Greek writers into German such as Petros Markaris, Ioanna Karystiani, Rhea Galanakis, Maria Stephanopoulou and Amanda Michalopoulou. In 2014 she founded the bilingual cultural portal diablog.eu, Greek-German encounters. She was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation in 2015. For more information: www.michaela-prinzinger.eu.
Sound editing Menelaos Exioglou
Menelaos Exioglou lives in Thessaloniki where he studied at the School of Electrical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2015, in an unexpected circumstance, he moved from the construction sites and studies to the studio of the radio station “Sto Kokkino Thessaloniki 91,4” – where he continues to work as a sound engineer. His most recent favorite pastime is listening to podcasts while walking. Lately he has had the opportunity -besides being a listener- to be involved as a sound technician and producer in podcast series of the independent journalism cooperative Alterthess.
Music theme Nikos Kapantzakis
Nikos Kapantzakis has studied photography and has worked for 20 years in record stores of Athens and Thessaloniki. He composes music with analogue synthesizers and is a founding member of Convex Model and previously of Human Puppets, Plexiglas and Dislocation Genders. Most of this sound material has been released on vinyl by the German Kernkrach Records. In addition to his participation in bands, he has also composed music themes for films. He has been occasionally involved in radio as a producer and works as a DJ in Thessaloniki and Athens. Apart from music, one of his favourite pastimes is painting. https://convexmodel.bandcamp.com/music
Visual identity design Loopo Studio
Production management & text editing Stavroula Tsiara
Stavroula Tsiara is a PhD candidate in the field of subtitling at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). She holds a BA in German Language and Literature and an MA in “European Literature and Culture” (AUTH) as well as the translation diploma “Übersetzerdiplom der Goethe-Institute in Greece”. She works as a translator and subtitler. Since 2022, she teaches in the Joint Postgraduate Studies Programme “Conference Interpreting and Translation” (AUTH) and assists translation and translation studies courses at the Department of German Language and Literature (AUTH).
Website & social media management Fotini Pateinari
Fotini Pateinari is a PhD candidate in the field of literary translation at the Department of German Language and Literature of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She studied German Literature, Translation and Intercultural Pedagogy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Free University of Berlin and the University of Granada. She works as a freelance translator, copywriter and German teacher, and since 2018 she has been cooperating with the Joint Postgraduate Studies Programme in Conference Interpreting and Translation at the Aristotle University Thessaloniki.
Website design & development Eleftheria Kasimidou
Eleftheria Kasimidou is an Electrical and Computer Engineer, a graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She works as a programmer and in her free time she listens to podcasts.