The Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS), heir to the Center for Hellenic Traditions (2004/5–2009/10), promotes the study of the eastern Mediterranean and its hinterlands from antiquity, especially the Hellenistic oikoumenē (323–30 BCE, pictured below), to the end of the Ottoman period (1923).

It aims to create an academic environment for the promotion of a greater understanding of the eastern Mediterranean as a key area of world history, and thus shed new light on the significant challenges this region faces at the b