Michail Leivadiotis's research project focuses on 15th century textual and visual representations of the crusade rhetoric and cultural universalism. His work is centred around cultural mobility and the political and aesthetic parameters of Byzantine cultural heritage management programmes as emerged from the encounter between Byzantine scholars and western Humanists, eastern medieval imagery and Italian Renaissance, classical tradition and early modern Europe.

Previously, he worked as Research Assistant (2017–2020) at Freie Universität Berlin in the Research Project: "Viaggio da Berlino a Zante or Romantic Poetics and German Idealism on the Ionian Islands", financed by the Einstein Foundation, where he pursued research on Identity, Hybridity and Cosmopolitanism in the context of cross-cultural communication between Greece, Italy and Germany in the 19th century.

Leivadiotis received his PhD (2016) from Freie Universität Berlin with a dissertation on cultural transfer and poetics. His work focused on manuscript translations of German speculative philosophy and romantic poetology, realised by N. Lountzis for poet D. Solomos. Within this framework, he received a scholarship by Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium and studied as a guest fellow at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Italy).

Prior to his PhD studies, he received a Master's degree (2004) in Translation Theory at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy). His thesis presented the first Italian version of the script of Theo Angelopoulos' movie The Reconstruction. Within this ambit, he also carried out an Internship at the Press Office of the Greek Embassy in Rome. In Venice, he received a Professional degree (2003) in Museology, and worked at the Foundation Musei Civici Veneziani (Museum Correr), where he specialised in technical cataloguing of ancient books (1500-1800). He studied Medieval and Modern Greek Philology at the University of Ioannina (Greece) and was an exchange student at the University of Padua and the University of Lecce (Italy).

Greek Studies, Institute of Greek and Latin Languages and Literatures, Freie Universität Berlin

Winter 2025/2026

Byzantine Heroic Poetry: Digenis Akritis

Contemporary Literary Theory

Summer 2025

Byzantine Romance (13th. ce.): Livistros and Rodamne

Winter 2024/2025

Hybridity and Monstrosity in Greek Literature (12th-21st ce.)

Contemporary Literary Theory

Summer 2024

Cretan Renaissance Theatre

Winter 2023/2024

The Uncanny in Greek Literature (15th-20th century)

Linguistics and Poetics in 20th and 21st century

Summer 2023

Erotokritos and the Cretan Literature under Venetian Dominion

Winter 2022/2023

Greek Folk Poetry: Language, History, and Poetics

Linguistics and Poetics in 20th and 21st century

Summer 2022

German Idealism in the European 19th century and the Poetics of Dionysios Solomos

History of Modern Greek Language

Winter 2021/2022

Greek Scholars in the West (15th-16th century)

Linguistics and Poetics in 20th and 21st century

Summer 2020

Repositories of cross-cultural communication: Philosophy and literature in the Ionian 19th century

Winter 2015/2016

Dionysios Solomos: Poetics and Hermeneutics

Current EXC 2020 post-doctoral research project: Translating the Relics of Byzantium. Imagery Transfer and the Politics of Translation. From Greek East to Latin West, 1453–1535 (2021–).

Research Assistant (2017–2020)
Freie Universität Berlin, Einstein Foundation Project: “Viaggio da Berlino a Zante or Romantic Poetics and German Idealism on the Ionian Islands”
https://www.cemog.fu-berlin.de/wissensbasis/projekte/viaggio-berlino-zante/index.html
https://www.cemog.fu-berlin.de/wissensbasis/projekte/viaggio-berlino-zante/projekt/teilprojekte/kulturgeschichtlich/index.html

Dissertation
The Translations of N. Lountzis for D. Solomos. Poetics and Cultural Transfer [in Greek]

Monographs

Hybridity, Identity and Micro-cosmopolitanism in the Ionian 19th century. CeMoG, Berlin 2022.

Οι μεταφράσεις του Ν. Λούντζη για τον Δ. Σολωμό. Ποιητική και πολιτισμικές μεταφορές. CeMoG, Berlin 2018.

Articles

"Hagiographic and Iconographic Testimonies of Black Discourse in Byzantium". In: Apropos[Perspektiven aug die Romania], 15, 2025 [forthcoming]

"The Language of Salvation. Episodes of Latin-Greek competition from the Renaissance to the Reformation". In: Miltos Pechlivanos, Samira Spatzek, Michail Leivadiotis (eds.): 'Competition'. Articulations (January 2025) https://doi.org/10.60949/M34X-2T68.

"Reversing class defection. Two Ionian tales of gender, nation, and woe". In: Johanna Bundschuh-van Duikeren, Marie Jacquier, Peter Löffelbein (eds.): Autosociobiography: Global Entanglements of a Literary Phenomenon. Transcript, 2025.

"Από τον Böhme στον Baader: για τη σολωμική οικείωση του ρομαντικού μυστικισμού". In: D. Aggelatos et al. (eds.): Διονύσιος Σολωμός και Κύπρος. Literature & Criticism Association, Nicosia, 2023, 339-350.

"Ο Ερμάννος Λούντζης και η σολωμική βιβλιοθήκη. Μια σχέση υπό διερεύνηση". In: Νέα Εστία, 2021, 1888, 2021, 787-797.

"Δύο ζακυνθινές ανθολογίες της Rahel Varnhagen" in: Katerina Karakasi, Katerina Mitralexi , Evi Petropoulou (eds.): Γερμανικός Ρομαντισμός: Πρόσληψη και Κριτική. Λέξις. Athens 2021, 61-74.

"Traduction et négociation identitaire: le cas des îles Ioniennes" in: Traductions et traducteurs dans les Balkans, XVIIIe-XXe siècle. Études balkaniques - Cahiers Pierre Belon 23, 1. 2019, 57-70.

"O Novalis στη Ζάκυνθο. Ένα blaue Blume στον κήπο του Σολωμού" in Πόρφυρας Review, 154, 2015, 311-322.

"Ο Ν. Λούντζης μεταφραστής του Hegel. Oι μεταφράσεις για τον Σολωμό" in Konstantinos Dimadis (ed.): Continuities, Discontinuities, Ruptures in the Greek World (1204-2014), Proceedings 5th European Congress of Modern Greek Studies, Thessaloniki 2-5 October 2014. v. II, E.S.M.G.S. Athens 2015, 347-358.

"Zwei Anthologien aus Zakynthos. Briefe und Gedanken von Rahel Varnhagen" in K. Karakassi, S. Lindinger, M. Michalski (eds.): Deutsche Romantik. Transformationen und Transgressionen. Peter Lang. Frankfurt a. M. 2014, 207-220.

"Οδυσσέας Ελύτης, Ο παράφορος χρόνος, ο μικρόψυχος καιρός κι η ισόβια στιγμή" in Τα Ποιητικά Review, 9. 2013, 16-19.

"Ο μυστικός Ελύτης" in P. M. Minucci, Ch. Bintoudis (eds.): Ο Ελύτης στην Ευρώπη. Ikaros. Athens 2011, 53-66.

"Elitis mistico" in P. M. Minucci, Ch. Bintoudis (eds.): Odisseas Elitis, Un europeo per metà. Donzelli. Rome 2010, 45-54.

Editing

'Universalism'. (ed.) Michail Leivadiotis. In: Articulations [forthcoming]

'Competition'. (eds.) Miltos Pechlivanos, Samira Spatzek, Michail Leivadiotis. In: Articulations (January 2025), https://doi.org/10.60949/4hqz-dh72.

Theo Angelopoulos. (eds.) P. M. Minucci, T. Cavasino, M. Leivadiotis. Revolver. Bologna 2004.

Translation

Eugenio Lo Sardo, Il cosmo degli antichi. Immagini e visioni dell’universo dal mondo mitico al Rinascimento. Donzelli, Rome 2007 > Eugenio Lo Sardo, Οκόσμοςτωναρχαίων. ΕικόνεςκαιθεωρήσειςτουσύμπαντοςαπότηνεποχήτωνμύθωνωςτηνΑναγέννηση. Melani, Athens 2012.

Andrea Marinari "Η μνήμη των νερών". In: Διαβάζω 457/12, 2004, 111-114.

"Katerina Angelaki-Rooke / Poesie" [11 poems]. In: Passages. Arti culture riflessioni 3, 2004, 7-63.