Petros D. Goneos Memorial Award

ACADEMIC YEAR 2026 – 2027

SCHOLARSHIPS

THE AWARD

The Museum of Cycladic Art and the Cycladic Art Foundation are pleased to announce the fifth year of the Petros D. Goneos Memorial Award for Studies on the Culture of the Cyclades.

The award is destined to encourage, support, and promote high quality research from new researchers who focus on topics related to the culture of the Cyclades from the Neolithic up to the Post-Byzantine period or its perception to the modern times. All proposed projects will be approached through disciplines as Archaeology, Anthropology, and Art History, as well as natural and physical sciences.

The Prize Fund amounts to $7,000, which will be given in full for one academic year to each of two equal candidates or a group of candidates who will submit a joint research proposal. It will be paid in one instalment at the beginning of the academic year (September). In the case of a group proposal the amount of money remains the same as for individual proposals. Successful applicants are not eligible to apply for a second year of funding.

The academic scholarship funded by an endowment established in the memory of Petros D. Goneos (1968-2019), former active member and vice president of the Cycladic Art Foundation in New York.

WINNERS

Caves, Ceramics, and Connectivity: Ritual Practices and Inter-Island Interaction in the Prehistoric Cyclades

Dr. Sergios Menelaou
Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology, Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens

Thynneion: Maritime Memory and Tuna Cultures in the Cycladic Seascape

Dr. Ambra Zambernardi
Maritime anthropologist and ethnographer of Mediterranean fishing cultures, combining anthropology and field-based artistic creation through dance, photography, and writing.

ACADEMIC COMMITTEE

Prof. Véronique Chankowski

Director of the French Archaeological School in Athens.

Dr. Vicky Vlachou

Assistant professor in Classical archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Dr. Sophia Zoumbaki

Research Director Section of Greek & Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute for Historical Research

Dr. Marisa Marthari

Ephor Emerita of the Cyclades

Dr. Yannis Stoyas

Keeper/Researcher of the KIKPE (Social and Cultural Affairs Welfare Foundation) Numismatic Collection

Dr. Sergios Menelaou

Dr. Sergios Menelaou

Caves, Ceramics, and Connectivity: Ritual Practices and Inter-Island Interaction in the Prehistoric Cyclades

The project investigates prehistoric cave use and inter-island interaction in the Cyclades through ceramic assemblages from Irakleia and Paros, dating from the Final Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Combining ceramic petrography, geochemical analysis, and geological prospection, it will identify local and imported pottery and reconstruct patterns of production and circulation between the islands.

The study of these cave assemblages offers a new perspective on Cycladic connectivity, exploring the role of caves within wider networks of mobility and exchange and how the circulation and deposition of pottery can illuminate ritual and symbolic practices. The research is conducted in collaboration with Dr Fanis Mavridis (Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology) and Dr Evangelia Kiriatzi (Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens).

Dr. Ambra Zambernardi

Dr. Ambra Zambernardi

Thynneion: Maritime Memory and Tuna Cultures in the Cycladic Seascape

Thynneion: Maritime Memory and Tuna Cultures in the Cycladic Seascape

Thynneion investigates the traces of long-term relationships between Cycladic communities and migratory tuna, asking how forgotten maritime practices, local ecological knowledge and human–tuna relations can be reconstructed through landscapes, archives, place names and cultural memory. Building on over a decade of ethnographic research among tuna fishing communities across the western Mediterranean, the project brings maritime anthropology into dialogue with archaeology, environmental history and historical geography.

Through archival research, toponymic analysis, comparative ethnography and GIS mapping, it will identify potential tuna-related seascapes in the Cyclades, reconnecting them to wider Mediterranean history and asking how this heritage can inform understandings of coastal environments, interspecies relations and the future of low-impact fisheries.

For more information, please contact the Museum of Cycladic Art Fellowship Program Coordinator, by e-mail at fellowships@cycladic.gr

The Museum of Cycladic Art is an equal opportunity institution and considers all candidates for employment (fellowship/internship etc.) regardless of race, color, sex, age, national origin, creed, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.