Gelina Harlaftis, Director of the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) since 2017, is Professor of Maritime History in the Department of History of the Ionian University. She has graduated from the University of Athens and has completed her graduate studies in the Universities of Cambridge (M.Phil.) and Oxford (D.Phil.). She was President of the International Maritime Economic History Αssociation (2004-2008). In 2009 she was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University, and in 2008 an Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., International Visiting Scholar in the Business History Program, Harvard Business School. She was also visiting professor in Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada (1998) and Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute of Maritime Studies, Greenwich University in London (1999). Her research interests are in maritime history, economic and social history, business history, global history and diaspora history. She has published 25 books in English, Canadian and Greek publishing houses and more than 50 articles in edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals.