Byzantine scholar and historian Helene Glykatzi-Arveler has passed away

Helene Glykatzi-Arveler was the first female chair of the History Department at the Sorbonne University, in 1967, and the first female rector of the Sorbonne University in its 700-year history, in 1976. She was also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Helene Glykatzi was born in Athens to parents from Asia Minor. Her father was Nikos Glykatzis, an Asia Minor merchant and overseer of the estates of her mother's family, Kallirroi, née Psaltidis, who came from a wealthy family in Prousa. She graduated from the 4th Gymnasium of Athens and studied at the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

During the Occupation, she joined the EPON and was the head of the Pangrati students, under the guidance of Christos Pasalaris. During the December Uprising, she followed the ELAS of Athens in its retreat from Attica and returned to Byron after the Varkiza Agreement.

During the 1950s, while she was a university student, she worked as a French language expert in the circle of Queen Frederick. After graduating from the Faculty of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, she worked as a researcher at the Center for Asia Minor Studies (1949-1953).

Her career in Paris

She settled in Paris in 1953 to continue her studies. Two years after her arrival, she was appointed to the National Center for Scientific Research (France) (CNRS) and in 1964 became the Center's director of studies, while in 1967 she became a professor at the Sorbonne.

In 1966 she received the doctorate ès lettres diploma, with her study on Byzantium and the sea, published by the University Press of France.

She served as director of the Center for the History and Culture of Byzantium and Christian Archaeology, became vice-rector (1970-1973) and in 1976 rector of the Sorbonne University. She is the first female rector in the 700-year history of the Sorbonne University and the first woman in the world to hold such a position at an internationally recognized university. There she met her husband, Jacques Arvelier (1918-2010), who was an officer in the French Navy and who came from a wealthy Parisian family. With Jacques Arbeler she had a daughter, Marie-Hélène.