The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) was founded in 1925 and is today the largest university in Greece. It supports research on a wide range of disciplines. The TRAFIG research project is carried out at the School of Spatial Planning and Development, which provides education, professional competence and expertise in areas related to urban and regional planning, spatial development and procedures relating to decision-making and public consultation. The School has a strong research infrastructure supporting advanced methodological tools and techniques. Its research activities span across different scales of spatial planning, human geography and development studies, GIS and the management of geographic information, etc.—including research on migration and spatial dimensions of migrants’ settlement and integration.
Roles/tasks in the project
The AUTH team is involved in the development of the TRAFIG methodology and ethical guidelines (WP 1). It also reviews policy/legal structures in the Greek context (WP 3) and will carry out multi-site fieldwork in Greece (WP 6). It will contribute to the synthesis report and the development of a practitioners’ toolkit (WP 7), and will take part in TRAFIG’s efforts to create impact by engaging with different types of stakeholders (WP 8).
Team members involved in the project
Dr. Panos Hatziprokopiou
Dr Panos Hatziprokopiou is Assistant Professor at the School of Spatial Planning & Development. He has studied economics, sociology and human geography in Greece and the UK (MA Essex, DPhil Sussex). He has nearly 20 years of research experience in both countries, in a wide array of topics related to migration and migrants’ social incorporation. His key areas of interest are migration, immigrants’ settlement and incorporation, diversity and difference in the metropolis. He has published extensively on the above. He is the principal investigator of the AUTH team and coordinates TRAFIG research in Greece.
- http://www.plandevel.auth.gr/CV/melh_dep/en/Hatziprokopiou_P_cv_en.pdf
- https://auth.academia.edu/PHatziprokopiou
Dr. Thomas Goumenos
Dr Thomas Goumenos is a political scientist (MA Essex, PhD Panteion). His PhD thesis examined two separatist movements, in Indonesia and Ethiopia and developed a social mechanism-based analytical framework explaining separatist mobilisation. His primary research interests are situated in the nexus between nationalism and contentious politics; recently, he has developed an interest in aspects of immigrant and refugees’ political behaviour and their relations with local populations. Since August 201,5 he has been working as an assistant to the Greek MP for the island of Chios. He is a post-doctoral researcher and will lead research in the eastern Aegean.
Evangelia (Eva) Papatzani
Ms Evangelia (Eva) Papatzani is an architect (AUTH) with an MA in Urban & Regional Planning (NTUA), currently a PhD candidate in Urban and Regional Studies and Teaching Assistant at the School of Architecture (NTUA). Her research focuses on the study of migration and urban transformations. She is particularly interested in the socio–spatial relationships developing in the city between immigrants and locals, their everyday negotiations of co-habitation, the spatial dimensions of urban and social policies and the ways these affect different scales of migrants’ everyday life. She will lead TRAFIG’s empirical research in Athens.
Dr. Alexandra Siotou
Alexandra Siotou is an Adjunct Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Thessaly. Her research focuses on the gender and affective dimensions of migration and displacement, while she experiments with alternative methods of producing and disseminating anthropological knowledge. She is a member of the AUTH Team leading the research in Thessaloniki.
Filyra Vlastou-Dimopoulou
Filyra Vlastou-Dimopoulou is a PhD candidate in Human Geography (NTUA & Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University), with a BA in social psychology (Panteion University) and an MRes in social research methods (Paris Descartes University). Her current research focuses on the politics and spatialities of urban migration, particularly the living together dynamics in diverse urban spaces. Filyra leads TRAFIG’s empirical research in the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Chios.