Faculty Member, Department of Anthropology and Ethnography
Aarhus University, MindLab
Aarhus University, Religion, Cognition and Culture research unit
About
I am an anthropologist, translator, photographer, and compulsive traveller. I was born in Greece, where I lived until my early 20s. I studied Religion at the Universities of Thessaloniki and Aarhus, and in 2007 I received my PhD in Anthropology from the Institute of Cognition and Culture, at Queen’s University Belfast. My dissertation, based on 16 months of fieldwork in Greece and Bulgaria, was an ethnography of the fire-walking rituals performed by the communities of the Anastenaria.
After receiving my PhD, I held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Princeton and Aarhus. During these appointments, I conducted further ethnographic fieldwork in Spain and Mauritius, where I studied some of the fire-walking rituals performed around the world. I am currently employed as Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Aarhus University Denmark.
My main interest is in understanding the effects of emotionally and physiologically arousing rituals on a personal cognitive/motivational as well as a group/socio-cultural level. Over the last few years, I have been concerned with developing a methodology to study such rituals experimentally in their natural contexts.
Apart from my academic pursuits, I have worked as a freelance editor, translator, and photographer. I have translated several books and articles on the subjects of Religion, Anthropology, Evolution and Cognition between English, Greek, French, and Spanish (see my translations). I speak Greek, English, Spanish, Italian and French, and I am currently learning Danish.
Contact Information
| Homepage: | |
| Address: | Aarhus University, Building 1443 |
