Biographical Information

I studied Linguistics at the Department of Philology, School of Philosophy, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in my hometown. Among my teachers were T.-S. Pavlidou, A.-F. Christidis, and M. Setatos. I completed my doctoral dissertation as a Special Postgraduate Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I defended my dissertation in June 1996. Since October 1997, I have been teaching Linguistics at the Department of Philology (Linguistics Division) of the University of Patras, moving through all academic ranks.

Since 2016, I have held the rank of Full Professor in the field of Discourse Analysis – Sociolinguistics. I served as Deputy Chair of the Department of Philology from February to May 2018 and from September 2020 to August 2022. I also served as Director of the Postgraduate Programme Contemporary Approaches to Language and Texts from September 2022 to February 2024 and from July to December 2024. Since 2010, I have been Head of the Linguistics Division.

Over the years, I have visited various universities abroad, both to further my academic development and to explore and disseminate my ideas and perspectives. These visits included postgraduate studies at the University of Copenhagen and research visits during my sabbatical leaves to Lancaster University (Visiting Academic Researcher), King’s College London (Academic Visitor), the University of Liverpool (Honorary Research Fellow), and Hacettepe University (Visiting Scholar). During my sabbatical leaves, I also taught courses and/or delivered lectures at, among other institutions, Universität Hamburg, Freie Universität Berlin, Université de Strasbourg, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the University of Groningen, The Ohio State University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Research

My doctoral dissertation focused on a micro-analytical investigation of the textual organisation of discourse, with particular emphasis on metalinguistic and metapragmatic markers. Gradually, my research has incorporated the sociolinguistic macro-level, critically examining the interaction between micro-analytical processes and the macro-level of discourses and ideologies.

My research interests include educational inequalities, orality, (critical) literacy and spelling, language policy, the relationship between language, gender and sexuality, the construction of (youth) identities in narrative and humorous genres, political and media discourse, attitudes towards dialects and minority and migrant languages, migrant identities, and, more recently, (liquid) racism.

I have participated in numerous research projects, both as principal investigator and as a member of research teams, and have presented my work at many international conferences. In 2017, I was a plenary speaker at the 13th International Conference on Greek Linguistics (ICGL 13), held in London. My articles have been published in leading international journals, including Journal of Pragmatics, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Narrative Inquiry, Discourse & Society, Pragmatics & Society, Journal of Language and Politics, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. I am a member of the editorial board of Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict and serve as a reviewer for numerous Greek and international journals.

I have authored or co-authored the following books, which are used as textbooks at numerous universities: Introduction to Issues in Sociolinguistics (co-authored, Nissos, 2002 [in Greek]); Language Teaching and Text Composition (Patakis, 2005 [in Greek]); and Identities, Narratives and Critical Education (co-authored, Patakis, 2011 [in Greek]). For the international academic community, I also co-authored The Narrative Construction of Identities (Palgrave, 2012).

More recently, my book From National to Post-national Discourse: Migrant Identities and Critical Education (Patakis, 2020 [in Greek]) was published, along with two edited volumes: Tracing the Penetration of Racism into Antiracist Discourse: Studies on Liquid Racism (Pedio, 2023 [in Greek]), co-edited with colleagues, and Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism: In Between Antiracist and Racist Discourse (John Benjamins, 2024), also co-edited with colleagues.

I was the principal investigator of the TRACE research project, Tracing Racism in Antiracist Discourse: A Critical Approach to European Public Discourse on the Migration and Refugee Crisis (TRACE/HFRI-FM17-42, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, 2019–2023). The research team included scholars from numerous universities in Greece and abroad (see https://trace2019.wixsite.com/trace-project).

The TRACE team and I, as principal investigator, were honoured as Persons of the Year 2025 by the newspaper Peloponnisos, as part of its annual awards. In January 2023, I received the Panagiotis Kanellopoulos Award for Outstanding Publication 2022, jointly with G. Xydopoulos and K. Tzortzatou, from the University of Patras, in recognition of our research contributions. My research impact indicators are as follows: Scopus H-index: 17; Google Scholar H-index: 24.

Teaching

At the undergraduate level, I teach courses such as Discourse Analysis, Text Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Introduction to Linguistics. At the postgraduate level, I teach specialised topics in Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Literacy, with a particular emphasis on Migrant Identities.

I have supervised and examined numerous undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and doctoral theses in Greece and abroad. Five doctoral dissertations have already been completed under my primary supervision. Among the most significant and rewarding moments in my career as a university teacher are those when my former students are appointed to academic positions at universities in Greece or abroad.