Dionysios Stathakopoulos

Dionysios Stathakopoulos serves as a Senior Lecturer in History at the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies. His academic profile centers on Byzantine social history with specialized expertise in poverty, medical history, and disease within the Byzantine Empire and Late Antiquity.

His research investigates marginalized populations including beggars and the societal impacts of famines and epidemics. He examines religious dynamics through preaching practices and emotional expression, analyzing how bishops and beggars interacted with audiences to shape social structures in medieval societies. This work bridges historical, anthropological, and medical humanities perspectives.

Recent publications explore afterlife punishments in Cretan frescoes (2020) and rural mortality during crises (2012), revealing consistent thematic connections between medical knowledge, religious practices, and social vulnerability. His scholarship demonstrates how Byzantine communities navigated famine cannibalism, identity fragmentation in the Aegean, and embodied emotional rhetoric.

Stathakopoulos has directed eight research projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, including studies on Byzantine pharmacology (2016-2019) and Late Byzantine wealth inequality (2018). He has supervised seven graduate students and contributes to academic discourse through peer review for Cambridge University Press and conference presentations on Byzantine charity and plague responses.

As a core affiliate of the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, he participates in interdisciplinary initiatives advancing Mediterranean historical studies through collaborative research on material culture, textual traditions, and socio-economic structures of the Byzantine world.