Olga Demetriou

Professor Olga Demetriou is a leading scholar in Political Anthropology at Durham University's School of Government and International Affairs, where she also directs the Durham Global Security Institute. She has previously held roles at PRIO, the University of Cyprus, and Amnesty International. Her work bridges anthropology and political science, focusing on migration, activism, gender, and post-conflict dynamics in the Mediterranean and Balkans.

• Research Interests: Refugees and displacement, activism and mobilization on migration, ethnographic methodologies, gender and peacebuilding, cultural heritage in conflict, post-conflict reconstruction, border studies.
• Current Projects: 'Contesting Migration' explores pro- and anti-migrant activism in Mediterranean refugee reception sites using political ethnography.
• Teaching: Modules include Gender in the UN Global Security Agenda, Conflict Prevention, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, and fieldtrips to Cyprus.

Scientific Awards: Recipient of major grants including UKRI/ESRC (2023-2027), RESTART Excellence Hubs (2022-2024), British Academy/Leverhulme (2021-2023), and the Emslie Horniman Scholarship (1998). Her projects analyze migration governance, refugee reception, and gender in peace processes.

Supervision: Supervises doctoral projects on migration, refugee regimes, gender, conflict legacies, and cross-disciplinary themes. Current supervisees include Amanda Whitfield, Georgia Dimitriou, Jue Wang, Pertev Basri, and Phevos Simeonidis.