Vassilis Nitsiakos

Vassilis Nitsiakos is a Professor of Social Folklore at the University of Ioannina, Department of History and Archaeology. He also serves as Director of the International Konitsa Summer School in Anthropology, Ethnography, and Comparative Folklore of the Balkans. His academic career spans teaching, research, and leadership in interdisciplinary projects across Europe.

• PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge
• Director of multiple EU-funded research initiatives

Research Interests include:

• Migration, borders, and national identities
• Cultural ecology and environmental perception
• Economic/social/cultural transformations in Greece and the Balkans
• The intersection of myth, ritual, and modernity
• Orality, literacy, and cultural memory
• Demographic issues and rural labor dynamics

Scientific Activity demonstrates a focus on fieldwork-based projects, including the Analyses Localisees de Changement Social (1986-1989) and ARCHAEOMEDES II (1996-1999). His publications span monographs, edited volumes, and multilingual articles (Greek, English, Italian, Albanian, Bulgarian), emphasizing Balkan borderlands and cultural sustainability.

Teaching includes courses on:

• Introduction to Folklore
• Nations and ethnic identities in the Balkans
• Cultural construction of space/time
• Methodological issues in social sciences

Networks include founding the Border Crossings academic network, organizing annual student conferences (since 2004), and the Konitsa Summer School (since 2006). He has contributed extensively to interregional cooperation and postgraduate methodology seminars.