Research Groups
Literary Reading Group
This group refers to practising participatory reading of a literary book throughout the whole academic year with the aim of discovering and exploring different aspects of the book without the restriction of a narrow thematic or other context and to exchange reading experiences from meeting to meeting. The slow pace of participatory reading and the absence of a specific perspective in the approach allows us to observe how our reading evolves and to reflect both on the stimuli and issues raised by the text and on our own personal relationship with reading.
Elena Anastasaki
Coordinator
Group of Interdisciplinary Dialogue Urban Cantadoras
The theme of the group’s readings and discussions is “Multimodal and interdisciplinary readings of gender and racial discrimination”. The name of the group is inspired by the improvised traditional songs of Afro-Colombian women on farms who narrate memories and express the power of the female voice through song. The group aims to raise awareness on issues of gender and racial discrimination through interdisciplinary and multimodal negotiations of meanings of literary or academic works and films, with the ultimate goal of empowering women’s identity, opening up spaces and developing ways to participate in public discourse and intervention.
Roula Kitsiou & Elena Anastasaki
Coordinators
Research Group for the Study of the Linguistic Landscape of Volos
The research group consists of undergraduate students of the Department and was created during the winter semester of the academic year 2021-2022 under the coordination of Roula Kitsiou. The research question that was set for investigation in the year 2021-2022 based on the interests of the participating students is: How is childhood constructed in the linguistic landscape of Volos? For this purpose, the group members observe and record the surrounding written space (e.g. playgrounds, parks, buildings, shops, posters, graffiti, signs, prompts, suggestions, prohibitions), talk to citizens of Volos and reflect dialogically on (multi)lingual elements of the linguistic landscape that address children directly and explicitly or indirectly and in a multimodal way. They discover ways in which gendered identities are constructed in the linguistic landscape, visibilize ways in which public space includes and excludes social groups, and present ideas for re-imagining a more inclusive public space for children and adults.
Roula Kitsiou
Coordinator
The Act4Lang Group: Acting for Languages
The group was created from the active interest of undergraduate students in collective actions on issues of language contact, translanguaging and communication in multicultural environments as well as from the need to connect theoretical knowledge with social practice and research. During the academic year 2022-2023, the team members participated in the design of multimodal educational resources for language and intercultural awareness and critical literacy, their implementation within classes of Erasmus students learning Greek, conducting research interventions and the implementation of a walking tour and creative activities in the city of Volos with the Erasmus students, aiming at developing multilingual and intercultural awareness, critically exploring the contact of languages and developing translingual and creative practices. Through the group’s actions, its members discuss, critically reflect, investigate and co-create on issues of translanguaging and intercultural exchange in education and society.
Anastasia Gaintartzi
Coordinator