I was born and raised in Athens, Greece, where I completed my undergraduate studies in Psychology at the National and Capodestrian University of Athens. In 2003, I moved to London for my postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and stayed for 17 years before I moved to Shenzhen.

Over the past 19 years, I have held numerous research, teaching and consultancy posts at international peer institutions such as the London School of Economics and Political Science, Christ Church University, King’s College London, University College London, London Business School, University of the Arts London, and City University London.

I am a transdisciplinary social psychologist, who likes to wander off into social sciences, humanities and the arts to catalyse transformative shifts in our habits of mind and behaviors, ultimately fostering a more socially just, sustainable, and harmonious world. As an educator and a scholar, my praxis is rooted in the exploration of psycho-social and policy questions related to social values, subjectivities, and the socio-cognitive mechanisms involved in community-driven visions of the future and social change. This exploration takes place within the context of four key areas: (1) Chinese youth, social imagination and public life (2) community engagement and participation (3) science-society relations and (4) migration and identity.

My ideas have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Annual Review of Critical Psychology and edited volumes.

My research and teaching are informed by the belief that human realities are messy and laden with contradictions, struggles, plurality and resilience. I believe that humanities and psycho-social sciences start with them, which we need to engage with by providing hopeful explanations of social issues and structures.  

In my praxis as an educator and as scholar, I use participation for critical and ethical inquiry. Our learning communities serve as spaces for collective exploration and transformation, where students and teachers can challenge together taken for granted perspectives about ourselves and the world and imagine possibilities that contribute to a more just, harmonious and equitable world.

This process is often a painful one fraught with ambiguity and anxiety as well as hope, as it requires us to dare to be challenged, question our existing moral beliefs, assumptions and powers and take collective responsibility.