The COVID-19 Anti-Vaccination Movement in Cyprus: an investigation of its discourses

Project Coordinator & Principal Researcher: Dr Marilena Paraskeva

Duration: January 2022 - August 2022

Overview

This project aims to examine the speeches articulated in anti-vaccination onsite protests in Cyprus, bridging the gap caused by the absence of research on both the oral discourses articulated in anti-vaccination onsite protests and the anti-vaccination movement discourse in Greek-speaking contexts. Specifically, the project will:

1. Identify and analyse the main topics included in these speeches.

2. Identify the range of implicit and explicit influences/resources (political, scientific/medical, religious, cultural and/or social) upon which the speeches draw to support their arguments.

3. Identify the linguistic strategies that the speeches contain to persuade the public on certain(anti-) vaccination ideas and, in turn, shape the beliefs and knowledge of the public.

Project Outputs

Policy Brief & Research Paper

Research Paper
Read the Research Paper of the project, which was published as part of the GreeSE working paper series, GreeSE Paper No. 179

The Policy Brief is available here.

Articles & Interviews

Dr Paraskeva gave an interview to Politis Newspaper and was published in the article Ο λόγος στους… αντιεμβολιαστές (29 May 2023)

Events

Dr Paraskeva presented her research on 19 May 2023 under the 4^th Language, Literature, Literacies Online Lecture Series, organized by the Greek Language and Literature Postgraduate Programme of Studies of the Open University of Cyprus.

Dr Paraskeva presented her research on 18 January 2023 at Διαδράσεις (Interactions) Radio Program, Astra Radio Station, produced by Dr Christos Hadjioannou (co-produced with Prof. Nicos Trimikliniotis). You can listen to the presentation here in Greek.

Dr Paraskeva also presented the research project at the scientific seminar “Vaccination acceptance: The Safest Project”, organized by the Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Cyprus, and the Cyprus Medical Association, on 3 December 2022 at the Cyprus University of Technology.

Dr Paraskeva presented her research on 28 November 2022 at a research seminar, part of the postgraduate module “Language, Discourse and Communication” under the “Language, Literacy and Education” Master’s degree of the Department of Education, University of Cyprus.

Researcher

Project Coordinator and Principal Researcher:
Dr Marilena Paraskeva, Teaching Fellow in Language & Literacy, Department of Education, University of Cyprus