Dr Afroditi-Maria Koulaxi is a Guest Teacher at the London School of Economics and Political Science and has recently completed her ESRC-funded doctoral thesis in the LSE Department of Media and Communications. Her research cross-fertilises theories and methods from media and communications, sociology and urban studies and contributes to the literature on media and identity at times of crisis. By zooming in on a multicultural Athenian neighbourhood undergoing many changes, Dr Koulaxi’s thesis examined citizens’ embodied and mediated encounters with noncitizen migrants in the spatio-temporality of compounded crises. In empirical terms, Dr Koulaxi explored how Greek citizens reacted to and negotiated knowledge developed through mediated encounters when in physical proximity with migrants within the urban locale of Kypseli. Her doctoral thesis was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (now UK Research and Innovation).
Dr Koulaxi has 6-years’ experience in three collaborative projects, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the LSE’s Institute of Global Affairs, the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has worked as a research assistant at the Migration and the media project, Resilient Communities, Resilient Cities? Digital makings of the city of refuge, and currently works on the Mobile Citizenship, States of Exception and (non)Border Regimes in post- COVID-19 Cyprus.
Over the years, Dr Koulaxi has taken on multiple advising and teaching roles, including those of Associate Study Adviser at LSE LIFE, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Dissertation Officer, and Change Makers supervisor. Dr Koulaxi is an Associate Fellow of AdvanceHE. She is currently teaching MC408: Theories and Concepts in Media and Communications I (Key concepts and interdisciplinary approaches) and has taught IR140 Global Communications, Citizens and Cultural Politics and MC499.2B: Dissertation Study Skills Workshop. In her Associate Study Adviser role, Dr Koulaxi consults students on essay writing, methodology, research designs, literature review writing and issues around their Dissertation thesis (both BA/BSc and MSc students).
Dr Koulaxi holds an MSc in Media and Communication Governance from LSE as well as a BA in Politics and International Relations from the University of Kent. She has worked as a political correspondent and international news intern at ANTENNA Group (Greece).