Staff Profile
Dr Stelios Lekakis
Visiting Fellow
- Email: stelios.lekakis@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 2203
- Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Panopticon (Old Library Building) - 3.16
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
I am an archaeologist / heritage manager working on landscape heritage and digital tools, politics in heritage and community involvement and heritage commons.
I studied classical archaeology at the University of Athens and after my MA studies (UCL 2005, Managing Archaeological Sites) I worked extensively as a consultant in Greece, focusing on sustainable strategies in heritage management and the role of local communities, thematics of my PhD (University of Athens 2013).
I work with NGOs (I am one of the founding members of MONUMENTA NGO and the project manager of the 14-year-long “Local Communities & Monuments” programme) and university departments on various cultural informatics projects, heritage management projects and excavations. I have also worked at the Greek Ministry of Culture (Acropolis Restoration Project: 2007-2008 and Directorate of the National Archive of Monuments 2014-2015). At MONUMENTA, we are currently (2013-) working on a public inventory of the 19th and 20th c. buildings in Athens, recording architectural heritage and related archives and oral history with crowdsourcing and co-curating tools.
In 2017, I completed my MSCA-IF at Newcastle University dealing with landscape heritage (characterisation, reception and management) and in 2019 the AHRC Cultural Value Follow on scheme "Co-creating Heritage: Bottom up planning for heritage management in rural areas", producing an alternative management approach for rural monuments and landscapes. As part of my AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship the next year, a new open-access, mobile digital tool was produced to aid in outdoors ethnographic research and dialogue on heritage: RESCAPER is now available for iOS & Android devices.
I am an advocate of 'heritage commons' and have considerably contributed in the development of the field, which is now springing up as an academic sub-discipline and a sociocultural potential. In 2020, my edited volume "Cultural heritage in the realm of the commons; Conversations on the case of Greece" was published by Ubiquity Press.
I am currently working on a monograph about cultural politics and heritage management during the Asia Minor War (1919-1922) and developing a project on islands and landscape change in 19th and early 20th c.
In my spare time I seek scattered truths among things and people.
Google scholar: Click here.
Research Interests
- Cultural heritage management & sustainable development
- Island and littoral landscapes & seascapes
- Cultural Informatics
- Heritage commons
- Public archaeology & interpretation
- Politics in heritage
- Archaeological Ethnography
Current activities - posts
- Research Associate at Institute of Archaeology - Centre of Applied Archaeology, UCL, UK
- Visiting Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, CA
- Creative Director at MAZOMOS Landscape and Heritage Consultants BVBA, BG
- Founding Member of the NGO MONUMENTA, for the protection of natural and architectural heritage of Greece and Cyprus, GR
- Founding Member of the Association of Heritage Consultants, GR. Elected president: 2014-2018
- Member of the Council for Architectural Heritage, Elliniki Etairia NGO, Society for the Preservation of the Environment and Cultural Heritage, GR
- Europa Nostra’s assessor (EU Prize Scheme for Cultural Heritage - Europa Nostra Awards), BE
- Member of the research team (University of Athens): For the excavation and publication of the ‘Diogeneion Gymnasion’ archaeological site in Athens, GR
- Member of the World Archaeological Congress | Former member of the Student Committee (WACSC) (2006-2013), UK
- Member of the European Archaeology Association (2009-), CZ
Grants & Scholarships (selection)
- AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship (2019)
- Research Centre for the Humanities for the Asia Minor heritage politics project (2019)
- British Institute At Ankara Research Funding for the Asia Minor heritage politics project (2018)
- Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal (2018)
- AHRC Follow on for rural heritage (2017-2018)
- Marie-Curie Fellow (2015-2017)
- Stavros Niarchos Foundation for MONUMENTA historic building research (2013-)
- A.G. Leventis Foundation for the MuA Project (2010-2013)
- Initiative for Heritage Conservancy (2010)
- Centre for the Classical World Study Grants, UCL (2005)
- State Scholarship Foundation (2004-2008)
Adjunct Lecturer
- MA in Social and Solidarity Economy, Hellenic Open University Course: The Commons: An alternative paradigm (lectures, seminars, practicals)(2017-2021)
- MA in Cultural Policy and Development, Open University of Cyprus | Course: Cultural Policy and Cultural Management (2015-2018, 2020)
- MA Archaeology, City, Architecture, University of Athens | Course: The legal framework in managing cultural heritage and practical aspects (2015-2016)
- MA in Heritage Management, University of Kent and the Athens University of Economics and Business | Courses: Public Archaeology (2014), Introduction to archaeology (2014-2015)