Staff Profile
I am a cultural anthropologist with a focus on community heritage, identities, media, and the impact of the Anthropocene. I have experimented with various media-centered interdisciplinary methodologies, working with diverse communities around the world, including Indigenous communities in India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam; Russophone migrants in London; refugees in Scotland and Greece; and student communities in Kythira, Berlin, and Sharjah, the UAE. I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh (2021), which was funded by the AHRC and OWRI. From 2021 to 2023, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Film, Visual Culture, and Media at Durham University and the UKRI GCRF Living Deltas Hub, where I worked on my "Community Digital Storytelling and Delta Futures" project.
My Leverhulme-funded research project, "Indigenous Visualities of Climate Crisis," explores the impact of environmental degradation and climate change on the cultural practices and material culture of Indigenous peoples through visual narratives produced by these communities. Focusing on Vietnam and Cambodia, I aim to document the imprint of climate crisis on heritage by collecting short films created through a participatory filmmaking process that will offer skills and platforms to the involved Indigenous communities; and to analyze the audiovisual collection for its capacity to raise awareness about endangered cultures, promote traditional knowledge, and support sustainable development.
At the moment, I am completing two book projects: an edited volume with F.J. Hernández-Adrián entitled "River Delta Futures: Endangered Communities in Audiovisual Media" (Bloomsbury Academic, Forthcoming) about the audiovisual strategies and practices employed by communities, artists, and scholars globally in response to delta change and climate breakdown; and my first monograph "Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism" (Legenda, Forthcoming), which explores the role of literature and shared reading practices in the community life of Russian-speaking migrants in Britain.
The Academic Year 2023/2024, I am contributing to 'MCH8501: Museums, Galleries and Heritage in Society' and 'MCH8612: Heritage Lives: Media Messages and Form'.
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Articles
- Theocharis A, Roy E. Water Violence and Hydronarratives of Collaboration and Resistance in Bangladeshi Ecocinema. 2024. Submitted.
- Theocharis A. Indigenous Filmmaking and Narratives of Climate Crisis from Bangladesh and Vietnam. 2024. In Preparation.
- Theocharis A. Going online, going global: The Pandemic meetings of a Russophone book club. The Garage Journal: Studies in Art, Museums & Culture 2021, (2), 37-58.
- Theocharis A. Polyphonic Memory and Narratives of Resilience in Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time. Journal of Languages, Texts, and Society 2019, (3), 185-206.
- Theocharis A. The Figure of Jesus Christ in Dostoevsky's Idiot and Canetti's Auto-da-Fé. Simeioseis 2012, (75), 93–103.
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Authored Books
- Theocharis, A. Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism . Oxford: Legenda, 2024. In Preparation.
- Theocharis A. Mayakovsky in Love. Athens: Idyepeia, 2022.
- Theocharis A. Indigenous Visualities of Climate Crisis. 0. In Preparation.
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Book Chapters
- Theocharis A. Russian Literature Will Fix Everything: Read Russia and Cultural Statecraft. In: Forsberg, T; Mäkinen, S, ed. Russia’s Cultural Statecraft. New York: Routledge, 2021.
- Anemogiannis D, Theocharis A. Echoes of Elves and Demons in the Riverbank: The Exploration of History and Folklore in Kythera through Walking. In: Piga, BE; Siret, D; Thibaud, J, ed. Experiential Walks for Urban Design. Revealing, Representing, and Activating the Sensory Environment. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021, pp.3-23.
- Theocharis A. The Russian Dream and Victor Pelevin’s Generation ‘Π’: Ideology in Post-Soviet Russia. In: Karatzogianni, A; Schandorf, M; Ferra, I, ed. Protest Technologies and Media Revolutions: The Longue Durée. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2020, pp.37–49.
- Theocharis A. Soundwalks and Art. In: Athanasekou, M, ed. Why does Art Concern Me? Its Many Dimensions and How It Is Used in Our Lives. Athens: Idyepeia, 2020, pp.260-277.
- Theocharis A. Sensory Community. In: VADEMECUM: 77 Minor Terms for Writing Urban Places. Rotterdam: Nai0I0 Publishers, 2020.
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Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
- Anemogiannis D, Theocharis A. The Sound of Kythera – Synergies of Education and Culture in the Field of Acoustic Ecology. In: Acoustic Ecology Conference. 2018, Mytilini: Hellenic Society of Acoustic Ecology.
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Edited Book
- Hernández-Adrián FJ, Theocharis A, ed. River Delta Futures: Endangered Communities in Audiovisual Media. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. In Preparation.