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 Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Cambodia; Russophone migrants in London; refugees in Scotland and Greece; and student communities in Berlin, Kolkata, Kythira, Sharjah, and Tobago. I am a convenor of the NU Anthropocenes Research Group and the Indigenous Studies Discussion Group at the University of Cambridge. I co-organise the 'Indigenous Heritage and Climate Activism' seminar series that fosters dialogues on the interconnected issues of environmental justice, climate policy, and community art among Indigenous scholars, artists, and activists. I am also a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex.

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 analyse the audiovisual collection for its capacity to raise awareness about endangered cultures, promote traditional knowledge, and support sustainable development.

I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh (2021), funded by the AHRC and OWRI. Drawing on this research, my first monograph "Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism" (Legenda, 2025) explores the role of literature and shared reading practices in the community life of Russian-speaking migrants in Britain.

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. This led to an edited volume with F.J. Hernández-Adrián entitled "River Delta Futures: Endangered Communities in Audiovisual Media" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) about the audiovisual strategies and practices employed by communities, artists, and scholars globally in response to delta change and climate breakdown.

The Academic Year 2024/2025, I am contributing to:

• MCH8612: Heritage Lives: Media Messages and Form
• MCH8552: Heritage Processes. Global perspectives, practices and politics
• MCH8501: Museums, Galleries and Heritage in Society
• GEO8010: Creative Methods in Social Sciences
• GEO3162: The Politics of Difference and Identity

• Articles

  • Theocharis A. Delta Voices of Climate Crisis: Community Digital Storytelling in Bangladesh and Vietnam. Visual Studies 2024, ePub ahead of Print.
  • 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.

• Authored Books

  • Theocharis A. Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism. Cambridge, UK: MHRA Legenda, 2025.
  • Theocharis A. Mayakovsky in Love. Athens: Idyepeia, 2022.
  • Theocharis A. Indigenous Visualities of Climate Crisis. 0. In Preparation.

• Book Chapters

  • Theocharis A. 'Russian Literature Will Fix Everything': The Read Russia project and cultural statecraft. In: Forsberg T; Mäkinen S, ed. Russia’s Cultural Statecraft. New York: Routledge, 2021, pp.98-119.
  • 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-P, 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.

• 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.

• Edited Book

  • Hernández-Adrián FJ, Theocharis A, ed. River Delta Futures: Endangered Communities in Audiovisual Media. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.