Maria Avraamidou
Dr Avraamidou is the principal researcher and scientific coordinator of project MEDIA.Crisis. She is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Since completing her PhD in Communication and Internet Studies (12/2015), she developed a research and teaching portfolio in media, culture and power with a particular focus on media approaches to migrant/refugee reception, and their interplay with nationalism and ethno-racialization. She is a member of research groups DESIRE and ECHO, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB).
Her academic focus is positioned by a diverse background as she holds an MA in Multi-Media Journalism and a BA in Law with a specialization in refugee law.
Before taking an academic turn, she held professional posts with UNHCR and anti-racist NGOs and worked as a journalist at national media. Full CV here.
Follow on Twitter: @maavraaM & contact at: mariaavraamidou@gmail.com
Education
PhD in Communication and Internet Studies (2015), Cyprus University of Technology (CUT)
MA in Multi-Media Journalism (2006), Bournemouth University, UK
BA in Law (2003), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Academic Research Experience
Post-Doctoral Fellow Dec. 2018 – present day Department of Psychology, UCY.
Research Associate Dec. 2017 - present day, Department of Communication, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
Post-Doctoral Researcher 2016/2018, Department of Psychology, UCY.
Post-graduate Research Fellow 2010/2015, CUT.
Research Grants
Post-doctoral Research Grant ‘DIDAKTOR’ 2018/2022, Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (POST-DOC/0916/0115)
PhD Research Grant ‘PENEK’ 2012/2014, Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation, PENEK0311/10
Academic Teaching
Adjunct Lecturer in Media and Journalism (Spring semester 2017), Department of Social and Political Sciences, UCY.
Adjunct Lecturer in Journalism and Media (2014/2017), Department of Communication and Internet Studies, CUT.
Teaching Assistant (2011/2014), Department of Communication and Internet Studies, CUT.
Articles Peer Review
Avraamidou M. & Ioannou M. (forthcoming, 2022). Migrants as 'pawns': Antimigrant debates on Twitter and their affinity to European border politics and discourses. European Journal of Cultural Studies DOI: 10.1177/13675494221120838
Avraamidou M. & Eftychiou E. (2021). Migrant Racialization on Twitter during a border and a pandemic crisis. International Communication Gazette https://doi.org/10.1177%2F17480485211054301
Avraamidou, M., Ioannou M. & Eftychios E. (2021) “Innocent” hashtags? A cautionary tale. The #IStandWithGreece as a network of intolerance on Twitter during a land border crisis”. International Journal of Communication
Avraamidou M., (2020) The “refugee crisis” as a Eurocentric media construct: An exploratory analysis of pro-migrant media representations in the Guardian and the New York Times. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism, Critique. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1080
Kadianaki I., Avraamidou M. and Andreouli E. (2020). Dilemmas of sexual citizenship: a critical analysis of Civil Union Law representations in Greek Cypriot newspapers. Journal of Feminism & Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353519900191
Avraamidou M. & Psaltis C. (2019) Blocking the solution: Social representations of threats and (non)dialogue with alternative representations in Greek-Cypriot newspapers during peace negotiations. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour.1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12222
Avraamidou M., Kadianaki E., Ioannou M, & Panayiotou E., (2018) Representations of Europe at times of massive border movements: A qualitative analysis of Greek-Cypriot newspapers during the 2015 refugee crisis. Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture, Javnost - The Public, 26(1), 105-119. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1505073
Kadianaki, I., Avraamidou, M., Ioannou, M., & Panagiotou, E. (2018). Understanding media debate around migration: The relation between favorable and unfavorable representations of migration in the Greek Cypriot press. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24(4), 407.
Avraamidou M. (2017). Exploring Greek-Cypriot Media Representations of National Identities in Ethnically Divided Cyprus: The case of the Annan Plan negotiations from 2002 to 2004. National Identities. 20(5), 439-461. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2017.1297783
Avraamidou M. & Kyriakides C. (2015) Media, Nationalism and the Negotiation of Inter-Ethnic Peace in Cyprus. Global Media Journal: Mediterranean Edition, 10 (2).
Book chapters
Avraamidou M & Şahin S. (forthcoming). (Elite) Monologues on Twitter? A social network perspective of Twitter debates about negotiations on divided Cyprus’ reunification. In Florian, Z. & Kennis A. News Media and War in the Digital Age: In the Shadow of Western Military Intervention Shaping War, Conflict and Peace Narratives in the 21st Century. Routledge.
Airaghi G. & Avraamidou M. (2017) PAX TROIKANA: The UK Media and the Symbolic Conflicts on Cyprus' 2013 “Rescue”. In Carpentier N., & Doudaki V (Eds.) Conflict and Media. The enduring conflict in Cyprus and its imaginings. Berghahn: New York.
Milioni, D.L., Avraamidou, M. (2017) ‘It is not the time for intifada’: A framing and semiotic analysis of televised representations of the 2013 Cypriot protests. In Suman Gupta and Tao Papaioannou (Eds), Grievances, Identities and Agency: Media Representations of Anti-Austerity Protests in the EU. Routledge: New York.
Reviewing Activities
Social Media + Society, New Media and Society, International Communication Gazette, International Journal of Communication, Triple C: Communication, Capitalism and Critique, Media History Journal, Journal SN Social Sciences and others.
Research Reports
Conference Presentations (last three years)
Avraamidou, M. & Ioannou M. (February 2022, Brussels). Networks of intolerance and Migrant Racialization on Twitter. Etmaal 2022 conference Diversity, democracy & communication.
Avraamidou M., Ioannou M. & Eftychiou E. (September 2021, Barcelona-Online) entitled “Innocent” hashtags? A cautionary tale. The #IStandWithGreece as a network of intolerance on Twitter during a land border crisis”. 15th European Sociology Association Conference Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures
Ioannou, M, & Avraamidou M. (2021, 11-13 July). ‘Othering’ in social media during a land-border crisis at Europe’s periphery. [Oral Presentation]. Virtual Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology. Montreal, Canada
Avraamidou M. & Eftychiou E. (May 2021, Helsinki University). Migrant Racialization on Twitter during a border and a pandemic crisis. Second Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism, and Polarisation (HEPP2)
Avraamidou, M., Ioannou M. & Eftychios E. (April 2021, Utrecht University) “Innocent” hashtags? A cautionary tale. The #IStandWithGreece as a network of intolerance on Twitter during a land border crisis”. Migrant Belongings: Digital Practices and the Everyday conference, Utrecht University, April 21- April, 22.
Avraamidou M. & Eftychiou E. (December 2020, University of Amsterdam). Migrant Racialization in Twitter during a border and a pandemic crisis. Workshop Racialisation and Social Boundary-Making in Times of COVID-19.
Avraamidou M. (September 2020, DN24 Brussels). The normalization of anti-migrant propaganda in the internet: A qualitative analysis of comments in the New York Times and The Guardian websites and social media. Discourse and Communication as Propaganda
Avraamidou M. & Psaltis C. (September 2020, DN24 Brussels). Blocking the solution: Social representations of threats and (non)dialogue with alternative representations in Greek-Cypriot newspapers during peace negotiations. Discourse and Communication as Propaganda
Avraamidou M. (July 2019, IAMCR Madrid). The Refugee Crisis as a Eurocentric Media Construct: A Transatlantic Exploratory Online Media Analysis Between 2013 to 2015. International Association for Media and Communication Research – IAMCR Madrid 7-11 July.