Director: Prof. Dr Ann Brysbaert

From March 2022 Prof Dr Ann Brysbaert is the director of the Netherlands Institute at Athens. She studied Archaeology (MA, KULeuven) and Conservation of Archaeological Materials (BSc. Honors, UCL, London).
After she worked several years in the field and in museums as conservator of archaeological remains, she received her PhD at Glasgow University. Following this, she held several academic positions: at the University of Leicester, DIKEMES-CYA (Athens), Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Heidelberg University, Glasgow University, and, since 2013, at Leiden University.
Between 2015 and 2022, Ann Brysbaert was Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project ‘SETinSTONE’, while from 2016-2018 she also was director of research in the Board of the Faculty of Archeology (2016-18).

Tel. 210-9210760

Deputy Director – Advisor on International Mobility and Cooperation: drs. Willem Ledeboer

Willem Ledeboer studied Eastern European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As a student he went to Greece in 1992 in order to study the position of the Greek minority in the former Soviet-Union, the subject of his graduation in 1994. In 1996 he became General Secretary at what was then called “The Netherlands Archaeological School” and since 2010 he is the Deputy Director of the NIA.
In the Institute, he is also responsible for the subjects of international mobility and cooperation and promotes the academic contacts between the Netherlands and Greece. He advices Dutch students and scholars who want to study or conduct research in Greece, but also Greek students and scholars wishing to study or to conduct research at Dutch Universities. He also actively contributes to the deepening, expansion and implementation of the OIA program in cognitive subjects beyond the traditional ones, such as in Jewish Studies or Modern History.

Tel. 210-9210778

Scientific coordinator of Social and Political sciences: Dr Trifon Bampilis

Tryfon has received a PhD from the University of Leiden in the field of cultural anthropology, he has conducted post-doc research as a fellow of the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, he has received his MSc from the University of London (UCL), department of Social Anthropology, and for his first degree studied social anthropology and social policy at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. His research has focused on the historicized ethnography of Greece with a special emphasis on the Aegean islands and Athens and he has written several books and chapters on the effects of modernization in contemporary societies, material culture, consumption, food and drinking cultures, visual culture, nationalism and far right extremism.
His interests include anthropology of neoliberalism, modernity, popular culture, death and religion, Europe and South America. He has taught cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Bayreuth and he is the main organizer and facilitator of the NIA winter school Migration in the Margins of Europe, the NIA summer school Urgent Multimodal Ethnographies of Greece and the autumn school Multimodal Methodology in Archeology.
His historized anthropological monograph (Berghahn 2011, Oxford & New York) is a widely reviewed work while more recently is trying to connect his prior research to the heavy drinking Afro-Brazilian entities of Umbanda in Rio de Janeiro.

Scientific coordinator of Cultural Management, Heritage Tourism and Cities: Dr Nicholas Karachalis

Nicholas Karachalis is lecturer and researcher in the field of urban development, heritage and cultural/tourism strategies. He has a strong interest in analysing the trends and dynamics between culture, tourism and spatial development processes, using an interdisciplinary approach and perspective. He is Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Planning and Regional Development of the University of Thessaly in Volos and at the post-graduate programme in Cultural Management at the Greek Open University. He has also participated in several other university programmes as teaching staff: as Visiting Staff at the International Hellenic University, at the Open University of Cyprus, the Harokopio University, at summer universities, etc. He holds a PhD in Economic and Regional Development (Panteion University of Athens), a Master in European Urban Cultures and a BA in Economic and Regional Development He has collaborated to several research projects and studies related to regional and local development, marketing, cultural economics and tourism planning. He is active as a trainer and seminar facilitator for various organisations (URBACT, National Public Administration School, etc.).

 

Accountant: Panagiotis Gasparatos

Panagiotis Gasparatos graduated from the TEI in Larissa in 1982 and holds a First Class Tax Accountant license and a member of the Greek Economic Chamber. He is married and is the father of three children.  Since 2001, he has been working at the Institute and has been responsible for financial management, while providing logistical support for staff and building management.
Alongside his work at OIA, he and his daughter Anastasia head his own accounting office in Athens.

Tel. 210-9210771

 

Secretary: Emmy Mestropian-Makri

Emmy Mestropian-Makri was born in Athens to a Greek father and a Dutch mother. She is married, a mother of two and studies at the Department of European Studies of the Hellenic Open University. She is working as a secretary at the Institute since 2000. She is responsible for the hostels and the general secretarial organization, while she supports and actively contributes to the organization of the Institute’s activities.

Tel. 210-9210760

 

Building Maintenance: Ioannis Makris

Ioannis studied Planning and Analysis of Computer Systems and obtained his MBA from the University of Wales. He attended a significant number of seminars in the areas of Sales, Business Management and Marketing. For 15 years he was a Branch Manager in retail chains of well-known brands.
For over 16 years, he worked as a consultant for Greek companies, and also as a Sales and Network Inspector in companies selling electrical appliances and companies manufacturing and selling furniture, positions in which he received several service and performance distinctions. At the OIA he offers his services in personnel, security and building management.

Tel. 210-9210771

 

Librarian: Sotiria Nikolou
Sotiria Nikolou holds a Bachelor degree from the Department of Library Science and Information Systems, Faculty of Management and Economics at National Technological Institute of Athens. She previously worked in several libraries such as, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (National Library of Greece), academic libraries at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, municipal libraries in Attica and in other regions in Greece. Also, she has worked in companies specializing in Integrated Solutions for digital archiving, digitization and physical document management services.
She has been awarded with the Librarian Award for the year 2013 by the Greek Department of International Board on Books for Young People for her work at children’s library section. Throughout her working career, she has attended many educational seminars and conferences in the field of information systems and metadata. In 2019, she was assigned as a group leader in voluntary groups at the 85th World Library and Information Congress that was organized in Athens by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). In the Institute some of her main responsibilities are the managing and processing of the Library’s material according to international standards cataloguing rules (AACR2), indexing, and the classification is being based on a Dutch classification system. Also, she provides assistance to the patrons of the NIA’s Library and she is in charge of the cataloguing and classification of the byzantine-related publications that came to the NIA thanks to the generous donation of Prof. em. of the School of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mr. S. Troianos. The collection is being catalogued based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) and the classification based on the international classification system Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC).

Tel. 210-9210777

Cleaning staff:
Galyna Yatsenko is the head of the cleaning staff and responsible for the cleanliness of the NIA premises.

Guards and Security:
Since 2011, two guards are responsible for the safety of the Institute.
Giannis Dimopoulos worked initially at the Institute through a private security company. He speaks English and a little French.
Giannis Zervoudakis worked since 1996 in various private security companies before joining the NIA in 2009. He speaks English.