Alkisti Efthymiou is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens, Greece), under the supervision of Professor Athena Athanasiou. Closely engaging with works of queer feminist film in the Southern Cone, her thesis focuses on the cultural politics of love and the critical state of intimacy under conditions of neoliberal governmentality. Running in parallel with her doctoral research, her film practice is inspired by queer feminist affectivities and translocal forms of resistance. She has presented her filmic projects and given talks and performative lectures in collaboration with various institutions around the world, including the Onassis Foundation, Greek Film Archive, ZHdK, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Vienna Art Academy, Goethe-Institut Athen, the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Cineteca Nacional de Chile, and others. Her most recent publications have been included in the Journal of Greek Media and Culture, The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, and Fabrik Zeitung. Her doctoral research has been supported by NEON Organization for Culture and Development (2018–2019) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) (2019–2022). As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, she will spend six months at the Department of Film & Media and the Center for Latin American Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Professor Natalia Brizuela. Related with the second part of her doctoral thesis, the research project that Alkisti will develop at UC Berkeley is titled “Love as crisis? The promises of queer feminist cinema in contemporary Chile, Argentina, and Brazil,” and aims to prove that alternative worldings of love and glimpses of intimate relationships can be articulated in films that produce queer feminist critiques of neoliberalism. This part is the most conceptually demanding section of her doctoral thesis, and working on it at UC Berkeley is essential for ensuring that her arguments are informed by and honed through teachings, writings, and feedback of some of the most important scholars in her field. In the face of nationalist and isolationist shifts around the world, what Alkisti is bringing to the US (and then back to Greece) is a methodological, political, and affective insistence on revealing points of affinity among seemingly disparate subjectivities and experiences of coping with the present of crises.

Angelos Mefsout is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete, under the supervision of professor Dimitrios Bosnakis. His forthcoming thesis deals with the spread of the cult of Apollo Delios in the Aegean. His research interests are focused on ancient Greek religion and sculpture. He completed his Bachelor’s Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the Department of History and Archaeology. In 2019, he graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with an M.Α. in Classical Archaeology. As a Ph.D. candidate, he is the recipient of the A.G. Leventis Foundation Educational Grant, the Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Hellenic Studies of the Center of Hellenic Studies of Harvard University and the Scholarship for Ph.D. candidates of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, he will spend a 6-month period at Columbia University in New York, at the Department of Art History and Archaeology, under the supervision of Associate Professor Ioannis Mylonopoulos. His research project deals with the study of sculptures from an important deposit excavated at the sanctuary of Apollo Dalios on the island of Kalymnos. The Fulbright fellowship will not only enhance his knowledge and experience in the field, but will further contribute to the investigation of questions that are directly related to his doctoral studies and would be examined to a lesser extent in the context of his dissertation. He is really looking forward to the prospect of great networking opportunities with fellow researchers and other academic experts in the field. Furthermore, the access to the invaluable academic resources of Columbia University, as well as to the various world-renowned cultural and scientific institutions of New York City, will be tremendous benefits for his further academic development and cultural enrichment.

Dimitris Prokos is conducting his Ph.D. research at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the field of modern Greek studies. He holds a B.A. in Classics and an M.A. in modern Greek Literature. His doctoral dissertation consists of an interdisciplinary approach to the notion of repetition and its functions in poetry. Dimitris is also an active musician, participating in various musical projects in his hometown of Athens. In an attempt to transform such interests into academic practice, he has been working towards creatively comparing literature and music since his first years as a graduate student. He has shared his views with the community through conferences and journal publications. During his research visit at Harvard University, Dimitris will focus on producing a taxonomy of different types of repetition and their functions, using the modern Greek folksong tradition as a case study for analysis. Oral, sung, popular poetry is an inherently interdisciplinary field of study, which arguably stands on a crossroads between poetry, music, and performance. Ethnomusicological and literary theoretical perspectives will be applied in conjunction in order to construct a concise framework for understanding and interpreting iterativity in poetry, a ubiquitous yet largely understudied phenomenon.

Elpida Ziavra holds a B.A. and an M.A. from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). She is currently a second-year Ph.D. candidate at the Department of English Language and Literature at NKUA. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the study of 21st century poetry and visual arts by a number of ethnic communities in a trans-Canadian context in order to unravel their politics of mourning and survivance. Her aim is to trace the associations among the different histories of the disaster of the human that have resulted from the violent dispossession of Indigenous communities and enslaved human beings. She has presented her work in international conferences and participated in research projects, gaining valuable experience for her future academic career. As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, she will spend six months at Princeton University, Princeton NJ, collaborating with Professor Eduardo Cadava on the project entitled: Photographic Portraits of Survivance: Eyes, Hands and Faces in Trans-Canadian Contexts, which researches the diffractions of survivance in a series of photographic portraits of Native American and African American people. The portraits dramatize the ontological and political force of perseverance and resilience of the dispossessed whose traces continue to live on the photographic clichés and call for a synaesthetic practice of reading images that associate a decolonial gaze with an active listening to the nuanced whispers and humming of their overlapping histories. During the grant period, she intends to participate in seminars, engage in dialogue with researchers across different fields and establish contacts for further research and collaboration. She will also benefit from visiting the permanent collections and periodical exhibitions at well-known museums in the vicinity of the University, in order to expand her knowledge and exposure to contemporary art as well as history.

Georgios Kyriakopoulos University of Patras, Greece Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Medical Sciences Georgios Kyriakopoulos graduated from the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Patras in 2016. He received his M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the School of Medicine of the University of Patras in 2018. During his studies he focused on investigating the effects of KRAS mutations on translation regulation in lung adenocarcinoma. Following his master’s degree, Georgios continued his academic journey as a Ph.D. candidate, where he conducts research on the deregulation of signaling pathways caused by the BRAF V600E mutation in melanoma. His work specifically explores how this mutation affects the translation apparatus and the role of key components of the translation machinery in resistance to currently used treatments. While pursuing his Ph.D., Georgios also enrolled in the Medical School at the University of Patras, completing his studies in 2023. This endeavor aims to combine his knowledge of basic research with clinical practice as a future medical oncologist. Georgios has become an expert in cancer biology and the deregulation of translation during oncogenesis, and some of his research findings have already been published in peer-reviewed journals. As a Fulbright scholar, Georgios has been granted the opportunity to further advance his Ph.D. work at the National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH). During his time at NCI, he will focus on studying the role of eIF6 in tumor plasticity and its response to therapy in melanoma. Undoubtedly, this four-month visit will significantly enhance his Ph.D. research and expose him to an exceptionally competitive and rigorous academic environment. Georgios possesses a strong aspiration to establish a lifelong career as a medical oncologist once he completes his PhD.

Maria Tsakiri is currently pursuing her Ph.D. studies in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). She holds a B.Sc. degree in Pharmacy and a M.Sc. degree in Nanomedicine from the same University. During her Master’s studies, she focused on the evaluation of nanoscale antigen delivery systems for the development of safe and effective vaccines against infectious diseases. Her current interests lie in the development of biomimetic drug and/or biomolecule delivery nanosystems that target human brain cells. As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, Maria will spend a 6-month period at the Johns Hopkins University, in the Department of Neurology, under the supervision of Prof. Machairaki. During this period, Maria aims to evaluate the in vitro safety and effectiveness of exosome-like nanoparticles as advanced therapeutic medicinal products for the treatment of neuro-inflammatory diseases. During her studies in the U.S., she will be trained in cutting-edge technologies and interact with top scientists in the field. Maria is highly motivated to work in a multicultural environment, exchange experiences and develop strong bonds with inspiring individuals.

Nikolaos Sarantinoudis is a Ph.D. candidate in the Industrial and Digital Innovations Research Group (indigo) at the School of Production Engineering and Management of the Technical University of Crete. He focuses on the development of an application framework for the deployment of Digital Twins into autonomous systems. He received his Electrical and Computer Engineering diploma from the Technical University of Crete in 2018, focusing on the autonomous navigation of electric vehicles. During his undergraduate studies he was part of the award-winning Eco Racing team which designs and builds hydrogen-powered urban concept vehicles. After his graduation, he spent a year as a researcher at the University of Surrey, focusing on sensor fusion and digital map construction for autonomous vehicle navigation and worked at MOLE, a UK start-up aiming to revolutionize and automate electric vehicle charging. Since September 2020, he is working as a researcher on national and EU-funded projects at the Industrial and Digital Innovations Research Group focusing on the application of digital technologies (Cyber-Physical Systems, Digital Twins, Analytics, Optimization) in diverse domains; from process industries to climate adaptation. As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, he will spend 6 months at the Unmanned Systems and Robotics Lab of the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina. He will perform research in perception, navigation, and control of high-speed RC scale cars in order to compete in the F1 Tenth competition as well as into the benefits of the application of Digital Twins technology into autonomous vehicle racing. The intended target is to investigate the application of the under-development framework in an experimental set-up and validate it on a competitive environment. Through the exchange program he will gain valuable insights and the necessary knowledge to strengthen his research outcomes, support the exchange of ideas and know-how among universities and build collaborations between research institutes and countries.