UNITED STATES TO GREECE
Global-local articulations of sociocultural change and continuity among urbanites of Greece
Kathryn Kozaitis (Fulbright Student 1987-1988 / Fulbright Scholar 2011-2012) is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Georgia State University (GSU) and President Emerita of the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association. Her work lies at the intersection of cultural, urban, and applied anthropology, with a focus on community-based responses to global transformations in complex societies, including the United States and Greece.
The support of the Fulbright Foundation in Greece has been fundamental to both Dr. Kozaitis' professional and personal life. Her Fulbright-Hays Grant funded a year-long dissertation research project on socioeconomic integration and cultural identity among Orthodox Christian Roma in Athens, a community of refugees and their descendants who settled in Aghia Varvara, following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Completion of her doctorate led to her appointment as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, while publications resulting from this research contributed to her tenure as an Associate Professor at Georgia State University.
Decades later, a Fulbright Scholar Award supported a year-long ethnographic study of the Greek sovereign debt crisis among residents of Thessaloniki. The research resulted in her book, Indebted: Despair and Resilience in Greece's Second City (Oxford University Press, 2021), and contributed to her promotion to the rank of Professor. Her current work focuses on ethnographic praxis as a four-field and cross-field approach to community building and problem solving in the pursuit of justice across domains of anthropological engagement.
The two Fulbright awards had a defining, bookend impact on Dr. Kozaitis' first and later ethnographic research among urban Greek communities and helped shape her broader academic trajectory. In addition to serving five three-year terms as Chair of GSU's Department of Anthropology, she conducted multi-year participatory action research funded by the National Science Foundation on reforms designed to strengthen STEM education in under-resourced schools in Atlanta and throughout the state of Georgia.
She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses, including her signature seminar on Anthropological Theory and Praxis, and has successfully mentored more than 100 graduate students. In recognition of her contributions as a scholar and teacher, GSU awarded her a Distinguished Alumni Professorship in 2023.
An emigrant from Greece to the United States and an American scholar of Greece, Kozaitis credits the Fulbright Program with enriching both her professional and personal life and enabling a career dedicated to understanding human experience across cultures. She sees the program as an essential and rewarding opportunity for scholars seeking to advance cross-cultural understanding, cooperation, and knowledge.