Scientific Committee

Professor of “Comparative Politics and International Relations” at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. Holder of a Jean Monnet European Chair. His authorship includes books and articles on civil society and non-profit organizations. Personal website: asterishuliaras.wordpress.com.

Sotiris Petropoulos is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. He received his PhD from the Department of Geography of Harokopio University on a scholarship from IKY while studying International Political Economy (MA) at the University of Warwick. In 2008-2013 he worked at the Ernst & Young consulting company as the Head of Development Programs for International Donors. At the same time, he has organized and implemented capacity building training seminars in more than 300 Non-Profit Organizations in Greece and the Balkans, supporting the improvement of their operational and organizational capabilities. Between 2012-2015 he was the Administrative Manager and key researcher in the project “THALIS-Evaluation of Greek NGOs” leading the evaluation process of 158 participating organisations. His articles on the Greek NGO ecosystem have been published in many international scientific journals as well as collective volumes. His research interests include NGOs, program and project evaluation, social impact measurement, regional partnerships and global governance.

Dimitris A. Sotiropoulos is a professor of political science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. In 2003 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Observatory, the London School of Economics and Political Science, in 2009-2010 he was a SEESOX Visiting Fellow at the European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, in autumn 2016 he was a Visiting Fellow at Sciences Po, Paris and 2018-2019 Research Fellow at the Harvard Center for European Studies. In 2018-2019 he taught political science at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Hehas co-edited together with Chr. Lyrintzis and Il. Nikolakopoulos the collective volume Society and Politics, Themelio, Athens 1996, together with T. Veremis the collective volume Is Southeastern Europe Doomed to Instability?, Frank Cass, London 2002, together with R. Gunther and N. Diamantouros the collective volume Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006 and with Kevin Featherstone the collective volume The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2020 He has published many monographs, including the following: Populism and bureaucracy, Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, Indiana 1996, Bureaucracy and political power, Sakkoulas, Athens 1996, The top of the clientelistic state, Potamos, Athens 2001, State and reform in contemporary Southern Europe, Potamos, Athens 2007, Greek civil society and the economic crisis, Potamos, Athens 2017.

Marilena Simiti is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus. ShHe has a BA in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Athens, an MA in Comparative Politics from Columbia University, (USA) and a Ph.D from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In 2022 she was an Academic Visitor at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford and in 2013 a Visiting Fellow at the European Institute of the LSE. From 2022 she is a member of the Research Advisory Group of the Hellenic Observatory (LSE). She is the author of the book Civil Society in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as chapters in collective volumes in English, German and Greek. She has taken part in international academic conferences with judges and has participated with presentations in research centers abroad (e.g. Johns Hopkins University – Universitat Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center, Institut für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung, Institute for Contemporary History of the New University of Lisbon, European Institute (LSE)). Her main research interests are within the field of Political Sociology and specifically concern alternative forms of political participation in the sphere of civil society, such as non-governmental organizations, social movements, riots, and individualized or passive forms of politics participation. Her papers have been included in the syllabus of courses focusing on political protest in Universities in Greece and abroad.