Eva Papatzani
Associate researcher
Eva (Evangelia) Papatzani is a Postdoctoral researcher in human geography and urban studies. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the project ‘UnSettle-Intersecting processes and experiences of urban displacements in Greece’, implemented at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). She is also an Adjunct Professor of Sociology of Space at the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Crete. She holds a PhD in Urban and Migration Studies, from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. She has extensive experience in designing, coordinating, and implementing international and national research projects, having collaborated with various universities and research centres. Her research interests include urban encounters with difference, interethnic relationships and micro-segregation in urban space, everyday racism, neighborhood and everyday life, urban displacements, the geographies of migrant and refugee settlement, gendered geographies, housing and urban policies, gentrification and touristification, refugee reception and accommodation, and urban transformations.
email: epapatzani [at] ekke.gr
Iris Polyzou
Associate researcher
Iris Polyzou studied sociology and urban studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). She obtained her PhD through joint supervision between the University of Poitiers (Migrinter Laboratory) and the National Technical University of Athens, Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She coordinated a four-year research project at the École française d’Athènes on socio-spatial reconfigurations in Athens and is currently co-responsible for the Atlas Global Network research project at the same institution (EFA projet quinquennal, 2022–2026). She has participated in and coordinated research projects funded by national and international institutions, including H2020, AMIF, and HFRI. Her publications include articles and book chapters in edited volumes, the co-editing of special journal issues (BCH-mc, Geographies) and a monograph examining the relationship between migration and urban space (Ville et Migrations Internationales, BEFAR, 2025). Her research interests focus on inequalities and segregation across multiple spatial scales, drawing on quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic methodologies.
email: ipolyzou [at] arch.ntua.gr
Ifigeneia Dimitrakou
Visiting Research Associate (09/2025-01/2026)
Senior Scientist in Social Geography and Urban Studies, University of Zurich. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning and Urban Policy (Politecnico di Milano) and master’s degrees in Urban Planning (TU Delft) and Architecture (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Her doctoral thesis focuses on the spatial and social processes of vacant property production in densely built neighborhoods of Athens. Her broader research interests include issues of housing, displacement, and socio-spatial segregation, with empirical research in cities in Germany, Switzerland, and Greece.
email: ifigeneia.dimitrakou [at] geo.uzh.ch
Orçun Çobangil
Visiting Research Associate (09/2025-03/2026)
Orçun Çobangil is a Research Assistant in the subdivision of Urban, Local Government and Environmental Politics in the Department of Public Administration at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir/Turkey, where he completed his PhD (2017–2023) and Master’s degree (2015–2017). His academic work focuses on urban studies, gentrification, urban memory, toponymy, and socio-spatial transformations, with a particular emphasis on the cultural and political dimensions of urban change. He has participated in international conferences, contributed book chapters, authored articles and worked as a researcher in funded interdisciplinary projects, particularly in the fields of urban sociology, and urban governance.
email: cobangilorcun [at] gmail.com
Marina Volpe
Guest doctoral researcher (10/2025-04/2026)
Architect and urban planner. She took her bachelor’s degree in architecture in Roma Tre University where she developed a strong interest in social and urban contexts and a strong belief in the importance of the observation of informal practices. To better understand the urban environment, she attended her master in Urban and
Territorial Planning at the University of Naples Federico II Territorial Planning at the University of Naples Federico II with a thesis entitled ‘Criteria of access to Public Housing in the city of Naples’. Her studies focus about housing, social and spatial justice. With an ethnographic interest in the urban context, she refers to multiple disciplines – sociology, critical geography, anthropology and urban studies – to adopt a open research methodology. Her current research field is about migrant subjectivities’ pathways of housing access in italy and power structure within them.
email: marina.volpe [at] unina.it
Lamiaa Ghoz
Guest doctoral researcher (02/2026-03/2026)
PhD candidate enrolled in the joint doctoral program of TU Dresden and the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), known as the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS), in Germany.
Her PhD research focuses on the reuse of vacant residential buildings. During the initial phase of my work, I developed a conceptual framework categorizing challenges related to this process, which was empirically tested through fieldwork in Cairo as a primary case study. The Cairo case
study yielded two key findings: (a) the emergence of new sub-codes insufficiently addressed in the
existing literature, and (b) the contextual irrelevance of certain initially assumed sub-codes.
email: lamiaghoz [at] hotmail.com