Supervisor: Nikolaos Georgios Karachalis
Doctoral thesis topic: Participatory initiatives in the cultural sector and their contribution to shaping place identity: The role of residents, visitors, and local cultural policy.
Lia Petridou is a PhD candidate at the Department of Tourism Economics and Management of the University of the Aegean. Her academic research approaches the study of participatory cultural activities and how they affect and contribute to community cohesion, the construction of the place’s identity, and visitor attraction. She also participates in conferences and is involved in semiotics, visual culture, and visual representation.
She holds a Master’s Degree in “Semiotics, Culture and Communication” (2021) from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with a grade of Excellent. She also holds a Master’s Degree in “Cultural Management” (2017) from the Hellenic Open University. She is a graduate of the Department of History-Archaeology (2010) of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, while she has specialized in Contemporary History (2015) from the University of the Aegean. In addition, she holds a Bachelor of Arts and Antiquities Conservation (2018) from the Technical School “Euclid” (Thessaloniki, Greece). Finally, she is a student in the Post-Graduate Studies Program in “Social and Solidarity Economy” of the Hellenic Open University.
She works as a cultural manager and communication officer in institutions in Thessaloniki, organizes conferences, and has also worked at the Hellenic Parliament.
She is an elected representative of her department’s doctoral candidates, a member of the Hellenic Semiotic Society, and a founding member and former President (2020-2024) of SemioLogos – Association of Semiotics Alumni and Students of AUTh.
Through the Erasmus+ program in many European countries, he has participated in dozens of educational programs and attended numerous seminars and trainings on Culture, Visual Communication, and Tourism.