Research

My research focuses on border violence, death and forced migration on EUrope’s East Mediterranean migratory route. Using ethnographic methods which include documentary photography, observation, and unstructured interviews I employ a necropolitical theoretical framework to examine the experiences of people on the move in relation to the shifting nature of the violent border in EUrope; their connection to death and the liminal spaces of mortality; and EUrope’s border security practices.

My wider research interests, activities and experience include: Critical Border Studies, Forced Migration, Death Studies, Ethnography, European and Greek Politics, Gender and Feminism, Media Studies and journalism, Conspiracy Theories, Documentary Photography.

Selected Publications

(the list does not include forthcoming publications)

Books

Karakoulaki, M., Southgate L. and Steiner J. (eds) (2018), Critical Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century, E-IR Publishing.

Book Chapters

• Foster, E. and Karakoulaki, M. (2026) 'Representations of eco-social degradation in the borderlands: insights from post-humanist feminist political ecology', in Ramutsindela, M. (ed.) Environments, Ecosystems, and Ecologies, in Diener, A.C. and Hagen, J. (eds) Oxford Intersections: Borders. Oxford: Oxford Academic. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945222.003.0019 (peer-reviewed)

• Karakoulaki, M. (2020), Abortion and the Law, in F. Bernat and K. Frailing (eds), Encyclopaedia of Women and Crime, Wiley.

• Karakoulaki, M. (2018) Europe’s Barbwire Fences. Reflections on Reporting the Refugee Crisis in Greece. In M. Karakoulaki, L. Southgate, and J. Steiner, Critical Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century, E-IR Publishing.

Reports and Policy Papers

• Karakoulaki, M. and Dessi, G. (2021), Antisemitism and Anti-Vax Discourse in Europe. A Report on Conspiracy Ideologies and anti-Jewish hatred on Facebook and Twitter. Media Diversity Institute.

• Karakoulaki, M. (2019), Cyprus: Towards an Asylum Crisis, PRIO Cyprus Centre, Policy Brief 1. Nicosia: PRIO Cyprus Centre.

Selected Conference Papers

• 18-20 June 2024
  Presentation Title: The Visuals of Death: Researching the Greek Migratory Landscape, BISA, Birmingham, UK

• 28-30 April 2022
  Presentation Title: A Political Thanatos: Migratory Deaths in the Greek Borderlands, Thanatic Ethics, International Conference, ‘Bodies on the Edge: Life and Death in Migration in Maison Française of Oxford, Oxford, UK’.

• May 2021
  Presentation Title: Journalism and Vulnerable Communities: Lessons from Reporting Refugees’ Stories, Graduate Centre for Europe: 15th Annual Conference, University of Birmingham, ‘Communities in Europe: Between Continuity and Transition’.

• May 2020
  Presentation Title: Migrant Solidarities and Resistance in Greece’s Refugee Camps, Graduate Centre for Europe: 14th Annual Conference, University of Birmingham, ‘Voices of Change: Presents, Pasts and Futures of Activism and Protest in Europe’.

• July 2018
  Presentation Title: No Borders against Border Violence, International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM), Thessaloniki, Greece

• 5-6 March 2018
  Presentation Title: Journalism and the Far Right: Covering the Refugee Crisis in Greece, European Federation of Journalists, Media against Hate Conference, Brussels, Belgium

• 24-25 October 2016
  Keynote Speech Title: Movements, Borders, Rights? Feminist Perspectives on Global Issues in Europe WIDE+ & European Women’s Lobby International Conference, Brussels, Belgium