Dr Giorgos Katsambekis

BA, MA, Ph.D

  • Visiting Fellow in European and International Politics

Research groups and centres

Giorgos Katsambekis

Giorgos joined the then department of Politics, History and International Relations in 2017 as Lecturer in European and International Politics. In 2018, he founded the Populism Research Group, which he convened up to 2022. After leaving Loughborough University in 2022 to take up a Researcher position at Greece’s National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), he remained linked to the wider LU community as a Visiting Fellow. Giorgos completed his Ph.D. in political science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2015, where he later worked as a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct lecturer. He has also worked at the University of the Aegean. Between 2019 and 2022, he served as co-convener of the Populism Specialist Group of the British Political Studies Association (PSA). He is a member of the POPULISMUS team and the interdisciplinary Centre for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance (DESIRE).

Giorgos’ research is located at the intersections of comparative politics and critical political theory, with emphasis on populism and discourse analysis. His work has focused on political parties, social movements, Greek politics and the European radical left, but also on contemporary theories of democracy, nationalism and collective identity formation. His articles have appeared in various peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Political Ideologies, The Political Quarterly, Constellations, European Politics and Society, European Political Science, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Political Research Exchange, Javnost–The Public, and Critical Discourse Studies. Giorgos has co-edited the volumes Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today (Ashgate, 2014), and The Populist Radical Left in Europe (Routledge, 2019), while he is currently preparing as co-editor with Yannis Stavrakakis) the Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Populism (forthcoming in 2023).

During his years at Loughborough University, Giorgos was a module leader for 3rd-year module The Populist Challenge to Democracy (PIC680) and the 2nd-year Comparative European Politics (PIB604-620), while he also contributed to team-taught modules Smart Scholarship (PIA001) and Dissertation (PIC800). In previous positions, he has taught or contributed to modules on discourse analysis, methodology, political ideologies and theories of democracies.

  • Lazaros Karavasilis, ‘Populism and other -isms: comparing right- and left-wing populism in Greece and Germany’ (main supervisor; completed in 2021)
  • Panos Panayotou, ‘Towards a Transnational Populism. A Chance for Democracy in the Era of Neoliberal Globalization?’ (main supervisor; completed in 2022)
  • Maria Tsiko, ‘Populist Voices in the USA: Comparing Right- and Left-Wing Populists’ (main supervisor 2018-2022)
  • Stavros Kartsonas, ‘Psychopolitics and Resistance: The Case of Syriza during the period 2009-19’ (secondary supervisor 2018-2022)

Member of PhD advisory boards

  • Jana Goyvaerts, ‘Media discourses about populism: protecting what kind of democracy?’ (Vrije Universiteit Brussel; supervisor: Benjamin De Cleen)
  • Orestis chatzigiannakis, ‘EU governance and governing Left: The case of SYRIZA’ (University of Athens; supervisor: Filippa Chatzistavrou)

Edited Volumes

  • The Populist Radical Left in Europe (with A. Kioupkiolis), London: Routledge, 2019. [More information on the volume here]
  • Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today (with A. Kioupkiolis), Farnham: Ashgate, 2014 [More information on the volume here]

Articles in Peer-reviewed Journals

  • (2022) ‘Constructing “the people” of populism: A critique of the ideational approach from a discursive perspective,’ Journal of Political Ideologies, 27(1), pp. 53-74. DOI: 10.1080/13569317.2020.1844372 [link]
  • (2022) ‘Emotions of protest in times of crisis: representation, dislocation and remedy in the Greek “squares movement”’ (with C. Iliadis, I. Balampanidis, E. Papataxiarchis) Political Research Exchange, 4(1). DOI: 10.1080/2474736X.2022.2035192 [link]
  • (2019) ‘The populism/anti-populism frontier and its mediation in crisis-ridden Greece’ (with Y. Stavrakakis), European Political Science, 18(1), pp. 37-52. DOI: 10.1057/s41304-017-0138-3 [link]
  • (2018) ‘Populism, Anti-populism and Crisis’ (with Y. Stavrakakis, A. Kioupkiolis, N. Nikisianis, T. Siomos), Contemporary Political Theory, 17(1), pp. 4-27. DOI: 10.1057/s41296-017-0142-y [link]
  • (2017) ‘The populist surge in post-democratic times. Theoretical and political challenges,’ The Political Quarterly, 88(2), pp. 202-210. DOI: 10.1111/1467-923X.12317. [link]
  • (2017) ‘Revisiting the Nationalism/Populism Nexus: Lessons from the Greek Case,’ (with Y. Stavrakakis), Javnost - The Public, 24(4), pp. 391-408. DOI: 10.1080/13183222.2017.1330087 [link]
  • (2016) ‘Radical Left Populism in contemporary Greece: SYRIZA’s trajectory from minoritarian opposition to power’, Constellations, 23(3), pp. 391-403. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8675.12234. [link]
  • (2014) ‘Left-wing Populism in the European Periphery: The Case of SYRIZA’ (with Y. Stavrakakis), Journal of Political Ideologies, 19(2), pp. 119-142. DOI: 10.1080/13569317.2014.909266. [link]

Reports

  • (2020) ‘Populism and the Pandemic: A Collaborative Report’ (co-edited with Y. Stavrakakis), POPULISMUS Interventions No. 7. [link]