Georgia Panteli, Ph.D.

Junior Visiting Fellow - Summer Semester 2023

Georgia Panteli is a junior visiting research fellow in the field of excellence and will spend the summer semester 2023 in Graz. She is a comparatist with an interdisciplinary and intermedial background. She completed her PhD at University College London and holds degrees in English and Greek Literature and Culture (BA/ Ptychion, University of Athens) and Comparative Literature (MA, UCL).

She is a Lecturer of Film, Media and Comparative Literature at the Departments of Theatre, Film and Media and English and American Studies at the University of Vienna and at the International Summer School for Undergraduates at UCL. Her research focusses on representations of the female body in film, media and literature, which has been a recurring theme in her teaching.

During her stay in Graz, she will be focussing on representations of violence against women in modern Greek cinema and will examine to what extent this has changed in recent decades and in particular during the Covid pandemic. During the Golden Age of Greek cinematography, portrayals of violence against women were normalised. This has changed in recent years, yet gender roles are still very traditional in Greek society. In the cusp between cultures, modern Greek identity is oscillating between the East and the West, not entirely confident in its European context.

"Domestic violence and violence against women have increased during the Covid pandemic. My focus is on the most extreme form of gender-based violence, femicide. The term femicide was only introduced very recently in the Greek public discourse and there has been intense debate regarding its use. Film representations matter because they do not only reflect, but they also shape ideology and this translates to changes that affect women’s lives, such as in legislation."

More specifically she will focus on the treatment of female bodies on screen and how this helped shape misogynist culture in the last decades in modern Greece. Comparing this with more recent films and the late arrival of the #metoo movement in Greece, she will explore the possibilities of implementing positive change through film and media.

Georgia Panteli has published on film and comparative literature. Her monograph ‘From Puppet to Cyborg: Pinocchio’s Posthuman Journey’ was published in April 2022. She has talked about her research on ORF Radiokolleg and on The Forum, BBC World Service.