The program focuses on the in-depth understanding of Anglophone literary multimodal storytelling with reference to a variety of multimodal narratives (print and digital) and digital applications. It is taught asynchronously in English and offers both synchronous and asynchronous feedback and guidance, while it provides learners the opportunity of flexible attendance and self-paced learning (asynchronous teaching and activities; synchronous/asynchronous communication and presentations).

Duration: 100 hours/participant

Program Start Dates (will run twice):

Cycle 3 – Winter Semester

• Start: 30/9/2024
• End: 10/11/2024

Cycle 4 – Spring Semester

• Start: 3/2/2025
• End: 30/4/2025

Applications are submitted online:

• For Cycle 3: from 17/9/2024 to 6/10/2024
• For Cycle 4: from 1/1/2025 to 10/2/2025

Platforms: Elearning and ZOOM (supported by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AUTh)

Language: English

ECTS: 3,5

Certificate: Specialized Training

Cost: €200

Discount: Two full scholarships available depending on the number of registrants to the program (see Discount Policy for details)

The Scientific Coordinator of the program is Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou, Associate Professor, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece.

Tatiani Rapatzikou (Associate Professor AUTh) was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the M.I.T. Comparative Media Studies program ιn summer 2009, a Visiting Research Scholar at the Program in Literature at Duke University, U.S. in Spring 2012, while in Winter 2016 and 2022 she was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Department of English at York University, Toronto, Canada, and at the Department of Fine Arts and the Humanities at Alberta University Augusta Campus, Canada. She is the coordinator of the project “Urban Environments in Transition” (Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund-International Competition 2012 with the participation of the Fulbright Foundation). Also, she is the Director of the Multimodal Research & Reading Group of the School of English, AUTh. For the period between 2019-2022, she was the director of the Digital Humanities Lab “Psifis” of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is also a member of the General Editor team of the online, open source, blind reviewed and DOAJ sealed Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media hosted by the Prothiki AUTh Library and Information Centre. In 2020, she was awarded a Fellowship by the Eccles Center for American Studies for her research in the British Library (London, U.K.) on contemporary American literary production and digitality. She teaches courses and supervises research projects that focus on contemporary American fiction and poetry, cyber-gothic and the uncanny, electronic literature, the convergence of print and digital literature.

The program is delivered by the Scientific Director of the program as well as specialized academic staff (Postdoctoral researchers, PhD holders, and PhD candidates) in the field of multimodality in print and digital narratives.

Vasileios Delioglanis has taught as an adjunct lecturer in Greek universities, while also teaching English at Primary State School Education in Greece. He holds a Ph.D. in Locative Media and North American Literature and Culture (from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), funded by the Board of Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.). He also holds an M.A. in American Literature and Culture, and a B.A. in English from the School of English, AUTh, Greece. He is the webmaster and a member of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS) as well as a Board member of the Hellenic Association for American Studies (HELAAS) and a member of the Multimodal Research and Reading Group of the School of English, AUTh. His monograph, entitled Narrating Locative Media, was published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan. His research focuses on contemporary American literature and culture and digital humanities.

Despoina Feleki is Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of English, Auth and appointed School Principal in Primary Education. She studies the effects of new media and social networking sites on civic engagement and active citizenship of young Greek learners (Primary and Secondary Education). Feleki teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses, focusing on the intersection between textuality and digitality in Anglophone cultural multimodal texts (literature, poetry, videogames, films, online platforms). She is a Fulbright alumna and in 2019-2020 she worked as an Academic Scholar in the School of English Auth. Her other research interests include Anglophone Young Adult literature, Studies in Popular Culture and Videogames. She has published numerous works in international academic journals. Hen monologue, titled “Stephen King in the New Millennium: Gothic Mediations on New Writing Materialities,” was out by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2018.

Evgenia Kleidona is an independent associate at the Institute of Modern Greek Studies (Manolis Triandaphyllidis Foundation. At the same time, she conducts her doctoral research in the Department of American Literature and Culture, AUTh, with a focus on Interactive Fiction. She is a member of the Hellenic Association for American Studies as well as of the Multimodal Research and Reading Group of the School of English, AUTh. Her research interests include contemporary American literature and culture, digital media, and gender studies. Her research on digital media as well as on gender identities in American literature has been published and presented in scientific journals and international conferences respectively. She has offered supportive teaching for courses of the Department of American Literature and Culture, AUTh, and she has delivered a series of seminars and workshops on the creation of digital interactive narratives and/or their implementation as educational tools.

Thomas Mantzaris is a scholar of 20th and 21st-century American literature. In his PhD thesis, he examined experimentation with multimodality in the context of contemporary, print-based, American fiction. His research engagement with multimodal Anglophone literature (print and digital) involves publications in academic journals as well as conference presentations. Multimodal literary narratives have been part of undergraduate courses and seminars he has delivered to students, educators, and the wider community. He is a Fulbright Fellow, a member of the Hellenic Association for American Studies, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He has taught as an academic scholar in the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting (Ionian University) and as an adjunct lecturer at School of English, AUTh. His research interests include multimodal and experimental narratives, 20th and 21st-century American literature, and photography.

Paschalia Mitskidou is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Western Macedonia and a B.A. in History from the Ionian University. Her Ph.D. project concentrates on virtual reality in contemporary American culture and the ways in which the historical past is reconstructed through virtual reality narrative practices. She has presented findings of her research in international conferences in Greece and abroad. She was a tutor in the undergraduate courses Workshop in Critical Writing: Fiction (winter semester 2021-22) and Computer Literacy and Research Skills: Literary Studies (spring semester 2020-21) at the School of English, AUTh. She is a member of the Hellenic Association for American Studies (HELAAS) and the Multimodal Research and Reading Group of the School of English, AUTh. Her research interests include contemporary American fiction, digital culture, and virtuality in the context of new media technologies, interactive/multimodal digital narratives and virtual reality as a storytelling tool. She is a freelance writer and editor, and a tutor of Greek as a foreign language.

Maria Virginia Tsikopoulou is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and a Fulbright alumna. She holds a MA (2018) in English and American Studies (AUTh) and a BA (2015) in English Language and Literature (AUTh). In 2022, she visited NYU and the Department of English as well as the Brooklyn Art Library in New York City under the auspices of the Fulbright Foundation in Greece for PhD-related research. In 2022-2023, she also visited la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in Spain, with an Erasmus scholarship. She has taught the courses Computer Literacy and Research Skills: Literary Cycle and Workshop in Critical Writing: Poetry at the School of English (AUTh). Her research interests revolve around urban space, contemporary American fiction, experimental narratives and artistic practices.

Teaching Staff
The program is delivered by the following members:

Tatiani Rapatzikou

(Associate Professor, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, AUTh)

Vasileios Delioglanis

(PhD holder in American Literature and Culture, School of English, AUTh; Primary Education Teacher)

Despoina Deleki

(Postdoctoral researcher in American Literature and Culture, School of English AUTh; Primary Education Teacher)

Evgenia Kleidona

(PhD candidate, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, AUTh)

Thomas Mantzaris

(PhD holder in American Literature and Culture, School of English AUTh)

Paschalia Mitskidou

(PhD candidate, Department of  American Literature and Culture, School of English, AUTh)

Maria-Virginia Tsikopoulou

(PhD candidate, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English AUTh)