Comics as a Tool for
Democracy and Social Inclusion

Maîtresse de conférences, Université Paris 8 (UP8)

UR TransCrit, Département d'Études des Pays Anglophones

Anne Chassagnol is senior lecturer at Université Paris 8. Her research focuses on visual arts and children's literature. She published La Renaissance féerique à l'ère victorienne : contes et tableaux (2010) and Esthétique féerique : les arts du merveilleux (2026). She is particularly interested in literary tattoos and co-edited three volumes: “Tatouages et imaginaires”, La Peaulogie, n° 4, 2020; “Textes à vif, tatouages, transferts, performances”, La Peaulogie, n° 5, 2020; and Droit & Cultures, “Le tatouage face au droit : de la littérature aux pratiques sociales”, n° 85, 2023. As part of the MuseaLitté project, she co-edited Museums in Literature: Fictionalising Museums, World Exhibitions, and Private Collections (2022) and Literary Museums at Home: Literature Indoors (2025).

Maîtresse de conférences, Université Paris 8 (UP8)

UFR SEPF, Département de sciences de l'éducation, LIAgE

Sociologist, Laura Odasso is an associate professor at the Department of Education Sciences, Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis (France) and member of the research group LIAgE — Laboratoire Interculturalités, Apprentissages, marGes, Expériences.

Her research lies at the intersection of migration and transnational family studies, public policy reception, and experiential lifelong learning. Her work focuses on social representations of otherness, lived citizenship, legal consciousness, and family and migration rights-claiming activism in Europe (mainly France, Belgium and Italy) and the MENA region. She examines intra-family transmissions in migration contexts, including values, belonging, and socio-legal knowledge circulating across generations and between partners; everyday encounters with state institutions and bureaucracies; and the formal and informal learning processes emerging from these experiences, such as language acquisition, activism, paperwork management, and professionalisation.

Using an intersectional approach attentive to micro-, meso-, and macro-social dynamics, she investigates transformations within migrant families, including mixed-citizenship couples, transnational families constrained by migration regimes, asylum-seeking families and unaccompanied minors. Her research also addresses the institutional mechanisms that stigmatise and render migrants vulnerable, as well as the legal intermediation practises developed by volunteers, social workers, lawyers, associations, peers, and other actors, both offline and online. Art-based and participatory research methods are increasingly central to her research and teaching, alongside alternative dissemination formats such as podcasts, socio-sound installations, and graphic novels. Teaching is also central to her academic practice.

Since 2020, she has served as webmaster of RC25 Language and Society of the International Sociological Association. She also holds leadership roles within the French and European Sociological Associations. Recipient of several grants, including Marie Skłodowska-Curie funding, she promotes interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches in research, teaching, and dissemination.

AGH University of Krakow

Vice-president, Association of Pop Culture Researchers and Pop Culture Education "Trickster"

Szymon Makuch, PhD, is an assistant professor at AGH University of Krakow, Vice-president of the Association of Pop Culture Researchers and Pop Culture Education "Trickster", and a member of the Association of Research and Development of Games "GameUP". His research focuses on legal and business aspects of modern pop culture.

MBA, Project Manager, Greek Film Centre – Hellenic Film Commission

Myrto Tselenti was born in Athens in 1982. She studied at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean and holds an MBA from Alba Graduate Business School.

She has worked as a cultural events organizer (at the Hellenic American Union, 2013–2022, and the street paper Shedia, 2022–2023), presenting more than 560 events, including film, comics, and literary festivals, concerts, conferences, art exhibitions, and more. She has also worked as a journalist (for the newspaper O Kosmos tou Ependyti as Head of the Books Section, 2007–2013, and for the street paper Shedia). Since 2024, she has been working at the Greek Film Centre as a Project Manager on the Hellenic Film Commission team.

She is the author of Manga: Fantasy and Reality – Fragments of Nearby Worlds (Aigokeros Publications, 2007) and of numerous articles on Japanese pop culture published in Greece and abroad. She also works as editor of the manga series published by Jemma Press, overseeing the publication of her favourite comics in Greek. She is a member of Comicdom and a founding member of the Iconotopia team at the University of the Aegean.

Comics Artist

PhD, Comics and Graphic Novels Creator

Soloup (Antonis Nikolopoulos) is a cartoonist and comics creator. He studied Political Science and obtained a PhD in Cultural Technology and Communication from the University of the Aegean, where he is currently pursuing his Postdoctoral research.

Soloup has published 17 books of comics and cartoons as well as a monograph based on his doctoral thesis, The Greek Comics (2012, Topos). His first graphic novel Aivali (2014, Kedros) received awards for best comics and best scenario at Comicdom Athens 2015, and the "Coup de Cœur 2016" prize at the 17th Rendez-vous du Carnet de Voyage Festival (Clermont-Ferrand, France) — translated into French, Turkish, English, and Spanish. His second graphic novel The Collector — a family story negotiating a father's alienation from his child after divorce — was published in 2018 (Ikaros); a 3D animation is currently being made based on it. Both Aivali and The Collector have been exhibited at the Benaki Museum, Athens. His third graphic novel 21 – The Greek Revolution (2021, Ikaros) gained first place in the H.F.R.I. action for the 200 years since the Revolution and was exhibited at the National Historical Museum in Athens. Zorba, based on Kazantzakis' novel Zorba the Greek, was published by Dioptra (November 2023). BABEL (Ikaros, November 2025) is his latest graphic novel.

Assistant Professor, University of the Aegean (UAEGEAN)

Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design

Yiannis Koukoulas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preschool Education Sciences and Educational Design at the University of the Aegean, specializing in Visual Culture and Interpictorial Approaches to Art. He has previously taught at the Athens School of Fine Arts, from which he holds a PhD, at the University of West Attica, and elsewhere. His research interests include interpictoriality in art and illustrated narratives, the parody of images and works of art, the complex relationships that artworks develop with one another, the use of art as educational material, and contemporary art. His works have been published in academic journals, edited volumes, and conference proceedings; he has curated dozens of art exhibitions and publications; and he has collaborated with numerous magazines and newspapers. He is the author of The Recontextualization of Artwork – Interpictorial Metafictions in Illustrated Narratives (Kallipos, 2023), The Ninth Art, from the Past to the Future (KPSM, 2006), and Women in Comics: Heroines for Every Use (Futura, 2005).

Associate Professor, University of the Aegean (UAEGEAN)

Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design

Marianna Misiou is Associate Professor in the Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design at the University of the Aegean, where she also serves as Director of the MA Program Children's Books and Pedagogical Material. She teaches graphic narratives and is the author of two books in Greek: Comics: From Kiosk to Classroom: Theoretical, Interpretive, and Educational Dimensions (KΨΜ, 2010) and Silent Comics and Picturebooks: Narrative Techniques in Wordless Books (Kaleidoscope, 2020). She has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Her research interests focus on children's literature, graphic narratives, multimodal storytelling, and their didactics.

PhD, Teaching Associate NUA / Founder, Athens Comics Library

Passionate about communication, Lida holds a degree in Communication, Media and Culture and a PhD on Social Media and Social Responsibility. She has been teaching communication since 2010 and working in the field for more than ten years. She is Head of Art, Educational and Social Programs of Comicdom Press, co-founder of Comicdom CON Athens, founder of the Athens Comics Library, managing co-director of the Digital Comics Museum, and organiser and curator of several events, exhibitions, conferences and workshops. Currently she is a researcher and teaching associate at the MA Programme in Rhetorics, Communication and Creative Writing in Education (NUA).

Comicdom Con Athens, Co-organizer

Ilias Katirtzigianoglou is the co-founder of Comicdom Press, having started his activity in the field of comics in 1996 with the publication of the eponymous fanzine. Since 2006, he has been a co-founder and co-organizer of Comicdom CON Athens, the longest-running international comics festival in Athens, where he serves as Director of Program, Communication, and Greek Exhibitions. He is also the founder and organizer of Queer Con, a festival dedicated to domestic and international queer artistic creation.

His professional experience in event organization includes collaborations with film festivals such as the Panorama of European Cinema (Program Coordination and Communication), the Adaptation Film Festival (co-organization), and Cinema Plus – HIV/AIDS in Cinema. He has also served as communication manager for the Greek Graphic Design and Illustration Awards (EBGE). He co-created and designed the Digital Museum of Comics (comicsmuseum.gr), and contributed to the institutionalization of "Agora" within Comicdom CON Athens, an initiative for the professional networking of Greek creators and publishers with the international market.

As a comics writer, he has penned several titles, most notably the series Syndromo and Astiko Keno, the adaptation of Konstantinos Christomanos' novel The Wax Doll (I Kerenia Koukla), and the album Ta Enilika – Komikotragikomix 18+. Most recently, he wrote the script for the graphic novel biography Pavlos Sidiropoulos – En Kataklidi, by Mikros Iros Publications.

Co-Administrator and Co-organizer; Radio Producer, Musician

Comic n' Play (Thessaloniki)

Nikos Dalampyras is a graduate of the English Literature department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Apart from his pursuits as a musician in the rock/metal genre and his comics publications, he has been a radio producer for 1055Rock (FM105.5, Thessaloniki) since 2000, and since 2001 has coordinated Comic N'Play, the longest-running Greek comics and boardgames exhibition. Since 2005, he co-edits the comics publications of Enati Diastasi. To his credit are also hundreds of hours of workshops in comics for students of all tiers of education, as well as participation in the research, construction, and presentation of dozens of educational wargames of historical content, in conjunction with various institutions and communities around Greece.

Comics Artist

Georgia Zachari was born in Athens in 1994. She studied Art History at the School of Fine Arts, where she completed her thesis titled “Representations of the Urban Landscape in Contemporary Greek Comics: Athens and Thessaloniki.” Since then, she has chosen to draw comics featuring cities herself rather than write about those created by others. She began publishing her work in 2017, and in 2019 she collaborated with Giorgos Gousis and Panagiotis Pantazis on the comic “Festival”, marking the 60th anniversary of the Thessaloniki Film Festival. In 2021, she adapted Alki Zei’s “Kaplani tis Vitrinas” into a comic book with her friend Stella.

MA Student, Cultural Studies

AGH University of Kraków

Oskar Dobczyński is a master’s student in the Cultural Studies Programme at AGH University of Kraków. His research interests include cultural representations in video games, analog games, and Japanese comics (manga). He is currently working on his master’s thesis on drinking games among Polish university students.