IMRU is governed by a three-member Scientific Committee, with strategic guidance provided by an Advisory Board of migration experts.

Scientific Committee

Angelo Tramountanis

Angelo Tramountanis is a researcher at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) in Athens, Greece, founder and coordinator of IMRU. He teaches the core course “Forced Migration” in the postgraduate “MSc in Media and Refugee/Migration Flows” programme at the University of Athens and serves as an evaluator for the AMIF (Asylum Migration and Integration Fund).

Angelo has coordinated and participated in a number of research programmes related to migration and refugees, most recently coordinating the Greek team in the international program “Social Protection Responses to Forced Displacement,” funded by the World Bank. His research and publication focuses on immigration and refugee policy, social integration of immigrants and refugees, the politicisation and securitisation of migration and the impact of science and technology in migration and border governance.

George Kandylis

George Kandylis is a Research Director at EKKE. His studies are in the fields of Political Science and Urban Social Geography and he has worked on research on contemporary migration and its consequences on urbanization processes in Greece. His research interests include issues of social segregation, inequalities, spatial mobility, racism and securitization in Greek urban space.

Stavros Nikiforos Spyrellis

Stavros Spyrellis is a Senior Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) specialised on urban social geography. He has held teaching and research positions at several French and Greek universities. He is a graduate of the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, and holds postgraduate degrees from the Université Paris I. He completed his doctoral thesis, titled “Social Division of the Athenian Metropolitan Area: Economic Factors and Educational Issues”, at Université Paris VII. His research focuses on the spatial analysis and mapping of social, economic, and educational segregation, with particular emphasis on the metropolitan area of Athens.

Advisory Board

Angeliki Dimitriadi

Angeliki Dimitriadi is a political scientist with an interest in irregular migration and asylum, as well as the interplay between migratory movement and policies of deterrence and protection. Her research focuses on migration management policies at external borders, migration governance in the EU and European foreign policy on migration.

Angeliki is currently a non-resident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and Resident Faculty at College Year in Athens where she teaches courses on immigration as well as foreign policy. Previously she was Senior Research Fellow and Head of the migration program for the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (2012-2024). Between October 2015 and April 2016, she was visiting fellow in residence on migration and asylum policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin.

She holds a PhD from Democritus University of Thrace on transit migration from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. She has an MA in War studies from King’s College London and a BSc in International Relations & History from the London School of Economics.

Eva Papatzani

Eva (Evangelia) Papatzani is a Postdoctoral researcher in human geography and urban studies. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the research project ‘UnSettle-Intersecting processes and experiences of urban displacements in Greece’, implemented at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). She is also an Adjunct Professor of Sociology of Space at the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Crete. She holds a PhD in Urban and Migration Studies, from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece.

She has extensive experience in designing, coordinating, and implementing international and national research projects, having collaborated with various universities and research centres in Greece and internationally. Her research interests include urban encounters with difference, interethnic relationships and micro-segregation in urban space, everyday racism, neighborhood and everyday life, urban displacements, the geographies of migrant and refugee settlement, gendered geographies, housing and urban policies, gentrification and touristification, refugee reception and accommodation, and urban transformations.

Iris Polyzou

Iris Polyzou studied sociology and urban studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). She obtained her PhD through joint supervision between the University of Poitiers (Migrinter Laboratory) and the National Technical University of Athens, Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She coordinated a four-year research project at the École française d’Athènes on socio-spatial reconfigurations in Athens and is currently co-responsible for the Atlas Global Network research project at the same institution (EFA projet quinquennal, 2022–2026).

She has participated in and coordinated research projects funded by national and international institutions, including H2020, AMIF, and HFRI. Her publications include articles and book chapters in edited volumes, the co-editing of special journal issues (BCH-mc, Geographies) and a monograph examining the relationship between migration and urban space (Ville et Migrations Internationales, BEFAR, 2025). Her research interests focus on inequalities and segregation across multiple spatial scales, drawing on quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. She is currently co-editing the greek translation of Camille Schmoll’s monograph on gender and migration, Les damnées de la mer. Femmes et frontières en Méditerranée, Editions La Découverte, Paris, 2020, funded by NTUA and EHESS.

Dimitris Skleparis

Dimitris Skleparis is Senior Lecturer in the Politics of Security at Newcastle University. He received his PhD in Political Science from Queen Mary University of London (2015) with a specialisation in the securitisation of migration and the politics of migrant activism. He also holds an MSc (Distinction) in Social Science Research Methods from the University of Bristol (2009), and a BA in Communication and Media from the University of Athens (2008).

He has published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to several edited volumes, research project reports, and policy briefs. He also has considerable media and consultancy experience. Dimitris is the Co-Convenor of the Greek Politics Specialist Group (GPSG) of the Political Studies Association (PSA), and a member of the Scientific Board of the Greek Review of Social Research.

Dimitris has previously worked as a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow and as an Internship Programme Lecturer and Coordinator at the University of California (Edinburgh Study Centre). He has also worked as a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).

Internship & training

IMRU actively supports the next generation of researchers working on migration by hosting interns, fellows and trainees at various stages of their academic careers.

The Unit currently hosts the following researchers.

Till Hanauer

Erasmus+ Student Mobility for Traineeships (04/2026 – 08/2026)

Till is a Master’s student in sociology at GoetheUniversity in Frankfurt, currently doing an Erasmus Internship at the IMRU. His research interests focus on technology, the future of work, and changing modes of production, as well as their broader implications for society and democracy. His theoretical approach is grounded in critical theory, following the intellectual tradition of Goethe University. In addition, he likes programming and human languages, and enjoys experimenting with methods from computational social science and quantitative data analysis, as well as the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) for social science research.

Lara Naber