Eleni Karantzola is Associate Professor of Linguistics (History of the Greek Language). She studied philology and linguistics at the University of the Thessaloniki and she followed post-graduate studies on sociology of communication at the University Paris VII and on language science at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, where she prepared her PhD thesis, with a scholarship of Onassis Foundation.
Her research and teaching interests include vernacular Greek during the Ottoman and Venetian period (16th-17th c.), language contact and language change theories, the writing systems in the Mediterranean area, as well as language policy, with emphasis in literacy and adult education / lifelong learning. She also teaches in the MSc Program: “Political, Economic and International Relations in the Mediterranean”, Department of Mediterranean Studies.
She worked as Researcher at the Centre for the Greek Language, Thessaloniki, in various projects of history of Greek language and language policy.
As Professor in the Department of Mediterranean Studies she coordinates the committee of graduate programme, she is academic responsible for e-learning platform WebCT Vista and Open Courses, as well as responsible for the internship of the students of Linguistics Division. During 2010-2012 she was Head of the Department. Since 2008 she is Director of the Linguistics Laboratory at the Department of Mediterranean Studies, which supports the research and teaching objectives of the Linguistics Division; in this Laboratory she created a “Literacy Network” and a research group on vernacular Early Modern Greek.
She has participated in various projects co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Greek state (e.g. Education of Muslims, Remedial Teaching, Centres of Adult Education, Foreign Education, “Ulysses” etc.) and in European programmes (Reprise, Modeval I, II), assuming high responsibility positions.
She served as Research Associate at the General Secretariat of Adult Education, as Scientific Advisor of the Network of School Innovation and collaborator of the Unesco’s Institute of Education; she is member of the International Research Network for Learning and Multiliteracies. In July 2012 she has been appointed Secretary General for Lifelong Learning (till July 2013).
Professor Karantzola’s research findings concerning the history of Greek language figure in books / monographs, edited volumes, journals (Journal of Pragmatics, Revue des Etudes Neohelleniques) and proceedings of specialized international colloquia (e.g. “Neograeca Medii Aevi)”; on the other hand, articles on language education policy and planning have been published in several international journals, including International Journal of Learning, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies etc. She has been editor of the series “Language – Education – Society” (Metaixmio editions).
The books she co-writed or co-edited include: The Language Education of Greek Immigrants in Europe (trilingual edition, Athens: Ministry of Education & Centre for the Greek Language, 1997, with A.-F. Christidis, eds.); Linguistic Otherness in Greece. [In Greek] (Athens: Alexandria, 2001, with L. Empeirikos et al.); Language Change [In Greek]. (Athens: Nisos, 2004, with A. Fliatouras); Ioannis Morezinos. Klini Solomontos [In Greek]. (Irakleio: Institute for Cretan History Studies, 2007, with E. Kakoulidi-Panou & M. Xalvatzidaki).
