Manolis Varvounis

M. G. Varvounis was born in Samos in 1966. He studied at the Department of History and Archaeology of the School of Philosophy at the University of Athens (1983-1988). He specialized in Folklore and earned his Ph.D. in Folklore from the University of Athens (1991). He also conducted postdoctoral research studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-La-Neuve) in Belgium (1996-1997). In 1992, he was elected as a lecturer and in 1998 as an assistant professor of Folklore at the Department of History and Ethnology of the Democritus University of Thrace, where he currently teaches. He has participated in numerous conferences and has published studies independently or in scientific journals, honorary volumes, and conference proceedings. He is a member of many scientific societies in Greece and abroad. In March 2005, His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew honored him with the title of "Archon Protector of Letters of the Great Church of Christ," and in 2005, by a solemn patriarchal decision, he was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the Brotherhood of the Offikialoi of the Ecumenical Patriarchate "Panagia the Pammakaristos."