Researchers

Dr Stavros Paspalas
Senior Research Fellow 2025-2028

Stavros served as AAIA Deputy Director from 1996 until 2025, when he retired. His research interests include the Greek world’s links with Lydia and the Achaemenid Empire, the archaeology of the northern Aegean during the Archaic and Classical periods, and the Early Iron Age Aegean. He co-directs the University of Sydney’s Zagora Archaeological Project (ZAP), with Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont and Dr Paul Donnelly. As the AAIA’s Senior Research Fellow, Stavros is overseeing the research and publication of the legacy excavations at Zagora and Torone undertaken by Alexander Cambitoglou on behalf of the University of Sydney.

Dr Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory
Senior Research Fellow 2025-2028

Lita is an experienced field archaeologist who has worked predominantly in Greece and Cyprus. She specialises in the intersections of landscape, memory, and material culture in the post-medieval and modern eastern Mediterranean. She co-directed the Australian Paliochora-Kythera Archaeological Survey, serves as Assistant Director of excavations at Isthmia in the Corinthia, and is developing a new excavation project on Kythera with Tamar Hodos and Kostas Trimmis. Her recent publications address post-Byzantine and modern material culture, migration archaeology, and object biographies in transnational contexts.

Dr Kostas Trimmis
Research Fellow 2025-2028

Kostas is Assistant Professor in Geomatics and Cultural Landscapes at the University of Thessaloniki. He is a specialist in landscape archaeology, including cave contexts. As an AAIA Research Fellow, Kostas is preparing the final publication of the Australian Paliochora-Kythera Archaeological Survey (APKAS). He is also laying foundations for a new excavation project on Kythera in collaboration with Tamar Hodos and Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory that builds on APKAS’s results. 

Beatrice McLoughlin
Research Fellow 2025-2028

Beatrice is an independent scholar who specialises in ceramic study from the perspective of the producers and users themselves. As an AAIA Research Fellow, Beatrice is preparing for final publication the coarse wares and cooking installations from the University of Sydney excavations at Zagora undertaken by Alexander Cambitoglou. She also supports the current University of Sydney excavations at Zagora.

Dr Kristen Mann
Research Fellow Research Fellow 2026-2029

Kristen is a seasoned archaeologist specialising in early Greek social history, and she has nearly two decades of fieldwork experience honed in Greece, Cyprus and Jordan. As an AAIA Research Fellow, Kristen is preparing for final publication the stratigraphic and architectural reports from the University of Sydney excavations at Zagora undertaken by Alexander Cambitoglou. She also supports the current University of Sydney excavations at Zagora.

Professor Peter Morgan, FAHA
Honorary Visiting Fellow 2026 (Athens)

Peter is Professor of German and European Studies and Director of the European Studies program at the University of Sydney. He works broadly on the historical sociology of literary cultures, focussing on authoritarian political systems. As AAIA Honorary Visiting Fellow, he will be progressing his research on the work of the young gay poet and intellectual Dimitrios Kapetanakis during the 1920s and 30s.

Dr Emily Hulme
AAIA Early Career Research Fellow 2026

Emily is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. A specialist in ancient Greek philosophy, Emily’s current research project focuses on women in Greek philosophy, for which she is gathering literary and archaeological evidence of women’s participation in a number of schools of philosophy in the ancient world.

Dr Laura Pisanu
AAIA Early Career Research Fellow 2026

Laura recently received her PhD in Archaeology from the University of Melbourne. She is a research specialist in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Sardinia. Her current research project explores Sardinia’s relationship with the Aegean during the Bronze Age from the perspective of Nuragic agency.

Zoe Stokes-Paizis
AAIA Higher Degree by Research Fellow 2026

Zoe is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. Her dissertation explores how the iconography of women on certain Classical Greek vessel shapes contributed to the construction of gender ideologies, status, class, and citizenship. As the AAIA HDR Fellow, Zoe is undertaking library research to support the completion of her doctorate.

Dr Greta Hawes
AAIA-Ithacan Historical Society Fellow 2026

Greta is Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in Ancient History at Macquarie University. She is a scholar of Greek myth and the spatial dynamics of ancient storytelling, and she co-directs the digital project MANTO. As the AAIA-Ithacan Historical Society Fellow, Greta is analysing how the Ithacans of the Archaic to Imperial periods understood and promoted their own landscapes as locations for Homeric myths.

Duncan Eddy-Soros
Kallinikos Scholar 2026

Duncan is a Master of Arts by Research student at the University of Sydney. His thesis explores Herodotus’ moral dichotomy of tyranny. As the Polymnia and Aimilia Kallinikos Scholar, Duncan is examining material culture evidence of the manifestation of Pisistratus’ tyrannical power during the mid-late 6^th C BCE.