Eleytherios P. Alexakis

Lefteris Alexakis hails from Laconia. He studied History and Archaeology with a scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) at the University of Athens (1962-1967) and Ethnology and Social Anthropology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1968-1970). He earned his Ph.D. with honors from the University of Ioannina in 1980. Since 1974, he has been a permanent researcher and, since June 1996, the director of research at the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens. His work primarily focuses on the Greek kinship system and the Ethnology and Ethnohistory of the Balkan peoples. He has published numerous studies and has written the scripts for two ethnographic documentaries, which were broadcast by ERT. He is a member of several scientific societies and served as the president of the Hellenic Ethnological Society from 1992 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2000. He has taught as a visiting professor at the Department of History and Ethnology at the Democritus University of Thrace (1996-1997). Additionally, he has taught the course "Introduction to Social Anthropology" to postgraduate Folklore students at the University of Athens (1999-2000).