Class XI (2013-2014)

Sponsor Club: West Kavala Rotary Club, Greece. District 2481

Host Club: Sumner Park Rotary Club, District 9630

Ioannis completed his undergraduate in International and European, Economic and Political Studies at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki. He was nominated as a participant of the 2008 IIPES summer school, on conflict resolution and international politics, studying together with a very diverse group of Middle East participants. He received a Greek ‘State Scholarships Foundation’ (IKY) and ‘Leiden University FONDS’ scholarship for his post-graduate studies at Leiden University, on International Relations and Diplomacy, which he completed with a cum laude. His thesis was on the comparison of male and female suicide missions. Before accepting his nomination as a Rotary Peace Fellow, Ioannis worked for International NGOs, the European Commission and the Greek Consulate in The Hague. His interest in the region of the Middle East led him to travel and work in Jordan and Lebanon doing field work on refugee camps and research on suicide missions. As part of his work at the Arab Centre for Security Studies, he helped with the organization of regional, nuclear non-proliferation events and a Hiroshima- Nagasaki bombing commemoration event. During his stay at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin) and in view of the EU worsening financial crisis, he worked on cultural diplomacy case-studies, participated at the Berlin International Economics Congress and explored civil society’s role in the EU’s future.

As an associate officer at the Institute for Historical Reconciliation and Justice, in the Hague, he assisted with projects and publications related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Two Sides of the Coin: Independence and Nakba 1948), post-war historical narratives in former Yugoslavia (Political Myths in the Former Yugoslavia and Successor States) and the Turkish-Armenian dispute. Ioannis has also participated in Model United Nations simulations in Thessaloniki (2007, 2008) and Lebanon (2009), as well as three American Studies seminars in his hometown, Thessaloniki. He has a keen research interest on peace and conflict resolution in Cyprus, as well as the Middle East and Balkan regions. During his AFE at PRIO Cyprus Center (Nicosia) he did research on various aspects of inter-community relations and the conflict resolution process.