Staff

Dr Stavros Paspalas, Director

Stavros received his BA (Hons) and MA (Hons) degrees from the University of Sydney and his doctorate from the University of Oxford. He was appointed as Deputy Director of the AAIA in 1996, and Acting Director in March 2016. He was appointed as Director in 2020. 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 is involved in a number of field projects, notably in the Zagora Archaeological Project which he co-directs with Professor Margaret Miller and Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont, both of the University of Sydney. He worked for many years on the excavations at Torone and on the Australian Paliochora Kythera Archaeological Survey. He has published on the cultural exchanges between Greece, especially Macedonia, and its eastern neighbours, ceramic studies, and matters related to the iconography of the ancient world. In his current role of Director of the AAIA he oversees the operations of the Institute, coordinating its various research and outreach programmes both in Greece and Australia, and working with staff, governance and supporters to ensure its continuing success and growth.

Dr Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory, Executive Officer, Athens

Lita holds degrees in Anthropology and Archaeology from the University of Sydney, and a PhD from La Trobe University in Australia. She has worked extensively in Greece, but also in Cyprus and Jordan. She is Co-Director of the Australian Paliochora-Kythera Archaeological Survey, and project co-ordinator of the Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia. Her duties at the AAIA include the management of the Athens Hostel, development of Greece-based academic and outreach programs, and assisting the Director with general administrative tasks. Her research interests have focused primarily on landscape and survey archaeology, mortuary studies relating to issues of commemoration and identity, and the archaeology of post-medieval and Modern Greece. She has been teaching at Columbus State Community College and The Ohio State University since 2011. She has published several articles  and monograph sections on survey archaeology and the archaeology of modern Greece, and is co-author of “The Archaeology of Kythera” published by Meditarch. She has also co-authored an article published in Hesperia on the archaeology of Korfos, a Mycenean harbour town, and is a contributor in the upcoming monograph on the same site.

Brett Myers, Finance Officer

Brett received his BA (hons) from The University of Sydney and completed a Graduate Diploma in Museum and Heritage Studies there as well. Brett has worked at the Nicholson Museum, The Archaeological Computing Laboratory and the Centre for Continuing Education. Brett recently completed his MPhil at the University of Sydney. He commenced his role as ‘Administration Officer’ at the Australian Archaeological institute at Athens in 2000. His primary area of research interest is pre-Roman South Italy and he has been involved in numerous surveys and excavations there under the auspices of the University of Sydney, primarily under the Direction of Dr Ted Robinson. His post-graduate research is focused on South Italian (Lucanian) fortified centres, circa 400 to100 BC, primarily using Graphical Information Systems and Network analysis to analyse their distribution. al institute at Athens in 2000.

Dr Kristen Mann, Zagora Research Fellow

Dr Kristen Mann was a PhD by the University of Sydney for her thesis: Household Behaviour and Settlement Organisation at Late Geometric Zagora.

In 2018, Kristen joined the AAIA Zagora 3 Publication Project team. Kristen was the founder of the Digital Horizons Project and is Emeritus Director of the Project.

Kristen has a long association with the AAIA since she was awarded an Olwen Tudor Jones Scholarship in 2007. In 2012 she also held the AAIA fellowship in Athens, where she was working on her PhD and she has worked closely with the Zagora 3 team in the course of that research.

Dr Yvonne Inall, Project Officer, Co-Director, Digital Horizons Project

Yvonne holds a BA (hons) and MPhil in Classical Archaeology from the University of Sydney was awarded a PhD in History by the University of Hull (UK).

Yvonne’s research focusses on Iron Age weapons and warfare, violence and the construction of martial identities in the Mediterranean, Northwest Europe and Britain. She also conducts research into memorialisation practices and was a postdoctoral fellow on the Remember Me Project at the University of Hull from 2015-2018.

Thomas Romanis, Volunteer Co-ordinator, Director, Digital Horizons Project

Thomas has worked with the Digital Horizons Project since its inception in 2019, aiding in the administration and logistics of the project. He was appointed Director in April 2022. He oversees the volunteer training program. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Ancient History from Macquarie University, and a Masters of Museum and Heritage Studies, awarded by University of Sydney in 2020. His research specialism is technology in archaeology and museums. Thomas is approachable and happy to correspond with prospective volunteers.

Dr Christina Marini – Erasmus+ Research Fellow, Athens

Christina received a DPhil in Classical Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 2019 for her thesis titled: The Bronze-Iron Age Transition in Achaea, Western Greece: Continuity and Change from the 12th to the 8th Century BC.
She joined the AAIA in May 2021, as a researcher for the Erasmus+ project Finds Stories: Addressing Mobility through Object and People Biographies. As part of this collaboration, her research focuses on aspects of materiality in migratory settings in the Balkans and the Aegean over a broad chronological horizon, from antiquity to modern transnational experiences.

Beatrice McLoughlin, Honorary Research Affiliate

Beatrice is the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens (AAIA) Research Officer, looking after the archives relating to the AAIA’s archaeological excavations: Zagora and Torone in Greece.

She has been researching the Zagora legacy data – that is, the information out of the initial Australian excavations at Zagora in the 1960s and 70s for some 20 years.