Effie Fokas is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), host institution to the Grassrootsmobilise project. She is also Research Associate of the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics, where she was founding Director of the LSE Forum on Religion (2008-2012), A. C. Laskaridis Fellow at the Hellenic Observatory (2007-8) and co-taught on the MSc in Theories of Nationalism in the Government Department (2005-7). Prior to the Grassrootsmobilise project, Effie carried out a Marie Curie Fellowship studying ‘Pluralism and Religious Freedom in Orthodox Countries in Europe’ (PLUREL), also at ELIAMEP. And previous to this she participated in a number of international research consortia, including the Europe, Religion and Multiple Modernities project (EUROMM, based at the Univ. of Gottingen); the Welfare and Values in Europe project (WaVE, based at Uppsala Univ.); and the Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective project (WREP, based at the Centre for Religion and Society, Uppsala).
Her background is in political science (BA, Furman University, USA; MSc European Politics, LSE) and she holds a PhD in political sociology from the London School of Economics. Her research interests include religion and politics in the European and specifically European Union setting; the relationship between religion, national identity and nationalism; the sociology of religion in a European perspective, with a special focus on Islam and on Christian Orthodoxy; and, more recently, law and religious freedom in national and European institutional contexts.
Her publications include: Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity and Influence, co-edited with Aziz Al-Azmeh (Cambridge Univ Press, 2007), Religious America, Secular Europe? A Theme and Variations, co-authored with Peter Berger and Grace Davie (Ashgate Press, 2008), The European Court of Human Rights and minority religions: messages generated and messages received, co-edited with James T. Richardson (Taylor and Francis, 2018), and amongst her relevant journal articles and book chapters, ‘Sociology at the intersection between law and religion’, in ed. Silvio Ferrari, Routledge Handbook of Law and Religion (2015), ‘The Secular Court? Trends in the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights Compared’, in eds. Abby Day and Mia Lovheim, Modernities, Memory, Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion (2015), ‘Banal, Benign or Pernicious? Religion and National Identity from the Perspective of Religious Minorities in Greece’, New Diversities (2015), ‘Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Mobilizations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (2015), ‘Comparative Susceptibility and Differential Effects on the Two European Courts: A Study of Grasstops Mobilizations around Religion’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (2016), ‘God’s advocates: The multiple fronts of the war on blasphemy in Greece’, in eds. Jeroen Temperman and Andras Koltay, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression: Comparative, Theoretical and Historical Reflections after the Charlie Hebdo Massacre (2017), ‘Kokkinakis at the Grassroots Level’, Journal of Religion and Human Rights (2017), ‘The European Court of Human Rights at the Grassroots Level: who knows what about religion at the ECtHR, and to what effects?’, Religion, State and Society(2017), ‘The European Court of Human Rights and Minority Religions: messages generated and messages received’ (co-authored with James T. Richardson), Religion, State and Society (2017), ‘Pluralism and Religious Freedom: Insights from Orthodox Europe’, in eds. Elisabeth A. Diamantopoulou and Louis-Leon Christians, Orthodox Christianity and Human Rights in Europe: A Dialogue Between Theological Paradigms and Socio-Legal Pragmatics (2018), ‘The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: exploring the impact of the European Court of Human Rights’, Social Compass (2018), ‘Religious American and Secular European Courts, or vice versa? A study of institutional cross-pollination’, in ed. Titus Hjelm, Peter L. Berger and the Sociology of Religion: 50 Years after the Sacred Canopy (2018), The European Court of Human Rights and minority religions: messages generated and messages received, co-edited with James T. Richardson (Routledge, 2018), ‘Introduction: Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights’, Politics and Religion (2019), ‘The “radiating effects” of the ECtHR on social mobilisations around religion and education in Europe: an analytical frame’ (co-authored with Dia Anagnostou), Politics and Religion (2019), and ‘Grassroots Level Awareness about Religion at the European Court of Human Rights’, in eds. Jeroen Temperman, T. Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm D. Evans, The European Court of Human Rights and the Freedom of Religion or Belief: The 25 Years since Kokkinakis (Brill, 2019).
Forthcoming Publications:
‘Religion and Human Rights in Greece’, in eds. Giuseppe Giordan and Siniša Zrinščak, Global Eastern Orthodoxy. Politics, Religion andHuman Rights (forthcoming 2019)
The European Court of Human Rights on the Ground: Grassroots Level Impact of Religious Freedoms Jurisprudence (edited volume) (forthcoming 2019)
You can find a detailed CV here
