Acknowledgments
Who writes a book during a global pandemic? This work has been the product of rolling lockdowns since March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An otherwise traumatic year that brought me tremendous loss and grief, offered me a silver lining: The opportunity to be away from Boston and work remotely from my hometown, Athens Greece during the academic year 2020–2021.
This work is dedicated to my parents Tassos and Nacy. I was yearning for my father to be around when this book is published. While he did not live to see the final product, I will never forget how ecstatic he was when I had told him that I had a book contract. A dedicated progressive educator and a disciplined and extremely well-read scholar and historian, he found refuge in writing his entire life. With many books under his belt, and always with a manuscript ‘in progress,’ he has always been a role model for me. My mother has always been open-minded and supportive of my most crazy ideas and aspirations since I was a kid; she taught me that everything was possible. Both my parents, as educators rising out of their working-class families, always fought to give us the opportunities they did not have—always with their unconditional love.
My sister Georgia and my brother Thanassis are the closest people to me, and they have supported me all my life, always bringing me a sense of belonging. I have missed them tremendously the last twenty-five years and I never know how we will make up for all that time lost. The three of us are one. My inspiration and strength come from Nicolas and Daphne, the lights of my life. Since they came to this world, they have brought me joy and excitement only, and I can now dream of a future we are all part of. I hope I can leave a better world for them to grow and pursue their dreams, or at least try to.
Crossing paths with George Grollios from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki was a catalyst in my intellectual development. George and I collaborated in editing and authoring books in Greek on critical and liberatory education. As a more experienced and senior academic, he has modelled for me what it means to do honest, politically engaged, solid, intellectual work. I am forever grateful to him for his friendship, solidarity, and generosity. Through George, I was fortunate to meet a group of amazing colleagues with whom I have developed strong friendships: Kostas Skordoulis, Periclis Pavlidis, and Tassos Liambas. A few Greek female academics have modeled for me what it means to survive and thrive in the academy as a woman: Gianna Katsiamboura, Helen Drenoyianni, Bessie Mitsikopoulou, and Eleni Skourtou have always been friends and allies, and I have enjoyed our thought-provoking conversations. I have learned a great deal from Bessie Dendrinos thanks to her integrity, power, solid research agenda and true commitment to the field.
This book would have not been possible had it not been for the important and substantive collaboration with my research ‘dream team,’ the amazing doctoral students in the Applied Linguistics Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston: Nasiba Norova, Vanessa Quintana Sarria, Minh Nghia Nguyen, Rachel LaRusso and Iuliia Fakhrutdinova have all been involved in different degrees with the manuscript. I am deeply grateful to all of them for their commitment, professionalism, solidarity, support, and most of all, their ongoing encouragement for and enthusiasm about the project.
Evy Kamouzis and Apostolos Koutropoulos at UMass Boston have been assisting me with my administrative obligations as Department Chair since 2015. They are treasures to work with and I have been incredibly lucky to have them. They have always helped me to carve out time to do my research without drowning in administrative tasks.
Corinne Etienne has been a friend, an ally, and my sounding board for so many years; we have been through hell and heaven together, and we can still laugh about some really painful experiences in academia. Ismael’s margaritas and sound advice have helped as much. David Terkla, my late Dean at the College of Liberal Arts has been a force of good, I wish he was around to see this—I know he would be proud of me.
My Sisters, Yianna and Ioanna, I love you more than you know—thank you for the ride all these years! Deep appreciation goes to my Boston family—the Kamouzis family, for their support, warmth, and love since I immigrated to the United States.
I have tested many ideas in this book with graduate students in APLING 643 Foundations of Critical Pedagogy and I am grateful to them for the feedback. Thanks also goes to Jeremiah Morelock for giving me space the last few years to revive my passion for Critical Theory through his invitations to publish in his edited volumes. The two anonymous reviewers have provided important and constructive feedback that only made this manuscript better, and I am indebted to them for their meaningful suggestions.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to Bill Reynolds for believing in my book project from the beginning. His support came at a time when I was second-guessing myself and my ideas, and his enthusiasm and positivity were instrumental in pushing me forward. Evelien van der Veer and Alessandra Giliberto at Brill have been patiently supportive and understanding in the various stages of the manuscript preparation.
This book wouldn’t have even existed had it not been for Panos, my partner ‘in love and in crime,’ my biggest fan and most serious, sincere, and tough critic. He and I have engaged in myriads of discussions, and I have tested my ideas with him over and over, while he patiently listened and gave me honest and substantive feedback. He has been the one lifting me up during my self-doubt moments, and I have been enjoying every second of our life together, especially our talks during long beach walks on the sunny days of year 2020.
This book is nothing more than a snapshot of the author and thinker I am right here, right now, and I am fully responsible for its content.