Professor Gerasimos Makris

Gerasimos Makris is Professor of Social Anthropology at Panteion University. He has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. He is member of the Royal Anthropological Society, Sudan Studies Society of the United Kingdom and the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth. From 2011 to 2018 he was member of the European Research Council SH2 Panel ‘Institutions, Values and Beliefs and Behaviour’. His main research interests are in the anthropology of Islamic societies, Greek diaspora in the Middle East, anthropology of religion and the anthropological study of Christianity. He has published extensively on Arab Islam, Christianity, the Greek Orthodox Church and issues of the Greek diaspora. Books in English: The Sudanese Zār Ṭumbura Cult: Slaves, Armies, Spirits and History. London: Routledge, 2023. Islam in the Middle East: A Living Tradition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Changing Masters: Spirit Possession and Identity Construction among Slave Descendants and Other Subordinates in the Sudan. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2000. Latest book in Greek: The Way of the Spirits: Spirit Possession and Magic in the Sudan, Athens: Patakis, 2015. Among his most recent articles/book chapters in English: ‘Speaking about the Bible: The Production of Orthodoxy as Political Process in Difficult Times’. In Arapoglou, P. (ed.). Bible and Politics. Athens: Greek Bible Society, pp. 184-94. 2019. ‘Devotees and Clients: The Ṭumbura Cult, Spirit Possession and Medicinal Roots in the Sudan’. In Montgomery, E. J. (ed.). Shackled Sentiments: Slaves, Spirits, and Memories in the African Diaspora. 2019. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 85-107. (With Meichanetsidis, V.) ‘The Church of Greece in Critical Times: Reflections through Philanthropy’. In Journal of Contemporary Religion, vol. 33: 2, 2018. ‘The Greek Orthodox Church of the Sudan: Ethnically Greek and Black African believers in a Missionary Vacuum’. In ARAM Periodical for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 25, 2013.