Mina Karavanta is Associate Professor of Theory, Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, and Global English Literatures in the Department of English Language and Literature, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Language and Literature (Arista/Distinction), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, a Master’s degree and a Doctoral Degree in Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Binghamton. She was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship (1995); the Papadaki Fund from the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (1995-1999); a full scholarship, Department of Comparative Literature, SUNY at Binghamton (1995-1999); the Dissertation Year Fellowship (1998-1999) and the University Award for Excellence in Research (1998-1999) from the SUNY at Binghamton.

She specializes in postcolonial and decolonial studies, critical theory, gender studies, comparative literature and Global English Literatures, and has published numerous articles in international academic journals such as boundary 2, Callaloo, Feminist Review, Modern Fiction Studies, Mosaic, Symplokē, Journal Of Contemporary Theory. Her work has also appeared in edited volumes abroad and in Greece. She has co-edited Interculturality and Gender, with Joan Anim-Addo & Giovanna Covi, (London: Mango Press, 2009) and Edward Said and Jacques Derrida: Reconstellating Humanism and the Global Hybrid, with Nina Morgan (London: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008). She has translated George Steiner’s Heidegger into Greek (Athens: Patakis, 2009), and Haris Vlavianos’s poetry into English, Affirmation: Selected Poems 1986-2006 (Dublin: Dedalus: 2007). She teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Faculty of English Language and Literature and the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Translation Program of the School of Philosophy of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has also been invited to teach in the UK, the US, France, Grenada in the Caribbean and Cyprus. From 2009 to 2014 she was a member of the interdisciplinary research group Travelling Concepts (ATHENA, European Thematic Network) and a co-ordinator of the research subgroup Interculturality and Gender. From 2011 to 2014 she was a research participant in “Behind the Looking-Glass: ‘“Other”-Cultures-within’ translating cultures,” an interdisciplinary network funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Grant) and co-ordinated by Professor Joan Anim-Addo (University of London, Goldsmiths). 

She is a founding member and co-editor of the peer-reviewed electronic journal Synthesis: An Anglophone Journal of Comparative Literary Studies that promotes transcultural and interdisciplinary research and features international Editorial and Academic Boards (https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/synthesis/). She has participated in international conferences and given invited talks in the US, Europe, the Caribbean and Australia.