George Gikas

MA Student, Global Humanities

Supervisors: James Horncastle & Spyros Sofos

 george_gikas@sfu.ca

 

Profile

Research interests

  • Migration and Racialization
  • Transformation of Spatial Networks
  • Collective Action 
  • Ethnography

Education

  • BA (with distinction), History & Sociology, University of British Columbia 
  • Associate's Degree, Arts (General), Langara College

Biography

I was born and raised in the unceded Musqueam and Coast Salish territories, now called 'Vancouver.' After attending the University of British Columbia, where I received my BA in History and Sociology, I entered the MA program at Simon Fraser University's Global Humanities Department under the supervision of Dr. James Horncastle and Dr. Spyros Sofos.

My research interests relate to the lived experience of migrants in post-financial crisis Greece. I hope to examine how the spatial relations of migrant experiences are mediated through the framework of regulatory power enacted by what has come to be known as the European Union's 'fortress Europe.' I seek to understand the Greek state's attempts to immobilize migrants, coalescing them into anonymous hordes seen as dangerous for the sovereignty of the Greek state. Despite this, the experiences of migrants show that they are still capable of enacting agency, creating networks of solidarity and community in spaces where the EU's regulatory power seeks to garner them as invisible.