Elena Vasiliou

I am a licensed psychologist, educator, and queer scholar, currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Warwick and, from November, a Research Associate at the University of Bath. Until recently, I held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Warwick and UC Berkeley (2022-2025), where I led a qualitative study exploring self-destruction, power, pleasure, resistance, and pain in UK prisons. I have also worked as an educator and researcher in prisons in the USA (San Quentin) and Cyprus.

My academic background bridges psychology, gender studies, and critical theory, with a strong focus on community engagement and collective organising. I hold a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Cyprus, and both a BA and MA in Psychology from Panteion University in Athens. My main research interests include carceral care, self-harm as a social practice, and the cultural politics of mental health.

I am currently working on my first monograph, under contract with Bristol University Press. It offers a reverse reading of the "pains of imprisonment" and argues that institutional lack and emotional suffering can also be sources of meaning, critique, and resistance. I have also published on this work in Theoretical Criminology, in an article that explores how people in prison use self-harm not only as an expression of pain, but also as an embodied form of resistance and survival. This work engages deeply with the intersections of pain and pleasure, reframing self-inflicted pain as, at times, an empowering or communicative act within contexts of extreme deprivation.

My work aligns closely with CHaI’s aims, especially in its attention to how culture, power, and institutional structures shape experiences of health, harm, and care. I am particularly interested in ethical approaches to researching with marginalised or distressed communities, and in how qualitative and creative methods such as zine-making, which I’ve recently used as part of the Foucault 40 Years seminar series on theory and community engagement, can support collective understanding and change.

Through CHaI, I hope to exchange ideas, build collaborations, and contribute to critical conversations on health, illness, and the conditions in which care becomes possible. I also enjoy running and ultra cycling. They help me think.

Email: elen.vasiliou@gmail.com

Affiliation: University of Warwick, United Kingdom