Dr Eleni Dimou

Professional biography

Her PhD thesis ‘“Revolutionising” Subcultural Theory: the Cases of Cuban Underground Rap and Cuban Reggaeton’ consists of an ethnographic study of Rap and Reggaeton subcultures in Havana, Cuba. The thesis explores the paradoxes within Cuban culture and power relations in terms of freedom of artistic expression among others. In doing so it illuminates processes of criminalization, labelling, social control and censorship as well as, the interplays of affective and ideological elements through which power and resistance manifest in everyday life within the wider social, cultural, economic and political context of Cuba.

Eleni’s research and work in general focus in exploring and understanding the multiple forms and shapes that power and resistance can take and how these in turn affect configurations of crime, harm, social control and processes of criminalization but also cultural and social change. She is particularly drawn to issues of global social justice and to the decolonial option in social sciences. The decolonial option looks at how economic and cultural power structures, subjectivities and hierarchies in terms of race/ethnicity and gender that were shaped and consolidated during colonialism are still perpetuated today. Her research aims to contribute in decolonizing knowledge, culture and human subjectivities by firstly, bringing back the knowledge and ways of being that were purged and supressed by colonialism and, secondly, by overcoming the hegemony of Western knowledge in social sciences in general and criminology in particular.

Her current interests also pay attention to on the one hand, the lived experiences and power relations around borders and migration control, focusing but not limited to ‘Fortress Europe’; and on the other, to the coping mechanisms and practices of resistance and solidarity to refugees. Overall, Eleni’s research interests lie in the areas of: Power and Resistance, Social Justice, Coloniality/Decoloniality, Migration, Subcultures/ Countercultures, Drugs and Cutlure, Cultural and Critical Criminology, Cultural Studies, Global South, State Crimes and Harm. She is also interested in ethnographic, qualitative methods and the role of emotions and reflexivity in research.

Consultant for the Animation Video through decolonising lenses for BBC Ideas: Is it time to reassess our relationship with nature?

Eleni contributed to the production of DD212 module Understanding Criminology and she is currently part of the production team working on Crime, Harm and the State DD311 module.

Over the course of the years Eleni has taught material related to Criminological Theories, Criminal Justice, Drugs and Culture, Drug Policy, Cultural and Critical Criminology, Youth and Crime, “Crime, Culture and Control”, “Crime, Media and Culture”.