Dr Ioanna Katapidi PhD, MSc

• PhD: Department of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University
• MSc in Urban Regeneration: Bartlett School of Planning, University College of London (UCL)
• MSc in Planning and Regional Development: University of Thessaly, Greece

Ioanna is an expert in Cultural Heritage, focusing on the dynamic relationships between people, place, and heritage. Since joining the University of Birmingham in 2017, she has built an interdisciplinary research and teaching portfolio that investigates how heritage is experienced, governed, and mobilised in both urban and rural contexts. Her scholarship explores how heritage shapes identities, informs planning and governance, and contributes to more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient futures.

Ioanna’s academic background brings together spatial planning and heritage studies. She completed her undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Thessaly (Greece), graduating with First Honours and ranking first in her cohort. Her dissertation delivered the first systematic mapping and documentation of Greece’s traditional settlements, work that laid the foundation for her enduring interest in heritage landscapes and policy.

In 2009, she moved to the UK to pursue an MSc in Urban Regeneration at University College London (UCL), supported by a competitive Achillopoulos Foundation scholarship. Her postgraduate research examined the intersections between heritage conservation and economic development, assessing the strengths and limitations of Greek conservation policies during a period of significant socio-economic transition.

Ioanna completed her PhD at Cardiff University in 2016 with funding from the Bodossakis Foundation. Her doctoral research investigated how heritage is perceived, valued, and negotiated within living heritage environments, focusing on traditional settlements in Greece. Alongside her research, she contributed to teaching and tutoring across planning and heritage programmes, further strengthening her interdisciplinary expertise. Her research was recognised internationally, receiving the Best Young Academic Paper award at the AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) conference.

Following her PhD, Ioanna joined the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University as a Research Associate, where her research expanded into sociotechnical studies of the urban environment, place identity, and the socio-cultural dimensions of space. Before moving to Birmingham, she also served as a Teaching Associate at the University of Thessaly, in Greece leading modules on the Management of Natural and Cultural Heritage and Landscape, further strengthening her international teaching profile.

Ioanna’s research tackles major questions at the intersection of heritage, society, and public policy. She investigates how heritage contributes to place identity, how planning and conservation frameworks shape everyday experiences, and how heritage values are constructed and renegotiated amid social, environmental, and economic transformation. Her work is globally engaged, grounded in collaborations and research projects across Europe (Greece, Italy, Belgium, the UK), Asia (China, India, Uzbekistan), the Middle East (Jordan), and North America. She has worked closely with local communities, practitioners, and public institutions, contributing to research design, policy dialogue, and capacity‑building initiatives.

Ioanna maintains a strong commitment to heritage education, participatory practice, and the development of critically engaged practitioners. She has collaborated with major international organisations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, and UNESCO, contributing to training, policy frameworks, and international knowledge exchange. 

• Programme Lead: MA in International Heritage Management by distance learning
• Programme Lead: British Cultural Heritage International Summer School
  
  
• Convenor of the following postgraduate modules:
  • Heritage Conservation Management (on campus and DL)
  • Business of Heritage (on campus and DL)
  • Research Skills Sources and Methods

Ioanna also participates in team teaching in the following modules:

• Public History (undergraduate)
• Critical Approaches to Heritage (postgraduate)
• Tourism Management at World Heritage sites

Heritage and Place Making
Heritage and Place identity
Heritage led urban regeneration
Heritage and Sustainable Development
The social construction of heritage

Find out more - our PhD Cultural Heritage  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My research is grounded in a critical understanding of heritage as a social and cultural construct. I examine how heritage is perceived, interpreted, negotiated, and continually (re)produced, particularly within living heritage environments where everyday practices, memories, and identities intersect.

Local communities are central to my research expertise. I investigate their role in shaping heritage identification and interpretation in order to:

• interrogate what heritage is, for whom, and why;
• understand how heritage values can generate social, cultural, and economic benefits; and
• contribute to more inclusive, socially responsive, and economically sustainable conservation and planning policies.

Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, my research bridges heritage studies, spatial planning, cultural geography, and sustainable development. This has led to sustained scholarly engagement with themes including heritage governance, heritage-based economies and tourism, heritage and place identity, and heritage’s role in sustainable and resilient futures.

My doctoral research on Greek traditional settlements further developed my expertise in community-centred heritage approaches, enabling exploration of heritage under conditions of economic crisis. This work revealed how financial pressures reshape conservation priorities, community attitudes, and policy responses, highlighting the complex relationships between heritage protection, socio-economic change, and local agency.

Between 2017 and 2020, I served as an academic bridge between the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois, contributing to collaborative initiatives at the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage (IIICH) and the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy (CHAMP). This role strengthened my commitment to international, cross-institutional research and comparative perspectives on heritage policy and practice.

I have contributed to several internationally oriented research projects, including participation in the AHRC-funded network World Heritage FOR Sustainable Development, which examined pathways through which World Heritage Sites—particularly in developing contexts—can support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A strong commitment to applied, policy-relevant, and globally engaged scholarship is also reflected in my recent research collaborations/research projects:

• Conservation of Ras Al Khaimah’s Mangrove Landscape: Cultural Significance and Physical Condition (with University of Birmingham Dubai Campus)— Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research (2025–present)
• Building Capacity for Heritage and Tourism-led Sustainable Development and Resilience in the Former Aral Sea Region, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan (with Nottingham Trent University)— Nottingham Trent University Global Heritage Research Award (2023)
• Protecting and Promoting Industrial Heritage: Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site as Best Practice — University of Ferrara, Italy (2023)

Overall, my work centres on advancing understandings of heritage, drawing on my expertise in heritage theory, community engagement, and policy-oriented research. I collaborate across academic, professional, and governance contexts, working with universities, heritage organisations, governmental bodies, and local stakeholders internationally. My research seeks to mobilise expertise that supports more equitable, participatory, and sustainable heritage practices, recognising heritage as a dynamic social process rather than a static legacy.

• Member of a European Heritage and Planning research network under the auspices of AESOP (Association of the European Schools of Planning)
• Linkedin profile
  
• Academia.edu profile
  

Papers and presentations in conferences

• How do conservation policies affect the way in which people value heritage?. Paper presented in Spaces of Dialogues for Places of Dignity, AESOP conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-14 July 2017. 
• How does nature affect perceptions of built heritage? Local communities’ insights in Greek  traditional settlements. Paper presented in Nature & Culture: Heritage in Context Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 16-19 May, 2016.
• Understanding perceptions of heritage in living places: The case of Greek traditional settlements. Paper presented in Global Crisis, Planning and Challenges to Spatial Justice in the North and the South, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 3-8 July, 2016. 
• Economic crisis as a double edged sword for heritage conservation: Locals’ insights in Greek traditional settlements. Paper presented in Changing Cities Conference, Porto Heli, Greece, 22-26 June, 2015. 
• Examining awareness of heritage in Greek traditional settlements. Presentation in the conference of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), Utrecht, Netherlands, 2014.
• Homelessness in the Context of an Acute Economic Crisis in Europe:  the Case of Greece (with Sapounakis, A.) Paper presented in the European Research Conference Homelessness, Homelessness in the time of crisis Warsaw 19th September 2014.
• The role of conservation policies in the protection of cultural landscape: Challenges and Threats. The case of Pelion in Greece. Paper presented in Changing Cities Conference, Skiathos, Greece 18-21 June, 2013.
• Is conservation policy responsible for the economic development of the historic urban environment?  The case of Greece, Heritage 2012, Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development, Editor: Amoeda R. Lira S. Pinheiro C. pp. 81-93. 
• In Defence of Public Open Space in the Modern Greek City: Challenges that Need to be Faced. Presentation in the conference of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), Ankara, Turkey,  11-15 July, 2012.
• Is conservation policy responsible for the economic development of the historic urban environment? The case of Greece. Presentation in the 3rd International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development, Porto, Portugal, 19-22 June, 2015. 
• Past, Present, Future: Approaching the conservation of historical settlements concept. Presentation in Postgraduate Conference and Theory School, Gregynog, Wales, UK, 25-27 April, 2012.
• Location Patterns and Social Integration of Economic Immigrants. A Comparative Analysis of the Greek and Northern European Context (with Sapounakis, A.). Paper presented in the European Research Conference Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in Europe, Pisa, Italy, 16th September, 2011.
• Urban Regeneration in Mediterranean Historic cities. Presentation in the ‘Why does the past matter’ conference of The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Heritage and Society, Massachusetts, US, May 2011.
• Urban Regeneration of the western waterfront in Crete: Five years after. Presentation in the conference of the Association of European Schools of Planning, Helsinki, July 2010.