Athena Macha - Bizoumi

Athena (Nadia) MACHA-BIZOUMI read History and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina and was awarded a doctorate in Folklore Studies from the Department of History and Ethnology of the Democritus University of Thrace in 2011. In 2006, she completed a course in Museum Science at the Hellenic American Educational Foundation. She was a member of the teaching staff of the University of West Attica (Technological Educational Institute of Athens, 2013-2017), and has also taught on Post-Graduate Programmes (“Museum Studies”, “Folklore”) of the University of Athens (2014-2017).
She has taken part in research projects related to the recording, documenting and digitizing of museum-type costume collections belonging to the Dora Stratou Greek Dance Theatre and the Museum of the History of Greek Costume run by the “Lykeion ton Hellinidon” (Lyceum Club of Greek Women), and acted as a costume consultant/contributor for numerous exhibitions in Greece. She also worked concurrently with the National Costume Archives, a costume research project subsidized by the Ministry of Culture, under the supervision of Ioanna Papantoniou. From 1997 to 2004 she worked in the Museum of the History of Greek Costume, initially responsible for compiling a folkloric register of the Museum’s costume collection and then, from 2001 until early in 2004, as the Museum’s Curator. As of 2008, she has worked with the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation as scientific supervisor of the “Silks of Soufli” section at the Soufli Silk Museum, and of the “Costumes of Mastichochoria” section at theChios Mastic Museum. She was also in charge of the classification and arrangement of the exhibits at the “Victoria Karelia” collection (Kalamata).In her research, she focuses on tracing the historicity of traditional popular culture. Among her particular interests are the comparative study and recording of the history of Greek local costumes. She has published articles on these subjects in Greek and international scientific journals, multi-author volumes and exhibition catalogues.
She is a founder member and deputy chairwoman of the Hellenic Costume Society, and a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM GR), of the ICOM Costume Committee (ICC), and of the Greek Folklore Society.