Prof. Dr. Dhimitra KOUKOURA

Dimitra Koukura was born in Thessaloniki. He studied at the Philosophical and Theological School of the University of Athens. She graduated with honors and continued her studies at the Sorbonne ( Paris I , Paris V ) and the Catholic Institute of Paris, where she attended a postgraduate course in General Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Byzantine History, Liturgy and Patrology and received four postgraduate degrees titles. Doctorate awarded by the Department of Theologyof the University of Athens, where she defended her doctoral thesis on the stylistic approach of paternal speech texts. She worked as a philology teacher in Secondary Education ( PSPTH ) and in 1993 was elected a Lecturer in the Theology Department of the University of Athens. for the subject of Oratory.

Today she is a Professor. She has written four studies related to the subject of her teaching (Hyphological observations on the oratory texts of St. Gregory of Palamas, Speeches of Bishops, Rhetoric, Ecclesiastical Rhetoric, Studies in Christian Speech) and a sufficient number of articles which were published in the volumes: "Church and Language - communicative approach " and "The position of women in the Orthodox Church and other studies of ecumenical concern", "The message of the Gospel. reception - Transmission ". Also for the needs of the course "Introduction to Theology" he published the teaching manual "Introduction to Theology" . academic years 2004-2009 she was director of the Worship Department, Chr. Education and Eccl. Administration
For fifteen years (1993-2008) he was involved on a voluntary basis with the dissemination of the Greek language and the coordination of Greek language teaching programs for non-Greek speakers in collaboration with the University of Macedonia and I.M. Polyanis and Kilkisiou. He speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian and deals with the study of foreign students of the Department of Theology and the educational exchange program with the "Holy Cross" School of Theology in Boston.

Also, on a voluntary basis, he coordinates the Greek language summer course program of the theological schools of "Holy Cross" in Boston and Balamand in Lebanon.

He has rich experience from the inter-Christian dialogues within the framework of the World Council of Churches (WCC-WCC), where during the last twenty-five years he has participated in various capacities. Since 2003 he has represented the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the "Loyalty and Taxis" (F&O) Committees, the Standing Committee and the Plenary, and the "Churches in Dialogue" committee of the Conference of European Churches(CEC) (2004-2009) Since the year 2009 he also represents the WCC Global Christian Forum and since the year 2012 the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Elijah Interfaith Institute Board of World Religious Leaders. Elected member of the Central Committee of the PSE as a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (November 2013). The fruit of this engagement was a series of articles reflecting on the position of women in the Orthodox Church and the need for inter-Christian dialogue.

She is a member of ESWTR (European Society of Women in Theological Research) and the International scientific society of teachers of Homiletics Societas Homiletica. Her main scientific concern is the modern theological discourse and the investigation of the communication factors that affect its transmission and acceptance.