
Dr. Vassiliki Pliogou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education, in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Western Macedonia (UoWM), Greece, on the subject of Pedagogy and Applications in Education. She is the Director of the Laboratory of the Pedagogical Studies and Innovative Educational Practices. She is the ERASMUS Departmental Coordinator, the Departmental Placement Coordinator and the Deputy President of the Scientific Supervisory Board of the Pilot and Experimental Schools (EPS) in Kastoria, too. She is the member of the Ethics Committee and the member of the Research Ethics Committee. She is also the Deputy President of the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Committee of the UoWM. She is the Departmental Representative in the Children’s Identity & Citizenship European Association (CiCEA) and the Departmental Representative in the European Network Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe. She is a member of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Support of the UoWM and the Committee of the Studies for the Pedagogical and Didactic Competence, too. She is the Deputy President of the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Committee of the UoWM. She received her BA in Pedagogy at the University of Patras. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Ghent in Belgium, with a scholarship from the Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation, in “Children’s Rights” (1995). She has two Master’s Degrees from the University of Athens in collaboration with the University of London and the University of Western Macedonia. She received her PhD in Science Education from the Department of Primary Education in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She had been for many years (1997 to present) academic staff and a member on research programs at the Democritus University of Thrace, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Ioannina, while she has a continuous cooperation with the Hellenic Open University, the University of Athens, the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE) in Thessaloniki and the Frederick University of Cyprus. From 2012 till now, she is an independent expert and a member of the teaching staff of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA) regarding gender issues. She is a reviewer in 20 Greek and International Journals. She has more than 150 presentations in Greek and International conferences and relative publications in collective volumes, Greek and International Journals and proceedings, which focus on human rights education, childhood and children’s rights, citizenship, family-school connection, gender and educational implementations using different pedagogical tools in various formal and non-formal educational environments. From 1998 till now, she has organised and co-organised events, such as conferences, seminars, educational activities which have been mainly addressed to students at the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, educators, preschool and primary school children and their families. Since 2011, she is the president of OMEP (World Organization for Early Childhood Education) in Central Macedonia. She has been awarded the first prize of the International Committee of OMEP for 2016 in Education for Sustainable Development under the UNESCO Global Action Programme, at the University of Ewha Womans in Seoul (S. Korea).

Professor Sarojini Nadar holds the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Her research focuses on the intersections of religion, gender, and violence, with particular attention to how epistemic, sexual, and physical forms of violence are mediated through religious discourse and practice.
Her work is transdisciplinary, engaging critical questions of race, class, gender, and sexuality within theological and religious studies. She has contributed to international scholarly conversations on these themes, particularly in relation to feminist and decolonial approaches to religion.
Her latest book, “Gender, Genocide, Gaza: Re-reading the Book of Esther as a Text of Terror(ism)” (Routledge, 2025), examines the intersections of sacred texts, power, and violence.