Kalessopoulou Despina

Despina Kalessopoulou is Assistant Professor of Museum Education at the University of West Attica, Department of Early Childhood Education and Care. She has studied Archeology and Art History (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Museology (University of Leicester, UK) and completed her PhD on the psycho-pedagogical design principles and qualities of child-centered museum exhibitions at the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Thessaly.

Her published scientific work includes articles in Greek and international scientific journals, books, chapters in books and collective volumes, some of which are proceedings of international and Greek conferences. She is the editor of the collective volume “Child and Museum Education: Theoretical underpinnings, Pedagogical Practices” (in Greek). She is a member of scientific museum associations and a reviewer in international journals. Her publications and main research interests relate to the educational, social and communication role of museums, and in particular to the design of exhibition environments for children, the interaction of young children with the museum environment, critical pedagogy and experiential learning in the museum, museum interpretation and the social responsibility of museums.

She cooperates with the Interinstitutional Postgraduate Programme “Museum Studies” (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and University of West Attica), the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programme “Pedagogy through Innovative Technologies & Biomedical Approaches” (University of West Attica) and with the Training Institute of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government. She has been invited on several occasions as a lecturer to many university departments (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of Thessaly, University of Ioannina, University of the Aegean, Economic University of Athens, Athens University of Applied Sciences). She has also taught at the Ionian University in the academic year 2017-18.

She has worked for more than twenty years in various museums and cultural organizations in the field of education and exhibition development. She had been for many years the Head of Educational Programmes Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art “Skironio Museum Polychronopoulos ” and the Hellenic Children’s Museum. For fifteen years she had been working at the National Archaeological Museum (Athens), in the field of communication, event organization, and the design and implementation of exhibitions, educational programs and educational material for children, adults and vulnerable social groups. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Hellenic Children’s Museum.

Selected publications (in English)

Kalessopoulou, D. (2021). Visitor Experiences at the National Archaeological Museum: Considering Emerging Values and Renewed Agendas, International Journal of Advanced Research and Review, Vol. 6 (4), 35-52.
Kalesopoulou, D. (2020). The first National Museum of modern Greece. In M. Lagogiannis-Georgakarakos & Th. Koutsogiannis (Ed.), These are what we fought for… Antiquities and the Greek War of Independence (pp. 314-333). Athens: Archaeological Resources Fund.
Kalessopoulou, D. (2019). Sense of place in child-centered museums: charting children’s place meanings, Children, Youth and Environments 29(2), 51-76.

Kalessopoulou, D. (2017). Capturing the untold: photography as a tool for empowering children to interpret their embodied experiences in museums, Journal of Visual Literacy 36(3-4), 164-183.
Kalesopoulou, D. (2017). National Archaeological Museum 1866-2016: From the teaching of the science of archaeology to the challenge of the multifaceted museum experience. In M. Lagogianni-Georgakarakos (Ed.), Odysseys. (Scientific catalogue of the anniversary exhibition of the National Archaeological Museum) (pp. 211-236). Athens: Archaeological Resources Fund
Kalesopoulou, D. (2015). The museological design of the exhibition: approximating the city’s multi-temporal landscape. In Lagogianni-Georgakarakos, M. & Koutsogiannis, Th. (Eds), A dream among splendid ruins… Strolling through the Athens of travelers, 17th-19th century (pp. 346-363). Athens: Archaeological Resources Fund.
Kalessopoulou, D. (2002). Children’s museums in hospitals. In Sandell, R. (Ed.), Museums, society, inequality (pp. 190-199). London: Routledge.
Lagogiannis-Georgakarakos, M., Kalessopoulou, D., Koutsiana, P., & Selekou, M. (2020). Steps towards the learning museum: the National Archaeological Museum “Inside Out”. In Christophilopoulou, A. (Ed.), Material cultures and Public Engagement (pp. 107-118). Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Mouliou, M., & Kalessopoulou, D. (2012). Emblematic museum objects of national significance: in search of their multiple meanings and values. In Dudley, S., A. J. Barnes, J. Binnie, J. Petrov, & J. Walklate (Eds), The thing about museums: objects and experience, representation and contestation. Essays in honour of Professor Susan M. Pearce (pp. 47-68). London: Routledge