I am currently writing my PhD dissertation on 'Social Movements and the Negotiation of Collective Space in Dakar (Senegal)' in the working group Globalisation, Transformation & Gender at the Institute for Geographical Sciences (Free University Berlin). At the same time, I am a guest researcher at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal.

I studied Architectural Engineering at RWTH University of Aachen and at the University of Roma Tre (Rome). In 2013, I hold a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Free University Berlin. My professional and academic work focuses on space transformation processes and the interaction between social practices and space in countries of the Global South.

Until July 2020, I was member of the Innsbruck doctoral programme Dynamics of Inequality and Difference in the Age of Globalization.

Previously, I worked as a research associate in a DFG-founded research project based at the University of Kassel and at the University José Antonio Echeverría of Havanna, Cuba. I also worked as a lecturer at the University of Kassel and at the Technical Vocational School Delafosse in Dakar, Senegal.

After having worked with several European NGOs in the field of migration and European migration polices, I am now director of the project Dithialaki, which aims at the building of an ecological multifunctional complex for food transformation, handicraft and education to achieve food sovereignty and economic independence for small farmers in Senegal.

In my PhD, I explore how collective space production can be deployed as a strategy to contrast poverty and 'illegal' migration. Based on shared patterns of space usage, social movements of the Lebou community from Dakar (Senegal) re-appropriate space collectively for self-realisation, transforming residential areas and public facilities into places for economic activities. In my research, I examine not only the strategies employed to reach the aforementioned goals but also how spatial collective action can contribute to reproduce socio-spatial and economic exclusion while generating changes in the social order.

My dissertation project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Antonie Schmiz.

• Griesi, Elettra (2021): Between Socio-spatial Exclusion and New Solidarity Networks: The Lebou People of Thiaroye sur Mer, Senegal. Trialog 138, Cultural Space, vol. 3/2019, 38-46, Link zur Ausgabe: https://www.trialog-journal.de/hefte/trialog-138-cultural-space/

• Griesi, Elettra (2019): „Space Transformation as a Consequence of the Socialist Resettlement Program in Cuba and Georgia“ – In: Wolken Kuckucks Heim TU Berlin ist die Zeitschrift - Heft 37 - Elektronische Zeitschrift (http://cloud-cuckoo.net/index.php?id=21)

• Griesi, Elettra (2017): „Massenwohnungsbau auf Kuba: Transformation von sozialen Praktiken und Nachbarschaftsinteraktion durch gebauten Raum“ – In: TRIALOG. Köln: TASCHEN Verlag

• Griesi, Elettra (2014): „Leben in der Vertikale:Gegenseitige Beeinflussung von Raum und sozialen Praktiken am Beispiel der Plattenbauten von Pinar del Río (Kuba)“ – In:Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Band 35. Kiel: Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, S. 25 – 41.

• Griesi, Elettra (2014): Leben in der Vertikale: Gegenseitige Beeinflussung von Raum und sozialen Praktiken am Beispiel der Plattenbauten von Pinar del Río (Kuba). Berlin:Weißensee Verlag.

• Griesi, Elettra (2011): Bdoul Vertikal:Die Höhle versus das Mehrgeschoss-Haus. Architektur, Identität, räumliche Neuorganisation eines Beduinenstammes. Münster: LIT Verlag

• Griesi, Elettra (2010): Die Stadt von Velletri: Entwicklungsgeschichte und Forschungen zu städtebaulichen Ausdehnungsphasen, Haustypologien und Konstruktionsmethoden. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag.