Despina Karakatsani is a Professor of Pedagogy at the University of the Peloponnese. She studied History at the University of Athens (1989) and continued her studies in France. She took one DEA in Didactics of History and Geography from the University of Paris 7-Jussieu and one DEA in Sciences of Education from the University Paris 7-Saint-Denis. She obtained a PhD in Sciences of Education (from the University of Paris 8-Saint Denis 1998). She has taught at the University of Crete (1998-2004) and at the University of Democritus (1998-1999). Since 2004 she has taught at the Faculty of Social and Education Policy of the University of the Peloponnese and since 2006 at the Open University of Athens.  In 2015 she was elected Professor in Sciences of Education at the Department of Social and Education Policy of the University of the Peloponnese. In 2010 she was visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University. 

She has published several articles in Greek and international journals and she participates in several European projects in cooperation with Dare (Democracy and Human Rights Education), CiCe (Children’s’ Identity and Citizenship in Europe), and Nece (Networking European Citizenship Education). She is part of the management committee of the project HIDDEN- History of Identity Documentation in European Nations: Citizenship, Nationality, and Migration of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). 

One of the last Erasmus programmes in which she participates is Immune to Opinion Manipulation for the place of fake news in education. She is part of the Committee of Selection for Professors at the University of Paris 8 Saint-Denis.  

Her research interests include the history of child welfare and child protection, social and political education-citizenship education, multicultural education, the history of pedagogical ideas (institutional pedagogy and Freinet pedagogy), and alternative educational methods. 

She is the author of the following recent books: 

1.V. Pliogkou, D.Karakatsani (2021). Contemporary tendencies in pedagogical theory and practice. Democracy, citizenship and heterogeneity, Athens: Gutenberg. 

2. V.Theodorou, D.Karakatsani (2022). Strengthening Boung bodies building the Nation. A Social History of Children's Health and Welfare in Greece (1890-1940). CEU press studies in the History of Medicine.