George Geogarakis

George N. Georgarakis pursues a Dual Ph.D. program in political science between Sciences Po and Columbia University. His current research falls within the scope of political psychology, primarily in the areas of emotion and personality, and symbolic politics.

Funded by the Sciences Po and the Onassis Foundation Doctoral Scholarships, and under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Sauger (Sciences Po) and Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia University), his dissertation project explores the psychological bases of public opinion in the wake of external shocks in France and the U.S. by applying an experimental approach. In particular, he studies how exposure to national symbols and symbolic rhetoric regulates how the public assesses risk, and accordingly performs policy trade-offs under threat. 

Prior to attending the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics in 2017, he received a diploma in Communication and Media Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece in 2013, and a master’s degree in Communications from Sciences Po, Paris in 2017 (cum laude) funded by the Onassis Foundation Scholarship. As a graduate student at Sciences Po, he pursued a master’s thesis on the effective and symbolic bases of the rally-round-the-flag effect in the wake of the January 2015 Paris terror attacks. He has worked as a research assistant in Greece, Ireland, and France.