Dimitra Xidous

Dimitra Xidous has a background in public health policy, with a focus on health and human rights.  She was a health policy analyst in Health Canada (2006-2012) where she worked on health and rights (including sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and gender-related health issues). As a Research Fellow in Trinity College Dublin, (2014-present), Dimitra has been involved in several age-attuned design research projects focusing on the role of the built environment to support health and well-being of older persons.  In addition, she has worked on, and led Work Packages in a number of European-level projects focusing on health and cities, including the COST Action People Friendly Cities in a Data Rich World, and Horizon 2020 project Connecting Nature.  She has significant experience in leading participatory design and stakeholder management and has worked with (and represented Canada at) multilateral organizations, including WHO, PAHO, and the UN, on a wide range of health issues.  

Dimitra is an award-winning poet and writer.  In 2019, she was awarded a Markievicz Bursary for (S)worn State(s), a poetry collaboration with Kimberly Campanello and Annemarie Ní Churreáin. She is the author of two poetry collections: Keeping Bees (2014, Doire Press) and Μηδέv | Oὐδέν (2020, Doire Press).  Her poems and essays have appeared in 3:AM Magazine, gorse, The Stinging Fly, Room Magazine, The Real Story UK, and The Dalhousie Review.  She was awarded a residency at the Heinrich Böll Cottage (2020). She is an Executive Editor of SPROUT, a new journal of eco-poetry, published in collaboration with The Nature of Cities. 

Her research and artistic interests include the role of art in promoting personhood; body and memory, and body memory (what the body remembers and re-members); and creativity (and creative activity) as craft and mechanism for capturing the lived experience.