Associate Professor Nicholas Apoifis

Nick Apoifis is Associate Dean (International) in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA) at UNSW, where he leads the faculty’s international strategy across research, education, and engagement, building global partnerships and amplifying the work of ADA’s researchers, educators, and practitioners.

He previously served as Director of Education Innovation & Engagement for ADA and is an award-winning educator, recognised with the Australian Awards for University Teaching for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2025) and UNSW’s Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence (General Category) in 2021.

Dr Apoifis’ work is defined by a sustained engagement with sport as a site of social change, leadership, and community development. He is President of the UNSW Football Club, whose teams compete in the National Premier League 1, where he has led initiatives focused on participation, inclusion, and gender equity. In 2023, he was awarded UNSW Sports Volunteer of the Year.

This work extends internationally through his role as lead investigator on the Sports Pathways to Academic Excellence and Societal Leadership for Women initiative, a partnership between UNSW and the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. The program advances women’s leadership through football while addressing gender inequality and contributing to safeguarding, youth wellbeing, and community engagement.

As a researcher in the School of Politics & International Relations, his work engages settler colonial theory, sport for social change, social movement theory, and qualitative methods. He is co-founder of Coaching Unlimited, supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches through accreditation and health promotion workshops, and co-author of Aboriginal Sports Coaches, Community, and Culture (Springer, 2020).

His first book, Anarchy in Athens (Manchester University Press, 2017), was awarded the UNSW Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean’s Award for Best Monograph (Early Career). Based on immersive ethnographic fieldwork with one of the world’s most militant anarchist movements, the book develops militant ethnography and offers a detailed account of radical political organisation, protest, and everyday resistance.