Dr Alina Tryfonidou is, since September 2023, an Assistant Professor in EU law and Family law at the University of Cyprus. Prior to this she worked at the Universities of Leicester (Lecturer in Law, 2007-2011) and Reading (Lecturer 2011-2012; Associate Professor 2013-2018; Full Professor 2018-2021) in the UK and at Neapolis University Pafos (Full Professor, 2021-2023) in Cyprus. 

Dr Tryfonidou obtained her LLB (2001), LLM (2002) and PhD (2008) from King’s College London, where she also taught European Law as a Visiting Tutor (2005-2007) and Visiting Lecturer (2010-2011). She is an Associate of King’s College (AKC) since 2008, a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading since 2021, a non-practising member of the Cyprus Bar since 2003, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) (FHEA) since 2016. In 2004, Dr Tryfonidou completed a Blue Book Traineeship at the European Commission (DG MARKT – now DG GROW), in 2010-2011 she was a Visiting Fellow at the IALS in London, and in 2023 she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Bergamo in Italy. In 2021-2022, Dr Tryfonidou was a member of the European Commission Expert Group on the Recognition of Parenthood between Member States which had as its aim to assist the European Commission in the preparation of a legislative proposal for a Regulation which will require the cross-border recognition of parenthood in the EU. 

Dr Tryfonidou’s main research interests lie in European law, focusing on EU free movement law, family law, and the rights of sexual minorities. She is a frequent invited speaker at academic conferences and she has been invited to speak before the European Parliament (the PETI and JURI committees) and to consult the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Task Force on LGBTI issues, and to give guest lectures at events organised, inter alia, by the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup, the European Commission Representation in Cyprus, the European Parliament’s Renew Europe and S&D political groups, the Academy of European Law (ERA), the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), ILGA-Europe and NELFA. In addition to monographs, chapters in edited volumes, articles in academic journals, and online blog posts and articles, Dr Tryfonidou has authored a study on ‘The Cross-Border Recognition of Parenthood in the EU’ (2023) and has co-authored a study on ‘Obstacles to the free movement rights of rainbow families in the EU’ (2021), both of which were commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the PETI committee. Her work has been cited by several Advocates General (Bot, Sharpston, Szpunar, and Wathelet) before the Court of Justice of the EU.