Dr. Maria Perifanou is an adjunct academic staff at the Hellenic Open University at TESOL Master's Programme,  an adjunct academic staff at the International Hellenic University at the School of Science & Technology, and a visiting professor at the Master's programme "Information Systems" of the University of Macedonia (GR).  Furthermore, she works as a senior researcher at the Smart and Mobile Learning Environments (SMILE) Lab of the University of Macedonia (GR) in the fields of CALL and TEL. 

For the past five years, she worked also as an adjunct lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Italian Language & Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Maria is the Vice-President of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning - EATEL (2022-2025) and is also a board member of the International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era (IAALDE).

Maria holds a Master's degree in ICT and Foreign Language Education from Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, (IT), and a Ph.D. from the University of Athens, (GR), in the field of Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (iCALL), Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Open Educational Resources (OERs), Telepresence Robots in Education (TR), Blended Learning, Teachers Training and more.

Over the last ten years, she has collaborated with various European research institutions on more than 35 EU-funded research projects in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning, notably “Language learning and social media – 6 Key dialogues”, LangMOOC, Evolution of reading in the age of digitization (E-READ). Furthermore, she worked for 3 years as a TEL consultant and project coordinator at the Open Education Europa portal for the Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC).  Her recent research is connected to various  Erasmus+ projects: TRinE, PASTILLE, DETEL, FeSTEM, DC4LT, OPENLangNET, and Back2Basics  and national projects CARAT, AITRinLL-21skills (Artificial intelligence and telepresence robots in enhancing Language Learning and 21st-century skills) in which she holds the roles of projects’ initiator, scientific manager, and senior researcher.

Maria is the chair of EATEL's Special Interest group (SIG) Educational Robots & Robotics - SIG EduRobotX

She is the author of over 100 articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and books. She is also a member of different European TEL research networks and communities and has also been awarded several international and national scholarships and fellowships for her research (by STELLAR, UNESCO, EATEL, GRnet).