Maria Karagianni is an Urban Geographer and Planner, working in the fields of housing and urban environmental development. She is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Urban Planning at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and a Post-doc researcher in the project HousInC at the National Technical University in Athens. She is an specialised in urban commons, urban political ecology and housing.

She studied Architecture-Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed her postgraduate studies on Global Urban Development and Planning at the University of Manchester. In 2019, she obtained her PhD as an IKY Fellow from the Department Urban and Regional Planning and Development, School of Architecture - Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on urban political ecology and the commons.

She is working as an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Spatial Planning and Development, AUTH. In the past, she has taught urban planning and spatial planning theory at the Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly and at the Department of Architecture-Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has worked as an architect-urban planner in the public and private sector and as a researcher in projects of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Manchester. She has published articles in peer-reviewed international journals and edited volumes on urban environment, urban planning, commons, green spaces and housing, and her work has been selected after peer-review for presentation at international conferences. Since January 2020, she has been a reviewer for the International Journal of Urban Studies. Her research interests include urban environment and green space, the commons, public space and housing.