Maria AthanasekouMaria Athanasekou is an Art Historian, a graduate of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with postgraduate studies in Art History at the University of London, and a PhD holder from the School of Architectur of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). She currently teaches at the Hellenic Open University and Frederick University, and has taught at the Department of Early Childhood Education (TEAPI) at NUA, the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of History and Archaeology) at NUA, the University of the Aegean, the University of Western Macedonia, the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, among others. She is a member of the European research team COST Action, representing Greece on the “Perinatal Mental Health and Birth-Related Trauma: Maximising Best Practice and Optimal Outcomes” (DEVoTION) CA18211, serving on its Management Committee. She regularly gives public lectures on topics related to Art History for a range of institutions and is a frequent collaborator with the Open Foundation of Education. She participates actively in international conferences, and her academic work includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and published monographs in both print and digital form. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, always oriented toward the intersection of art, therapy, and education. She has received advanced training in Art Therapy, Children's Drawing Interpretation, Intercultural Education, Digital Education, Special Education, Psychology, Neuropsychology, Folklore Studies, and more, and is a certified adult educator. Her approach to art is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing insights from related fields such as Anthropology, Psychology, Folklore, and Sociology, with the aim of fostering a meaningful connection between students and art. She is passionate about telling the stories of art, sharing them, and engaging with others through the visual image. She believes that art holds immense power and a wealth of stories—many, if not all, of which concern us or will concern us at some point in our lives, as our existential field of experience continues to expand. Her teaching invites reflection, emotional connection, and critical thinking, highlighting the transformative and therapeutic dimensions of art in education and beyond. Read More Read Less