Maria Economou

Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage

University of Glasgow

 

Maria Economou is Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage. She returned in 2013 to the University of Glasgow, where she originally started her academic career as Lecturer in New Technologies for the Humanities at the then newly created Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII, 1997-2000). She has a joint appointment shared between Information Studies (previously known as HATII) and The Hunterian, helping to bring closer the University’s Museum and Art Gallery with the teaching and research within the College of Arts and make use of the collections. She designed The Hunterian's Digital Strategy (2017-2020) and is responsible for leading its digital initiatives. She previously worked at the University of the Aegean (as Assistant and Associate Professor in Museology and New Technologies, 2003-13), the University of Manchester (as Lecturer in Art Gallery and Museum Studies, 2000-2003), and the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford (as Assistant Curator responsible for Information Technology, 1995-1997).

Her research lies at the nexus of two key Information Studies research themes: Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities. She is interested in the use of all forms of digital technology and new media in the field of cultural heritage and museums. A particular expertise is visitor studies and evaluation research with different groups of users (ranging from schoolchildren using museum mobile apps to visitors to real or virtual exhibitions or users of online catalogues). She is also interested in the effect of ICT on museum staff and the working practices of cultural organisations. Another of her research interests is the documentation and management of cultural collections, the organisation of cultural information, and digitisation practices.