Maria Hadjipolycarpou is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Modern Greek Studies specializing in post-colonial and Mediterranean studies.  She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. Her research delves into the intersections of autobiography, politics, and narrative communities in post-colonial literatures of the Eastern Mediterranean. Her work also encompasses Greek literature and culture, the interplay between religion, modernity, and the state in the Eastern Mediterranean, and themes of gender and sexuality in postcolonial literature. Her interests extend to global studies, poetry, and orality with a particular focus on the Mediterranean and Caribbean regions. Her scholarship emphasizes the historical significance of islands in imperial projects and she is completing a book on post-colonial and post-Cold War narrative communities in the Eastern Mediterranean. She is also finalizing an article on the poetry of C. P. Cavafy and has a forthcoming study on identities and peaceful coexistence in post-secular societies under review with De Gruyter.  Maria has presented her research extensively across the United States, Canada, and Europe and has actively organized panels for MLA, ACLA, and MGSA. Before joining  Illinois she was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University (2016-2017) and a  James A. Winn Graduate Student Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan (2013-2014). She taught at Columbia University (2014 - 2017) and at The City University of New York, Queens College (2017- 2019).