Maria Şpan holds an MA in Modern Applied Languages from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania, a BA in Ethnomethodology from Paris 7 University, France and a Ph. D. in Anthropology from Paris 8 University. Her Ph.D. thesis was published by L’Harmattan Paris Publishing House (ETHNOESTHÉTIQUE D’UN VILLAGE DE TRANSYLVANIE: Costume traditionnel et communication visuelle, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2020). For more than eight years she worked in the field of visual anthropology at Astra Film Sibiu; between 2009 and 2014, she was the coordinator of the documentary film festival for children and teenagers, Astra Film Junior Sibiu. Currently, she is a lecturer at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, delivering courses on Intangible heritage, Heritage education, Introduction to anthropology, Visual anthropology. Ethnographic film, Ethnography, Introduction to ethnology. She is also a member of the National Commission for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage, within the Ministry of Culture.