Lecturer in the Department of Political Science III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, she is member of the 'Space and Power' Research Group (University Complutense of Madrid), and also of 'Polarts (The Politics and the Arts)', a Standing Research Group within the ECPR (European Consortium for Political Research). María is also board member of the Research Committee 15 (Political and Cultural Geography) of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), and co-editor of the journal Geopolítica(s).  

Her research and teaching focuses on the field of Political and Cultural Geography, in issues ranging from the geographies of nationalism to the perspective of place, including spatial interpretations of artistic processes or geopolitics of globalization. Her current work is also related to Border Studies, with special interest in cultural governance or literary geographies; particularly related to this association is her work on the heritageization of the European borders.