Elena Ioannidou is a sociolinguist and an Αssociate Professor in Language Education at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus. She holds a BA (Ed) in Education (University of Cyprus), an MA in Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching (University of Southampton, UK) and a PhD in Sociolinguistics and Education (University of Southampton, UK). She has worked as a Lecturer and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus (2009-2019), and as a postdoctoral fellow (2005-2006) and a Research Associate (2007-2009) at the Centre for Applied Language Research at the University of Southampton. She is a founding member of the Literacy Association of Cyprus and has been a board member of the Linguistic Society of Cyprus.