She is an Associate Professor of History of French Civilization at the University of Athens, specializing in the cultural transfers between France and Greece. She has been teaching at the University of Athens since 2004 and she also teaches a course on History of the European Literature at the Hellenic Open University (since 2000).
After graduating from the French Department of the University of Athens (BA in French Literature), she pursued her studies in France, at the University of Paris-Sorbonne-Paris IV where she obtained a Masters Degree (Diplôme d’études approfondies) and a PhD in General and Comparative literature. In France she had a scholarship from the Greek National Foundation of Scholarships (IKY). She also cooperated with the National research institute into research programs while she was the scientific supervisor of a research project funded by the Leventis foundation and materialized in cooperation with the Department of French studies of the University of Cyprus (Assistant professor May Chehab).
Despina Provata has published monographs, coedited collective volumes, chapters for books and several scientific articles on her research interests that include Comparative literature, History of Ideas, Cultural transfers between Greece and France and Translation studies.
She is vice-president of the SIHFLES (Société Internationale pour l’Histoire du Français Langue Étrangère ou Seconde) and co-editor of the peer reviewed periodical Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde (Dhfles).