Maria Nikijuluw is a PhD student at Ghent University, specializing in discourse studies, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Pattimura University of Indonesia in 2000 and her Master’s in Sociolinguistics and German Studies from Bern University of Switzerland in 2014. She also completed her Master Advanced in Comparative Linguistics at Ghent University of Belgium from September 2023 to 2024.
During her academic career as a German lecturer since 2005, Maria served as Secretary of International Office (2007-2010, 2014-2020) and Director of Language Studies Centre of Pattimura University in 2016-2023, where she negotiated and managed international cooperation and language services with various local, national and abroad institutions.
Her research focuses on discourse studies on forgiveness in colonial and post-colonial Maluku islands . Maria aims to bridge linguistic as a tool to understand Indonesian's, perception on historical state apologies, particularly Dutch apologies to Indonesian, ultimately contributing to purpose transformative models for fostering reconciliation, forgiveness and (historical) justice.