Ivana graduated from Charles University in Prague in philosophy and subsequently obtained PhD in psychology. In 1967 she came to the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge as a post-doctoral visitor. In 1970 she was appointed as a lecturer, subsequently a senior lecturer, reader and then professor in psychology at the University of Stirling. At present, Ivana is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Stirling, Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the LSE (since 2007) and a Research Associate in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences at the LSE (since 2011). She id a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Psychological Society.

In Ivana's empirical research she explored social, psychological and communication problems of people with chronic disabilities, such as haemophilia, cerebral palsy and learning difficulties; and social representations of democracy, trust and responsibilities. Her theoretical research has been concerned with epistemology of social psychology, language and thought, the dialogical approach in social representations and forms of social thinking and knowledge.

Selected publications
Markova, L (2016), The Dialogical Mind: Common Sense and Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2016 978-1-107-00255-5
Marková, I. (2003. Dialogicality and Social Representations: The Dynamics of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 0 521 82485 0
L.Markova, P. Linell, M. Grossen and A. Salazar Orvig (2007), Dialogue in Focus Groups, 978 1 84553 050 1
S. Moscovici and L. Markova (2006), The Making of Modern Social Psychology