Penny Travlou teaches Cultural Geography and Urban Theory in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh. Her research is interdisciplinary, focusing on theories of space and place, feminist methodologies, creativity in collaborative practices, decentrilised networks, "the commons," and ethnography.

She has been involved as Coinvestigator in the EU-funded (HERA JRP) project, Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice and as Principal Investigator in the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project Creation and Publication of the Digital Manual: authority, authorship and voice. Travlou is currently part of the research team in the British Council/Newton Fund project Medellín Urban Innovation (MUI) as well as in the management committee of the EU COST Action CA16121, From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy.
Alongside her academic work, she is actively involved in self-organized initiatives around urban commons and spatial justice. She is a research team member of the P2P Foundation, the international organization focused on studying, researching, documenting, and promoting peer-to-peer practices. She cofounded Options FoodLab (options.limited), a food-related social enterprise and community for refugees' integration in Athens. Since 2015 she has been actively involved in the Athens Subsumption/Metaxication Inc. performance art collective looking at urban issues of gentrification, precarious labour, tourist landscapes, and commons.