Facilitators

CHALLENGE SESSION 1:  BEING AND THINKING TOGETHER (IN) COMPLEXITY

ANA TEIXEIRA DE MELO (Co-coordinator) | Ana Melo has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is a member of the Portuguese Order of Psychologists with a recognised speciality in Clinical Psychology and an Advanced Speciality in Community Psychology. She is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and an associate of the University of York Cross-Disciplinary Centre for Systems Analysis, of the University of York, where she was a visiting academic. She is an elected member of the Council of the Complex Systems Society.  She has focused her practice and research on processes of change, flourishment and resilience in families and communities, and investigates human social systems and their change processes informed by a complex systems approach. She has dedicated her activities to the theory, research and practices associated with the development, promotion and evaluation of a complex thinking applied to the understanding and management of change in complex systems, as a way of thinking that aims to build itself in a way that is congruent with the complexity of the world. She explores processes of inter and transdisciplinarity in the crossing with  complex thinking  for  the construction of more effective responses to the challenges of Complexity associated with  Humanity’s Well-Being and Sustainable Development.

DORA PEREIRA
Graduated in Psychology (1997), Master in Cognitive-Behavioral and Systemic Clinical Psychology (2003) and PhD in Clinical Psychology - Specialty Family Psychology and Family Intervention by the University of Coimbra (Portugal) (2014), with the thesis “Parenting and child protection: parental capacity assessment guide ”. Family Mediator and Family Therapist. Specialist in Clinical and Health Psychology, Psychotherapy and Community Psychology by the Order of Portuguese Psychologists. Between 1998 and 2015, she developed professional activity as a psychologist and trainer in the context of child protection (child and youth care and family and parental counseling). Since 2015 she is Assistant Professor at the University of Madeira-Faculty of Arts and Humanities / Department of Psychology, coordinator of the Psychology Service and member of the Research Center in Regional and Local Studies of that University, developing research in the area of childhood promotion and protection, relational processes and implications for learning and mental health. (please consult: https://www.cienciavitae.pt/portal/en/D913-A422-6368 )

IRINA VELICU | Irina Velicu is a Researcher working on socio-environmental conflicts in post-communist Europe at the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the JustFood FCT project, expanding her work by looking at food justice. Dr. Velicu is a member of the POSTRADE nucleus and of ECOSOC, looking at the intersections of social and environmental justice. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii (USA) and an MA in International Studies from the University of Warwick (UK). Her work has received funding from national and international research organisations (including the EU-FCT, Marie Curie, Chevening Dr. Velicu worked as a Marie Curie Experienced Researcher within the ENTITLE European Network of Political Ecology. Her recent publications can be found in Environmental Politics, Theory, Culture and Society, Ecological Economics, Geoforum, New Political Science, Globalizations.

JENNIFER WELLS | Jennifer Wells is a professor and author, focused on complex thought for addressing social and ecological crises.  Wells is trained in philosophy, sociology, just transition, and the environmental arts and humanities. Her research focuses on applying systems and complex thought to address the major challenges of the 21st century.  Since 2020, she has been a Visiting Scholar at the Sorbonne, Paris I, Center for Contemporary Philosophy and the Institute of Legal and Philosophical Sciences, in Paris France. She is focused on a book project, on discourse and praxis that helps shift everyday thinking towards a more complex and creative vision for our times. The book uses examples of real utopias as frameworks and inspiration for systems change.  Her last book was the internationally recognized Complexity and Sustainability (Routledge 2014), on the contribution of complex thought to global sustainability.  Wells was invited to give talks on it in China and France.  Her PhD dissertation focused on complexity and climate change (2009). She has done extensive public speaking, particularly around the SF Bay Area and on the topics of climate change, systems and complexity, and transition. After college, she served as Director of the Sustainability Education Center in New York, NY, and as a writer at the United Nations Association. Over her career, Wells has visited over 100 sites of 'real utopias' over four continents. She also helped to develop a vibrant small eco village, arts center, and organic farm in Colebrook Connecticut. Wells has a passion for new sciences as well as humanities and arts, such as ethology and environmental humanities. She has degrees from Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Sorbonne, Paris IV. 

PATRÍCIA VIEIRA | Patrícia I. Vieira is Researcher at CES, in the NHUMEP research group. Her research focuses on Latin American and Iberian Literature and Cinema, Environmental Humanities and Ecocriticism, Post-Colonial Studies and Literary Theory. She has a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. She teaches at Georgetown University and as a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Paraíba. Her books include "States of Grace: Utopia in Brazilian Culture" (New York: SUNY UP, 2018); "Portuguese Cinema 1930-1960: The Staging of the New State Regime" (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013). She has co-edited, e.g., "Portuguese Literature and the Environment" (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019), "The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy, Literature" (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2017). She is currently working on a book project that examines literature about the Amazon rainforest from an ecocritical point of view and preparing a book on this topic: "Zoophytography: Animals and Plants in Amazonian Cultural Productions" (Gainesville: The University of Florida Press, 2022). She is editing a volume titled "The Environment in Brazilian Culture: Literature, Cinema and the Arts" and a special issue of the "Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies" on "The Amazon River Basin in Contemporary Latin American Culture." For more information: http://www.patriciavieira.net/

RIKA PREISER | Rika Preiser is Associate Professor at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her research explores the conceptual development of complexity and how the study of the features and dynamics of Complex Adaptive Systems inform novel ways for thinking and anticipating more equitable social-ecological transformation processes toward resilient Anthropocene futures. Current work explores how a relational theory of change could inform global change paradigms, discourses and practices concerning people-biosphere relations. She is interested in Anthropocene challenges at the science-society and science-art interfaces and how artistic practices and interactive modes of engagement could stimulate and advance more positive responses to bringing about alternative social-ecological futures. She supervises students who are keen to experiment and employ creative and experimental qualitative research methods to explore human-biopsphere entanglement and situated ways of knowing. She hopes that a reflective engagement with complexity will challenge us to recognize the normative call to re-imagine what it might mean to be human in the Anthropocene.

 

CHALLENGE SESSION 2:  KNOWING TOGETHER: GRASPING THE COMPLEXITY OF THE WORLD

CRISTIANO GIANOLLA | Cristiano Gianolla is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra (UC), where he is co-coordinator of the research unit on Democracy, Citizenship and Law. He obtained a PhD in Sociology and Political Science (cum Laude, Coimbra and Rome-Sapienza) by way of a dissertation on Gandhi's democratic theory and a comparative study of emerging political parties in India and Italy. Principal Investigator of the UNPOP project (FCT, 2021-2024) and is a team member of the ECHOES (H2020, 2018-2021) and ALICE (ERC, 2011-2016) European projects. He is a co-founding and co-coordinating member of the "Inter-Thematic group on Migrations" and co-coordinates the research group "Epistemologies of the South" at CES. He is coordinating editor of Alice News, editor of e-cadernos scientific journal and Rightsblog, and a referee for other scientific journals. Co-coordinates the PhD courses "Democratic Theories and Institutions", "State, Democracy and Legal Pluralism" and the MA course "Critical Intercultural Dialogue" at the Faculty of Economics of the UC. He has authored books, chapters and articles elaborating on democratic theory, populism, postcolonialism, intercultural dialogue, heritage processes, movement-parties, citizenship, human rights, migrations, and cosmopolitanism. His current research interests focus on emotions and narratives in democratic processes.

MANUEL GARCÍA-HERRANZ | I am currently the chief scientist at UNICEF Office of Innovation (NY). Previously I’ve worked as assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) from which I received a Ph.D. in CS in 2009. I am deeply interested in human behavior and dynamics, particularly in the study of computational social networks, complex systems and behavioral dynamics and in how new types of data and analysis can be used for human development, to reach the hardest to reach and provide humanitarian awareness of places in which traditionally there is little or none. After a year as visiting scholar in Carnegie Mellon University and a brief stint in the University of California San Diego I am involved in the study of epidemics in information networks, digital fingerprints of socio-economic factors and stressful events and advocating the digital exhaust for human development. In my previous life I enjoyed researching on Human Computer Interaction and Ambient Intelligence. I am still a devoted collaborator of Madrid’s Down Syndrome Foundation (check out the DEDOS project!) and member of the Ambient Intelligence Laboratory of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

PAULA DUARTE LOPES | Paula Duarte Lopes is a researcher on Peace Studies at the Center for Social Studies and an International Relations professor at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She lectures at the undergraduate and graduate levels in International Relations, including the MA in Peace, Security and Development Studies and the PhD in International Politics and Conflict Resolution (with a performance evaluation of 'Excellent' for 2011-2013 and 2014-2016). She received her PhD from The Johns Hopkins University, United States of America, and her Masters from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Great Britain. She has a Bachelor Degree (five years) in Economics from the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra. Her research interests include peace missions, development aid, environmental governance and international water conflicts. She has several publications on these issues.

PHILIP GARNETT (Co-coordinator) | Philip Garnett is a Senior Lecturer of Systems and Organisation in the School of Management, University of York. He is interested in the application of complex systems theory in organisations, and how organisational culture, memory, and knowledge can be theorised as an emergent property of the system itself. He combines modelling and simulation techniques (agent based modelling, and network analysis) with the analysis of information and its flow (natural language processing and machine learning/AI) to investigate how organisations and society works (and fails), and how interventions could be made. He is also interested in the power of information and its consequences for our privacy and liberty, and conducts research on cyber and information security. Philip also has a philosophical interest in complexity theory and complexity thinking.

SARA ARAÚJO | Sara Araújo is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies and invited assistant professor in sociology at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She got a PhD in Sociology of Law with a thesis on legal pluralism and Epistemologies of the South. She was a member of the coordinating team of the Alice project (B. S. Santos ERC Advanced Grant), currently transformed into the Research Programme in Epistemologies of the South. She is cocoordinator of the PhD Programme "Sociology of the State, law and justice" and co-coordinated 4 editions of the Epistemologies of the South Summer School (2015-2019). She was part of the Permanent Observatory for Portuguese Justice (2003-2005), member of the research team of the Legal and Judicial Training Centre of Mozambique (2005-2006), associate researcher at the Centre for African Studies-Eduardo Mondlane University (2008-2010). In 2015 she was a visiting Scholar at the Law School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recently she was part of the team for a diagnosis study of justice in East-Timor and a researcher at the European project "ETHOS - Towards a European THeory Of juStice and fairness". She was co-editor of the book "Dynamics of Legal Pluralism in Mozambique" (2014) and has published several articles in scientific journals on justice in Mozambique and decolonialisation of State and law. She was co-author of two chapters of the book "Retratos da justiça moçambicana: Redes informais de Resolução de conflitos em espaços urbanos e rurais (Ed. André Cristiano José, 2016) and author of chapters in the following books: "Epistemologias do Sul" (org. Karina Bidaseca e Maria Paula Meneses, 2018); "A ciência ao serviço do Desenvolvimento? Experiências de países africanos falantes de língua oficial portuguesa" (Ed. Teresa Cruz and Silva and Isabel Casimiro, 2015), "In Search of Justice and Peace. Traditional and Informal Justice Systems in Africa" (Ed. Manfred Hinz and Clever Mapaure, 2012); and "Pluralismo Jurídico. Os novos caminhos da contemporaneidade" (Ed. Antônio Wolkmer, 2010). Her research interests include legal pluralism, the state, post-abyssal judicial cartographies, human rights and interculturality, popular education, ecology of knowledges and ecology of justices. She has fieldwork experience in Portugal, Mozambique and East-Timor. In 2008 she was awarded with the prize Agostinho da Silva (Lisbon Academy of Sciences)

SOFIA JOSÉ SANTOS | Sofia José Santos is an Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, and a Researcher at the Center for Social Studies, where she coordinates the DeCodeM project as a Principal Investigator. Since 2008 she has developed research on media and global interventionism; media and securitization processes; media and foreign policy; internet and technopolitics; and media and masculinities. Within CES, she is also co-editor of Alice News. She holds a PhD and an MA in International Politics and Conflict Resolution from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, a degree in International Relations from the same university, and a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Communication Sciences from ISCTE-IUL. Previously, she was an Invited Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (2016-2019), a postdoctoral researcher at OBSERVARE / UAL (2015/2016) and CES (2015), and researcher and coordinator of media and communication in Promundo-Europa (2014-2015). She was also a visiting scholar at the Flemish Peace Institute and a Marie Curie fellow at the Universiteit Utrecht. In addition to publications, conferences and national and international research projects, it is also worth mentioning her work in co-coordinating and co-editing the P@x Bulletin of the NHUMEP Peace Studies Group, her involvement in international networks, social movements, and the several research works she has undertaken for international think tanks and development agencies such as NOREF, UKAID, Palladium, and Promundo-US. Her current research interests focus on media representations and securitization; media and foreign policy; media, masculinities and violence prevention; digital rights and contentious politics; and critical internet studies.

 

CHALLENGE SESSION 3: LIVING TOGETHER:  PEACE AND COMMUNITIES OF WELL-BEING PRESENTATION(S) AND REFLECTING TEAM INTERVENTIONS

JOANA VAZ SOUSA | Working in different socioenvironmental contexts, and in the intersection between ecology and anthropology,  influenced Joana’s approach and directed her towards a more interdisciplinary framework. She has bachelor in Environmental Biology (University of Lisbon), followed by a PhD in Social Anthropology (Oxford Brookes University) and a post-doctorate in Geography (University of Geneva). She gathered international research experience in Ecuador, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Portugal. She  deepened her experience in ethnographic research between late 2009 and 2013 while collecting data in rural Guinea-Bissau for her PhD research. Her dissertation was entitled "Shape-shifting nature in a contested landscape in Guinea-Bissau", and includes sections on local livelihoods, cosmologies and oral history, perceptions of risk, local understandings of nature and nature conservation, and non-humans in witchcraft and magic. More recently her research interests also include knowledge interfaces, technology networks and farmers' adaptation to climate change (Kenya and Guinea-Bissau), particularly regarding mangrove rice farming in Guinea-Bissau. She taught at universities in Guinea-Bissau and was involved in the production of a collaborative documentary with farmers in southern Guinea-Bissau, Maboan.

SCHERTO GILL | Scherto Gill (PhD) is Senior Fellow at the GHFP Research Institute, Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex, Fellow at the Harmony Institute, University of Wales, and Fellow of Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA). She directs the UNESCO Transformative Education and Collective Healing Programme, and leads the G20 Interfaith Forum‘s Education Working Group. Scherto is a board member of Spirit of Humanity Forum, and a board member of Rising Global Peace Forum. Through research, grassroots projects and published work, Scherto actively explores ways to implement ideas such as deep dialogue, ethics of caring, holistic well-being, and relational processes in education and governance in social transformation and peace. She teaches on Masters and Doctoral programmes, and supervises doctoral researchers in these areas. Scherto is prolific writer, and her most publications include: Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life: A Transformative Vision of Human Well-Being (Routledge), Understanding Peace Holistically (Peter Lang), Beyond the Tyranny of Testing: Relational Evaluation in Education (Oxford University Press), Ethical Education: Towards an Ecology of Human Development (Cambridge University Press), and Education as Humanisation (Routledge).

CEDRIC H. DE CONING | Cedric de Coning is a research professor with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). He is also a senior advisor for the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). His research applies complexity theory to peace and security studies and his focus is on the strengthening the resilience and sustainability of social-ecological systems under pressure from climate change, conflict and other stressors. He has served in advisory capacities for the AU and UN, including on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board for the Peacebuilding Fund and as advisor to the head of the AU’s Peace Support Operations Division. His most recent edited book is Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Peace-making in Colombia, Mozambique, the Philippines, and Syria (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022).

HELENA MARUJO | Helena Águeda Marujo has a PhD in Psychology (Psychotherapy and  Educational Counselling) from the University of Lisbon. She is an  Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e  Politicas of the University of Lisbon, where she holds the positions of Executive Coordinator of Masters and PhDs in Human Resources
Development Policies, Scientific Coordinator of the Postgraduate Degree in Applied Positive Psychology and where she is an integrated researcher of the Centre for Administration and Public Policy (CAPP) and member of the Ethics Committee. She is Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in Education for Sustainable Global Peace at the University of Lisbon. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the International  Positive Psychology Association. Author of various scientific and  science popularisation works, her most recent co-authored publications in Portuguese were the book "Humanizar as Organizações: Novos Sentidos  para a Gestão de Pessoas" by Editora RH, and the book "Educação para a Paz Global Sustentável: Complexidades e Conributos  in Editora Pactor/ISCSP."

WADE PICKREN | Wade Pickren is a psychologist, writer, and editor with a sustained commitment to the practice of environmental, racial, and social justice. Wade is developing a psychology otherwise and Earthwise. In collaboration with others, he seeks to create a new commons characterized by reciprocity and cooperation and guided by a deep relationality and respect for all beings. His guiding question is how can human and more-than-human beings have lives and futures based on living in deep recognition of our mutual interdependence and the co-constitution of all on the Earth?   His scholarly work examines the enduring impacts of coloniality of being and knowledge on human thought and practice and proposes a pluriversal approach to inquiry that may diminish the historically oppressive character of the scholarly disciplines.

 

CHALLENGE SESSION 4: LEARNING AND TEACHING TOGETHER

ALISON NEILSON | Alison Neilson is an interdisciplinary researcher who transcends boundaries between arts/sciences, academic/non-academic and researcher/researched in knowledge creation and fisheries governance. She works on environmental justice issues in small-scale fishing communities of the Azores Islands Portugal. She conducts narrative and arts-informed research on the way sustainability is understood and used in education and fishing policy. She looks at the way knowledge, wisdom and politics are mixed together. Alison is also associated with the Centre for Social Studies, CES, University of Coimbra and a member of multiple networks related to people and the sea (e.g., OceanGov COST, SIHD-ICES). She is also a trained facilitator and accredited teacher trainer. Her main research interests are small-scale fisheries, environmental justice, knowledge construction, power relations and transformative education.

CHARBEL EL-HANI | Charbel N. El-Hani is full professor in the Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Coordinator of the History, Philosophy, and Biology Teaching Lab (LEFHBio) and the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE). Between January 2020 and July 2021, he was visiting researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. He works in the areas of philosophy of biology, ecology, ethnobiology and science education research.

LEO CAVES (Co-coordinator) | Leo Caves has a PhD in Computational Biophysics and throughout his career has operated at the interface of the physical, biological and computational sciences. Formerly a Senior Lecturer at the University of York, he worked in both the Departments of Chemistry and Biology. He is a co-founder and associate of the York Cross-disciplinary Centre for Systems Analysis (YCCSA). He is a collaborator of the Centre for the Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (CFC UL). His research experience encompasses computational biophysics, data science and evolutionary computation. He has experience in multivariate data and network analyses, as well as a variety of simulation and visualisation methods. He offers biological perspectives on complex systems and seeks to support more systemic and complex approaches to real world issues through broad and deep interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. He is interested in complex thinking and in the investigation and facilitation of interdisciplinary processes. More recently he has been working within the domain of the Philosophy of Biology, integrating themes of process philosophy with systems and relational biology, cybernetics and coordination dynamics amongst others. He has a broad interest in the Philosophy of Science.

LUCIANA PALHARINI | Graduated in Biological Sciences from the UNESP (2000), master in Education by the UNICAMP (2005), PhD in Teaching of Sciences and Maths by the UNICAMP (2015), and post-graduated lato sensu in Scientific Journalism (UNICAMP, 2010). Has experience in basic education and high education in graduation courses in some institutions, and is currently Adjunct Professor from the Centre of Natural and Human Sciences from the Federal University of ABC. She teaches sciences and biology with a focus on initial and continuing teacher training, and non-formal education. Her main research interests are: museum education, history of sciences, history of health practices, health and sexuality education, gender and science studies. In the last years has been dedicated to the theme of the obstetric question in Brazil aiming at teacher and youth training within formal and non-formal education.

MAGNÓLIA ARAÚJO | Magnólia Araújo graduated in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN; 1987, degree; 1988, Bachelor), with Specialization in Microbiology (1995, UFRN), Master in Aquatic Bioecology (1997, UFRN) and PhD in Ecology and Natural Resources by the Federal University of São Carlos/SP (2004). She also has a postdoctoral experience in Science Education/Education for Sustainability at the University of Coimbra (2012-2013). She is a permanent professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, working in face-to-face and distance learning. She has experience in the area of Environmental Microbiology, with an emphasis on Ecology of Aquatic Microorganisms, mainly in aquatic ecosystems in the Northeast semiarid region. She supervises graduate students (at the master's and PhD level) and conducts research on Biology Teaching, namely on the learning difficulties and alternative conceptions of teachers and students of basic education in biological content and sustainability. Develops extension work for scientific dissemination and education for sustainability.

RITA CAMPOS (Co-coordinator) | Rita has an undergraduate degree and a PhD in Biology from the University of Porto. She is currently a researcher in Science Communication and Non-Formal Education of Science of the Research Group on Science, Economy and Society (NECES) of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES-UC) in collaboration with the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, the Centre for Research on Biodiversity and Natural Resources (CIBIO-UP/InBIO) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN; Brasil). At CES, she collaborates with the URBiNAT project - Healthy corridors and drivers of social housing neighborhoods for the coordination of social, environmental and marketable NBS (funded by H2020). Her research interests are focused on public participation and engagement with science, namely on issues regarding the biodiversity crisis, the relation between biodiversity and health, environmental education and education for sustainable development. She is also interested in developing collaborative, creative and interdisciplinary tools and strategies for teaching and learning in different contexts.

 

CHALLENGE SESSION 5: CHANGING AND ACTING TOGETHER

BEATRIZ CAITANA | Junior researcher at the European Project - URBiNAT "Healthy corridor as drivers of social housing neighbourhoods for the co-creation of social, environmental and marketable NBS", supported by H2020 and coordinated by CES. She takes part in the study group on Solidarity Economy at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (CES/UC). Her academic research focus is about alternative economies, namely solidarity economy, social incubation and co-production. She is a PhD student in sociology at the Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra (FEUC) and current is a senior specialist in monitoring and advocacy for human rights on the children (Brazil). She collaborated in project PATHS - Youth for Solidarity Economy and Entrepreneurship in Europe, supported by Erasmus + program and Social Innovation Platform (PIS) supported by Compete Program and POA FSE/FCT. She was founder-member of the academic social incubator at FEUC and visiting professor in social and solidarity economy in the Polytechnic of Leiria (Portugal). She also worked as project coordinator in non-for-profit national and international organizations, such as Plan-International Brazil. Her academic and professional trajectory focuses in the alternative economies, urban space, and in the human rights of the child and sociology of childhood.

CLÁUDIA CARVALHO | Claudia Pato Carvalho is a researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, having developed research in the fields of community participation, cultural mapping, community co-creation and urban intervention. She is academically coordinating the REDE ARTÉRIA project (CENTRO-07-2114-FEDER-000022, Portugal 2020), a Teatrão-CES partnership. She completed her PhD in Sociology, with a specialisation in Sociology of Culture, Knowledge and Communication, at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra in collaboration with the Center for Reflective Community Practice (DUSP, MIT). Between 2010 and 2018, has established a European network in the field of artistic education in contexts of social exclusion, with several projects approved under the Youth in Action Program and ERASMUS +. She is a member of the CES CREATOUR Observatory and integrated as a researcher the CREATOUR project,, a multidisciplinary research initiative with a demonstration format based on collaborative processes involving five university centres that work with cultural / creative organisations and other interested parties, located in small cities in the North, Center, Alentejo and Algarve regions. She is part of the CES team of the H2020 UNCHARTED: Understanding, Capturing and Fostering the Societal Value of Culture (2020-2024) project, coordinated by the University of Barcelona.

ISABEL FERREIRA | Isabel Ferreira is a junior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES-UC) and is currently dedicated to the PhD project “Governance, citizenship and participation in small and medium-sized cities: a comparative study between Portuguese and Canadian cities” (funded by FCT - SFRH/BD/129936/2017; the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the International Council of Canadian Studies). Has experience in fieldwork in Portugal and Canada; worked on the coordination, in 2014, of the international pilot course in cultural sustainability, in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and the University of Jagiellonian (Poland); integrated the project EMPATIA (funded by H2020). Currently, integrates the co-coordination of the URBiNAT project - Healthy corridors and drivers of social housing neighborhoods for the coordination of social, environmental and marketable NBS (funded by H2020). Since 2015, collaborates with the Executive Agency for Research (European Commission) as an independent expert for applications evaluation. Her professional experience mainly relates to local planning in environmental, territorial, cultural, educational and sports planning. Holds a graduation in Geography, specializations in Environmental Studies (University of Coimbra) and in Environmental Impact Studies (University of Murcia, Spain), and a Master in Territorial and Environmental Planning (New University of Lisbon).

LANKA HORSTINK | Initially trained as a social psychologist and project manager, I have extensive experience in group dynamics and informal adult education. After a career in communication, I worked as a campaign manager (Greenpeace Oceans Campaign and Global Seed Freedom Campaign), adult educator, and community organiser. For my work as a Seed Freedom advocate I won the 2014 Terre de Femmes 1st prize for Portugal. After completing my PhD in Sociology with a dissertation on the ecological-democratic quality of the political economy of food, I worked for the H2020 "PROSEU" project as a research fellow and work package leader on behalf of FEUP-UPorto, conducting a review and Europe-wide survey on collective forms of Renewable Energy self-consumption. At ICS-ULisboa my post-doctoral research project focuses on the ecological-democratic quality and respective participatory assessment criteria for the successful development of small-scale strong sustainable agro-food initiatives in Portugal.

MELANIE GOODCHILD | Melanie Goodchild is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) complexity and systems thinking scholar.  She is moose clan from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations. Melanie is currently a PHD candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo and is a Research Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience.  She is a proud member of the Iron Butt Association riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle 1000 miles in 24 hours! Melanie is a faculty member with the Academy for Systems Change, the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning and is a Scholar Practitioner Faculty member at the University of Vermont's MS and PhD in Leadership for Sustainability.  She is an Advisor to the new Systems Awareness Lab at MIT.  Melanie is an alumna of the IWF Leadership Foundation's Fellows Program (2015-16 class) sponsored by Harvard Business School and INSEAD.  In the fall of 2022 Melanie will be a Systems Changer in Residence at the Omidyar Group.

PETE BARBROOK-JOHNSON | Pete Barbrook-Johnson is a social scientist and complexity scientist working on a range of environmental and energy policy topics, using systems mapping, agent-based modelling, and other related approaches. He is a Departmental Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a member of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN).

RICHARD FRIEND | Richard Friend is an Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of York, and acts as the university’s Research Theme Champion for Risk, Evidence and Decision-making. With an academic background in social anthropology and development studies he has thirty years’ professional experience living and working in SE Asia, as a senior manager and consultant/advisor for international development organisations, donors, NGOs and UN agencies. His research focuses on the interface between global and local processes of social and environmental change. He has a long-standing commitment to participatory research and knowledge co-production as empowering and democratising processes

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

PATRÍCIA SILVA | Patrícia Silva is research fellow at CES. She is part of THE advisory board of the e-journal 'e-cadernos CES', and of the organising committee of the advanced training cycle "Publish Do Not Perish: Survive the Stampede". Her research in comparative studies focuses on cultural networks and exchanges between literary and artistic movements in Brazil and in Portugal, and between these and European and Anglo-American ones. Centring on processes and contexts of reception, translation and transcreation characteristic of Modernism understood as a transcultural phenomenon, her project aims to identify translocal exchanges, map multidirectional flows in the transnational circulation of C20 cultural actors, aesthetics and works, and to contribute to the revision of the axial paradigm centre-periphery. She holds a PhD in Portuguese & Brazilian Studies from King's College London (2009), was visiting lecturer at the University of Cambridge (2010-2012) and University College London (2012-2013), and research fellow at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London (2010-2012) and Queen Mary, University of London (2013-2018). She has published on Modernism, Lusophone Studies, Comparative Literatura, (Inter)cultural and Interarts Studies, and Visual Cultures.

GRAÇA CAPINHA | Graça Capinha is Associate Professor in the Departament of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Section of Anglo-American Studies, at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC). She's also a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies-Associate Laboratory (CES). With a PhD in American Literature by the University of Coimbra, she was the Director of the Institute for American Studies (2006-2008), a member of the Coordination Board of the Scientific Committee of FLUC (2004-2008) and of the Scientific Committee of DLLC-FLUC. She was also a member of the Executive Committee of CES (2003-2005 & 1993-1995). Presently, she is the Executive Director of the inter- and transdisciplinary 3 rd. Cycle (PhD.) Program on "Languages and Heterodoxies: History, Poetics, and Social Practices" (FLUC/CES). Along the years, she taught diverse undergraduate as well as graduate courses on English and American literature, contemporary poetry and poetics, and creative writing (a field that she introduced in the Portuguese university in 1996). She was the head researcher of the collective research project on "New Poetics of Resistance: the 21st Century in Portugal" (FCT/CES), concluded in 2011, and she had the same responsability in the collective research project on "Emigration and Identity" (JNICT/CES-1997). She was also a member of research teams of several other research projects on poetry/poetics and emigration, both in and out of Portugal. From 1991 to 1999, she took part in the Poetics Program of the State University of New York (SUNY at Buffalo, USA), where she had a chance to meet and work with some of the major authors of the L=A=N=G=U=A=GE School. From 2001 to 2002, she participated in the project "Children's Introduction to the Arts" and also taught on poetics in several intensive music courses at the experimental Centre for the Study of Arts of Belgais, directed by Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. A co-organizer of FLUC's "International Meetings of Poets" (1992-5-8-2001-4-7-10), she was also the main responsible for the creation of FLUC's Program "Poets in Residence", a program that she coordinates since 2007. She is the Editor of the poetry magazine "Oficina de Poesia. Revista da Palavra e da Imagem" ("Poetry Workshop. A magazine of words and images") (FLUC, Reitoria da UC e CES, 1997-), and a member of the editorial board of the Brasilian poetry magazine "Sibila" (São Paulo, Brasil). She also co-edits the series "Literature and Arts" of the Collection CES/Almedina. Her interests and publications focus on contemporary poetics (mainly Portuguese and American), and their relation to social and political issues, such as que questions of identity and emigration. She has published extensively on these issues and, besides Portugal, some of her work can also be found in Spain, Germany, Brasil and the United States.

GRAPHIC FACILITATION

DANIELA BARROS | Daniela was born in Porto in 1981. She studied architecture at the University of Minho (1999-2000), the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP; 1999-2006) and at the BTU - Cottbus / Germany (2004-2005). At the Alquimia da Cor she attended the modular formation of Electronic Edition - Pagination and Graphic Design (400h; 2012-2013). In 2007, she started to do some architectural projects and, in 2012, design graphic projects. The brand Futilidade was created during this period. In 2016 she started, in co-authorship, the Association Cultura Curto Espaço, at Aguda Beach, Vila Nova de Gaia, with the goal of “bringing and taking culture”, developing in an eclectic way diverse work aiming at bringing the community closer to culture. My main responsibilities are programming and communication.