Biography

Antonieta Reis Leite (Angra do Heroísmo, 1975) is an assistant researcher at the Centre for Social Sciences from the University of Coimbra, she is also an invited assistant professor at the Department of Architecture from the University of Coimbra. At CES, she holds a position as a fellow CEEC FCT (Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology), and she is an elected member of the Standing Committee of CES Scientific Board. She was trained as an architect and obtained her degree from the University of Coimbra (Portugal) in 2000, she was also trained in art history and obtained her DEA from the University Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain) where she studied History of Art and Architecture in Iberoamerica. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Coimbra in 2012 for research in the Azores islands' settlement process and built environment history. She has held funded postdoctoral positions at CHAM FCSH University NOVA of Lisbon and the University of Azores (Portugal) (2014-2017) and at the Centre for Social Sciences from the University of Coimbra (2014-2019), where she was coordinator of the research group on Culture, Architecture and Urban Studies (2019-2022). She has worked on the building process of the Portuguese Atlantic World, focusing on the Early Modern Atlantic islands and Atlantic shores colonization process and on how this inter-connectivity between peripheral and central areas was and still is important to understand the Atlantic World. Her work emphasizes the importance of an interdisciplinary approach relating to architectural and urban history, memory, and heritage studies. Her work is informed by local and colonial historical sources and foresees contributing to an informed action on heritage in the postcolonial present. She is the author of one book, scientific papers, and book chapters. She participates in funded research projects in her area of expertise.