Biography

Rita Basílio de Simões is an Associate Professor with Habilitation in Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC), where she is a member of the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information and coordinates the Communication Section. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences, a Master's degree in Communication and Journalism, and a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Coimbra. She also holds a postgraduate qualification in Communication Law from the Institute for Communication Law at the Faculty of Law of the same university. She is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), where she serves as Vice-Director. She is also a collaborating researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra (CEIS20) and at the NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA). She also serves on the governing bodies of the Portuguese Association of Women's Studies (APEM). Her research lies at the intersection of communication, media, gender, and digital technologies. Her interdisciplinary approach brings together the sociology of journalism, feminist and gender studies of the public sphere, critical Internet studies, criminology, and media regulation. Her main research interests include media representations and production; gender, violence, and hate speech; crime, justice, and the public sphere; technology-facilitated violence; and digital platforms and media regulation. Since 2019, she has served as the national coordinator of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) - Who Makes the News? She is a member of the research teams of UnCover - Sexual Violence in Portuguese Mediascape (2022.03964.PTDC | 2023-2026) and (d)e-HATE - Exploring Digital Hate: Online Racism against Immigrant and Racialised Communities in Portugal (2026-2027), both funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and carried out at CES. She was the Principal Investigator of the project Online Violence against Women: Preventing and Combating Misogyny and Violence in Digital Contexts Based on the Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Gender Research4Covid-19 - FCT, Project 58) and Co-Principal Investigator of MyGender - Young Adults' Mediated Practices: Advancing Gender Justice in and through Mobile Applications (PTDC/COM-CSS/5947/2020 | 2021-2024), both funded by FCT and carried out at FLUC. Between 2019 and 2026, she coordinated the Gender and Sexualities Working Group of the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (SOPCOM). Between 2024 and 2025, she served on the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on combating technology-facilitated violence against women and girls.