Consultants

Andrea Peniche is an activist and leader of the feminist collective 'A Colectiva'. AP has a degree in philosophy and a MA in sciences of education – specialisation in education, gender and citizenship (University of Oporto). Her latest publications focus on feminist perspectives on identity politics, intersectional struggles, and women’s history. AP is an editor, writes regularly in press and has been playing a central role in agenda setting and political mobilisation on sexual reform, targeting sexual harassment, stalking and connected domains. Her collaboration with Lawcus will be centred in the interplay between law and politics. Her contribution involves the mapping of actors, strategies and arguments that have been influencing legal arena both in legislative sphere and in judicial standards. With her support, the politicscape archive will benefit from the access to internal divergences on sexual harassment that cross feminist organizations and that presume different conceptions of law.

‘A Coletiva’ page 
‘Anticapitalista’ page
‘Esquerda.net’ page

António Guerreiro is an essayist and cultural journalist. He writes weekly for a leading newspaper (Ípsilon – Público) and is the editorial coordinator of ‘Electra’, a groundbreaking journal in the Portuguese cultural scene. He holds a degree in Languages and Modern Literature from the University of Lisbon and has taught at several institutions, including the Faculty of Fine Arts (University of Lisbon) and the School of Education (Polytechnic of Oporto). His most recent book (2021) is a collection of essays that address sex, gender, and culture as key topics. His collaboration with Lawcus will be centred on the interplay between law and culture, facilitating the task of gathering artistic controversies and aesthetic manifestations of sexual harassment heuristics in literature, cinema, music and other art forms. The culturescape archive will be elaborated through the assemblage of these materials, whose analysis will benefit from António Guerreiro’s insights into the circulation logics between law and fiction.

‘Público’ page

Cátia Guerra is a psychiatrist whose clinical practice is centred in personality disorders and complex emotional needs. Currently, Cátia Guerra is a MBT therapist and a trainee in Psychodynamic psychotherapy being a member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation. Cátia Guerra holds a MA in medical anthropology (University of Coimbra) with the dissertation "Only far from here you will find what is missing from your identity. Borderline personality disorder: the construction of the diagnosis and the marks of identity in the body" and is a PhD candidate in philosophy (University of Oporto), with a project entitled "For a philosophical analysis of the notion of subject in psychiatry". Her main subjects of research are the intersection between philosophy and psychiatry, with a particular focus in psychiatry as a way of governing suffering and normal subjectivity. In recent publications, Cátia Guerra develops a genealogic approach to personality disorders and discusses trauma and vulnerability as devices for psychiatric governance. Cátia’s collaboration with Lawcus will be centred in the interplay between law and science (‘sciencescape’ archive), namely regarding the forensic validation of sexual harassment effects or in the incorporation of psychiatric concepts in legal reasoning and norms.

Cienciavitae page
ORCID page

Elena Loizidou is a Professor in Law and Political Theory at the School of Law of the Birkbeck College (University of London), and an international prestigious scholar working on the intersections law and political theory. Her latest publications focus, among others, on topics such, ethics, law and politics (2007; 2024; 2025) as law and biopolitics (2021), feminist legal utopias (2022), anarchist legal thought (2023). Her groundbreaking approach to legal imagination of body and subject as sexual phenomena is an intellectual reference for Lawcus. Currently, her research focuses on post-truth ideology and its impact on law and democracy. She is the co-Director of the Centre for the study of Law and the Humanities (Birkbeck), the book review editor of the journal Law & Critique, and an elected member of the organising committee of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities. Elena Loizidou's work provides important epistemological tools that will be developed in the different archives devoted to legal and extra-legal reasoning and sources, and the interplay between law, culture, politics, and ethics. Elena Loizidou will follow closely the conceptual strategy and research progress of Lawcus. Regular work meetings with the team, participation in academic events, and contribution to scientific publications will be her three main modalities of collaboration with this project.

Institutional page

Ian Ward is a Professor of Law at Newcastle Law School, and an internationally recognised expert on the relation of law, history and literature. His most recent books include 'The Play of Law in Modern British Theatre' (Edinburgh UP, 2021) and 'The Reformation of the Constitution: Law, Culture and Conflict in Jacobean England' (Hart, 2024). His published work on sex, rape and crime in ancient mythology and along the history of legal ideas are especially inspiring frames to the epistemological direction proposed in Lawcus. Ian Ward will play both an institutional and an intellectual role in the project development. On the one hand, Ian Ward will contribute to access international forums and debates where Lawcus can share its outputs, which simultaneously promotes consolidation and internationalisation of Portuguese academia in the fields of sociology of law and cultural legal studies. On the other hand, the archive on law and culture interplay will particularly benefit from his close consulting, namely through theoretical and empirical research clues and avenues.

Institutional page

Mário Montenegro is a theatre director, actor, playwright, and researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (University of Coimbra). Mário Montenegro holds a degree in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering (University of Aveiro), a Master’s degree in European Dramatic Text (University of Porto), and a PhD in Artistic Studies – Theatre and Performance Studies (University of Coimbra). He is the artistic director of the theatre company Marionet (www.marioneteatro.com). His dramaturgical and research work explores the dialogue between the performing arts and science, encompassing science-based dramaturgies, theatre grounded in scientific research, collaborative theatre with researchers, and the performing arts in science communication. His collaboration with Lawcus will centre on the interaction between law and science, and between law and culture. Drawing on his experience in collaborative research on science for cultural purposes, Mário Montenegro will contribute to identifying scientific and artistic expressions within the lawscape, exploring shifting meanings of sexuality across these different systems of representation.

Vânia Alvares is a lawyer and member of the High Council of the Public Prosecution Service, elected by the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic. Vânia Alvares holds a degree in Law (University of Coimbra), a MA in Political Science and International Relations (Nova University of Lisbon), and is a PhD candidate in Political Science (Nova University of Lisbon). Her scientific interests combine rule of law, institutional performance, and judiciary governance. Vânia Alvares has extensive experience in lawmaking activity, having served as legal adviser to the Secretary of State for Equality and as advisor to the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party. Her collaboration with Lawcus will be centred in the interplay between law and politics, and law and ethics. Vânia Alvares will play an important role both in capturing the material sources of influence of political agenda on sexual reforms, and in identifying critical areas where normative integrity, procedure reliability and constitutional legality of “codes of conduct” are at stake.