Challenge Session 1: Being and Thinking Together (in) Complexity
Alfonso Montuori | Professor in the Transformative Inquiry Department at California Institute of Integral Studies. A graduate of the University of London, he has authored several books and numerous articles on creativity and improvisation, the epistemology of complexity, transdisciplinarity, social change, and education. His work has been translated in Italian, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Alfonso's books include Evolutionary Competence, and Journeys in Complexity. His current projects include the Routledge International Handbook for Creative Futures, co-edited with Gabrielle Donnelly, and a book on creativity and personal transformation. In 2006 Alfonso was chosen as a San Francisco Library Laureate. In 2003-2004, Alfonso was Wiepking Distinguished Professor in the Fine Arts department at Miami University in Oxford Ohio, and in 2018 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Sapienza University of Rome. Alfonso is Co-Editor of World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research and was General Editor of Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences at Hampton Press. Alfonso is on the board of numerous journals and organizations, and on the Honorary Committee of "EMOH" (Edgar MORIN, Oeuvre Ouverte Pour l’Humanité). Alfonso has consulted with numerous leaders, artists, and organizations, including NetApp, U.S. Forest Service, Interstate Insurance, Omnitel-Olivetti (Italy), & ENEL (Italy).
Ana Teixeira de Melo (Co-coordinator) | Holds 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.
Gaia Giuliani | Researcher and member of DECIDe at CES and Associate professor in Political philosophy (ASN 2017, Italy). She obtained her PhD in History of political ideas at the University of Torino (2005) and received 3 postdoctoral fellowships, from the University of Bologna, the University of Technology Sydney, and CES. She lectures at CES PhD courses. Her methodology crosses History of Political Ideas, Political Philosophy, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Cultural and Gender Studies. Her research project aims at a critical discourse analysis of texts coding racialised and gendered monstrosity and 'fears of disasters and crisis' and their symbolic and material impact in the context of the War on terror, the so-called migrant and refugee crises, and the crise of European and Western self-representation. She is Principal investigator of the FCT-funded project "(De)OTHERING - Deconstructing Risk and Otherness: hegemonic scripts and counter-narratives on migrants/refugees and 'internal Others' in Portuguese and European mediascapes", collaborates with projects"DECODEM - (De)Coding Masculinities in Portugal" and "UNPOP- UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour", and is member of the Management Committee of the COST Action CA19129 - Decolonising Development: Research, Teaching and Practice.
Irina Velicu | Researcher working on socio-environmental conflicts in post-communist Europe at the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. She is currently the Principle 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.
Rika Preiser | Holds Masters degrees in Journalism (2004) and Social Anthropology (2008), and completed her PhD in the Department of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University. She teaches complex adaptive systems thinking to students from medicine, business management, sustainability studies and agricultural sciences. Currently funded by SIDA through the “Guidance for Resilience: Investments for Development” programme of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. 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 Participatory Action Research methods as ways to engage with and shape social-ecological real-world problems. 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.
Tiago Pires Marques | Principal Investigator FCT at CES since 2019, Tiago Pires Marques integrates the Reserach Group POSTRADE. He obtained his PhD in History by the European University Institute (2007) with a thesis on the construction of criminal law in Europe. Taking a transnational perspective, he focused the relationship between the making of penal codes in the interwar period and the rise of fascist regimes, namely in Italy, Spain and Portugal. In his postdoctoral project, funded by Foundation for Science and Technology, he compared the construction psychiatric knowledge and professional profiles in religious and secularized contexts in Portugal and France. He currently pursues his socio-historical research on mental health, extending the field of observation to the present day and combining historical and sociological methodologies. Currently, his interests are mainly focused on activism and movements of users in the field of psychiatry and mental health, as well as collaborative research in mental health. In this domain, he published, among other works, 'Legitmacies of Madness. Suffering, Struggle, Creativity and Belonging '(With Mônica Nunes, coords.. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2018). Current project: Psychic Suffering and the Social Question: from Revolution to Collaborative Militancy (Portugal and Brazil, 1970s-2010s). CEECIND/01290/2017 - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
Challenge Session 2: Knowing Together: Grasping the Complexity of the World
Ana Teixeira de Melo (Co-coordinator)
Cristiano Gianolla | 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 | 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) | 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.
Sofia José Santos | 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 coordinator for Promundo-Portugal's Media and Masculinities programming area and co-editor of Alice News. She holds a PhD and an MA in International Politics and Conflict Resolution by 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
Elisa Omodei | Lead Data Scientist of the Hunger Monitoring Unit at the UN World Food Programme’s Research, Assessment and Monitoring division. She also serves as Vice-President Secretary of the Complex Systems Society. She holds a BSc and a MSc in Physics from the University of Padua and Bologna, respectively, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics for the Social Sciences from the École Normale Supérieure of Paris. After her PhD, she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Rovira and Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain. She then joined the United Nations in 2017, first at UNICEF's Office of Innovation in New York and now at the World Food Programme in Rome. Elisa is passionate about innovation for social impact, and in her work she explores how to apply complexity and data science for development and humanitarian action.
Luciane Lucas dos Santos | Associate researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, taking part in the Research Group on Democracy, Citizenship and Law (DECIDe), which she co-coordinated from 2018 to March 2021. Currently, she integrates the academic staff of the PhD Programme in Democracy in the 21st Century in Portugal (CES/UC) and co-coordinates two Study Groups - one related to solidarity economy and the other focused on religion, gender and politics. She holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2004) and a Master's Degree from the same institution (1999), having had an academic career as an associate professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ/Brazil). She moved to Sociology 15 years ago, being focused on consumption studies and economic sociology. The most recent years have been also dedicated to a sociological approach regarding three intertwined issues - gender, economy and politics. Her main research and lecturing interests are feminist economics, feminist aesthetics, postcolonial feminisms, postcolonial studies on consumption and Economics, poverty and social inequalities from an intersectional perspective, European identities and the Otherness.
Paula Duarte Lopes
Patrícia Vieira | 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/
Scherto Gill | 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).
Challenge Session 4: Learning and Teaching Together
Alison Neilson | 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 | Associate Professor from the Biology Institute, UFBA, where he coordinates the Laboratory of Teaching, Philosophy and History of Biology (LEFHBio). Graduated in Biological Sciences by the UFBA (1992), Master in Education by the UFBA (1995) and Doctor in Education by the USP (2000). Did a post-doc at the Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Science Studies, University of Copenhagen, with Claus Emmeche (2003 - 2004). Coordinates the INCT in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (IN-TREE), financed by CNPq and FAPESB, with about 200 researchers from 13 Brazilian institutions and 35 foreigners institutions. Also coordinates 3 others projects financed by CNPq and CAPES. Is Book Review Editor for the journal Science & Education. Coordinates the event of science outreach Café Científico Salvador (http://cafecientificossa.blogspot.com) and writes on the Blog Darwinianas (https://darwinianas.com/), from the INCT IN-TREE. Is Vice-President of the Brazilian Association of Philosophy and History of Biology (ABFHIB). The laboratory is associated to a virtual community of practice (ComPratica) and to a collaborative research group with teachers from different school levels, university students, graduates and researchers (CoPPEC). Main research interests: research in scientific education, philosophy of biology, history of biology, evolutionary biology and animal behaviour.
Leo Caves (Co-coordinator) | Holds 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 Math 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 | 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.
Maria Minas | ComParte Co-founder, Invited Professor at FPUL, Clinical Psychologist, Community Therapist. I consider myself a very privileged person. I have had access to good education, I am surrounded by inspiring people, I was able to grow up playing sports, enjoying fresh air and nature, volunteering, doing spiritual retreats and a lot of travels. I am enchanted by multiple activities! Thanks to these opportunities, the desire of learning never stop growing, in parallel with a sense of responsibility and willingness to give back. Along the way, I have been immersed and gaining awareness about other dimensions of life – contexts of poverty, lack of freedom and pain, diverse cultures – which had a great impact in my personal development. I learned that reciprocity can be an effective way to improve social justice and overcome poverty. In my career I want to embrace this value, contributing - by sharing what I have learned so far, and learning from others, evolving together. I also wish to contribute to connect people with their dreams. Weather I am conceiving and developing social projects, teaching, being a consultant, doing therapy, I do it with passion, hope and with a sense of purpose of co-constructing contexts that promote collective well-being.
Rita Campos (Co-coordinator) | 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.
Tatiana Moura | With a background in International Relations and Sociology and a PhD in Peace Studies, Tatiana Moura works as a Senior Researcher at CES, where she co- NHUMEP. She has coordinated research projects on masculinities, gender equality, youth, violence and non violent trajectories in urban peripheries, particularly in Latin America. Currently she is the PI of two European projects KINDER; and PARENT, funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program/DG Justice/EU. She is also the PI of DECODE-M: (De)Coding Masculinities: Towards an enhanced understanding of media's role in shaping perceptions of masculinities in Portugal, funded by FCT. Tatiana is also the Coordinator of Promundo Portugal and Associate Director of UniPeriferias/Instituto Maria and João Aleixo. She was the Executive Director of Instituto Promundo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), an international NGO globally in engaging men and boys for gender equality. She is member of the Global and European MenEngage Network, a global alliance made up of dozens of country networks spread across many regions of the world, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, as well as UN partners that work collectively and individually toward advancing gender justice, human rights and social justice. She is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the regional MenEngage Iberia regional Network.
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 | Researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra (research group CCArq), 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 specialization 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 research team of the CREATOUR project, a multidisciplinary research initiative with a demonstration format based on collaborative processes involving five university centers that work with cultural / creative organizations 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 (2020-2023) project, coordinated by the University of Barcelona.
Giovanni Alegretti | Graduated in Architecture and PhD in Urban, Territorial and Environmental Planning for the University of Florence (Italy), he is a senior researcher at CES. Qualified in 2014 as an associate professor in Italy, he has been teaching Urban Management and Analysis of Territories and Settlements at the University of Florence. Currently, he is co-coordinator of the PhD "Democracy in the 21st century" at FEUC. His main areas of research include citizen participation in the management of budgeting and territorial management, topics on which he has numerous publications in several languages. He also works on themes such as informal city and self-production of habitat, the right to the city, practices of 'insurgent citizenship' and cities' networks on the international stage. Coordinator of several research projects that resulted in the organization and publication of books and scientific articles, he was also a trainer, consultant and evaluator of participatory processes in more than 50 countries in 5 continents, with contracts with civic organizations and public administrations, and international institutions such as the World Bank, UCLG, the European Commission and the Council of Europe. He has been co-president of the Independent Authority for the Guarantee and the Promotion of Participation in the Tuscany Region (Italy).
Gustavo García-Lopez | Engaged scholar from Puerto Rico with a transdisciplinary social-environmental sciences training, building on institutional analysis, environmental policy and planning, and political ecology approaches. His research and practice centers on issues related to grassroots collective action initiatives that seek to advance transformations towards more just and sustainable worlds. His work has been focused in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and recently in Portugal, but also engages in transnational comparative analyses. He was Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico- Rio Piedras, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the European Network of Political Ecology, a European Commission-funded Marie Curie International Training Network. He participates in various collaborative research-action networks, including the Climate Justice Network, an international collaboration between US and Global South scholars, practitioners and activists; and the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society's (PECS) Collaborative Governance Working Group. He is a member of grassroots initiatives including JunteGente, a space of encounters of grassroots movements against disaster capitalism and for another Puerto Rico possible; and Emerge Puerto Rico, an initiative of community-based climate change education for youth-led adaptability and action. He is also co-founding member of the editorial collective of the Undisciplined Environments political ecology blog.
Isabel Ferreira | 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).
Joana Sousa | Working in different socioenvironmental contexts, and in the intersection between ecology and anthropology, has influenced my approach and directed me towards a more interdisciplinary framework. I have a 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). I gathered international research experience in Ecuador, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Portugal. I have deepened my experience in ethnographic research between late 2009 and 2013 while collecting data in rural Guinea-Bissau for my PhD research. My dissertation is 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 my 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. I taught at universities in Guinea-Bissau and was involved in the production of a collaborative documentary with farmers in southern Guinea-Bissau, Maboan.
Lanka Horstink | Research fellow at ICS-ULisbon, executive member of the ecologist group GAIA and the Portuguese Stop GMO network. 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.
GRAPHIC FACILITATION
Daniela Barros | 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.
CRIATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
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.
Patrícia Silva is research fellow at CES where she is part of the coordinating team of the Humanities, Migration and Peace Studies Research Cluster (NHUMEP), 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.
