Profile

Margarida Calafate Ribeiro is a researcher-coordinator at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, responsible for the Eduardo Lourenço Chair, Camões / University of Bologna, with Roberto Vecchi, Research Fellow at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Oxford and, member of CRILUS, University of Paris-Nanterre. She has a degree in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Aveiro, an MA in Portuguese Literature and Culture from the New University of Lisbon and a PhD in Portuguese Studies from King’s College, University of London.

Her work in literary studies, post-colonial studies and memory studies in the Portuguese-speaking world has become increasingly relevant and her curriculum is characterized by strong internationalization. Her work has a strong interdisciplinary approach, ranging from literature and history to psychiatry and psychology, but also architecture, urbanism and artistic studies. At the Centre for Social Studies, she is the coordinator of the Trauma Observatory, a professor and coordinator of the doctoral program Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship (CES/ FEUC) and has led 14 research projects, including an ERC “MEMOIRS – Children of Empire and European Post-memories” (European Research Council, 2016-2021), which led to multiple publications, the exhibition Europa Oxalá (from 2021-2023 at MUCEM, Marseille; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; AfricaMuseum, Tervuren), the podcast “In Memory of Memory: Postcolonial Testimonies”; the platform “Reimagining Europe”, a digital platform of artists and works of European colonial post-memory.

She is author, co-author and organizer of several books, book chapters, scientific articles and other writings. Her books include: Uma História de Regressos – Império, Guerra Colonial, Pós-Colonialismo (2004; 2024); África no Feminino – as mulheres portuguesas e a Guerra Colonial (2007, 2024), A Europa Transfigurada – heranças coloniais e restituição (2025); Des-Cobrir a Europa – filhos de impérios e pós-memórias europeias (with Fátima da Cruz Rodrigues, 2022); Eduardo Lourenço – uma geopolítica do pensamento (with Roberto Vecchi , 2023).