Joana Brites is a Tenured Assistant Professor of Modern Art, Romanticism, Theory and Methodologies of Art History and Theory and History of Heritage at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (UC). In this institution, she coordinated the Undergraduate Program Studies (1st Cycle) in Art History between 2015 and she is currently the Director of the PhD Programme in Art History. She also co-leads the Heritage and Culture Helix, based on the Crowdhelix platform (https://crowdhelix.com/)
Joana Brites completed her master's (2008) and doctorate (2012) in Art History (field: Portuguese architecture of the 20th century) at UC and, during the development of the research for both academic degrees, received a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology. She worked as an art historian in the Office responsible for applying the University of Coimbra to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. From 2007 to 2012, she taught public speaking skills at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra. In addition, she carried out teaching mobility assignments in Spain, Italy and Romania and, in April 2019, was a visiting researcher at Brown University, USA.
Joana Brites is an Integrated Researcher in Coimbra's University Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CEIS20), where she co-coordinated, between 2018 and 2020, the Centre's four interdisciplinary lines of research.
Her research focuses on the following areas: the relationship between fascism and modernism; the art of authoritarian/totalitarian regimes (particularly the case of Portuguese "Estado Novo"/New State); spheres and mechanisms of artistic control; colonialism and modern architecture; "dissonant heritage" and collective memory; history uses in contemporary art; Portuguese sculpture of 19th and 20th centuries.
She is currently a member of the research team of three projects funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology: "PIM – Iberian Modernisms and the Primitivist Imaginary"; "WUD – The worlds of (under)development: processes and legacies of the Portuguese colonial empire in a comparative perspective (1945-1975)", and "ArchNeed – The Architecture of Need: Community Facilities in Portugal 1945-1985".
She is also particularly interested in taking part in the development of artistic creations which deal with a "dissonant heritage" and result from collaborative work between social scientists and artists.
List of my publications here: https://www.cienciavitae.pt//en/1510-0395-8C81
Some of my publications available online here: http://coimbra.academia.edu/JoanaBrites
