Inês Amaral is an Associate Professor with Habilitation in the Communication Section of the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information (DFCI) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra. She is the Coordinator of the PhD Programme in Communication Sciences and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the PhD Programme in Computational Media Design at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (III). She serves on the Scientific Committee of the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information and the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She previously served as Deputy Director of the DFCI and Coordinator of the Communication Section. She was also Director of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Journalism and Communication from September 2019 to May 2023.
PhD in Communication Sciences (Interactive Media) at the University of Minho, she is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra. She is a member of the research team at Observatório Masculinidades.pt. She is the president of the CES Ethics Committee and member of the Editorial Board of the Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais. Inês is a collaborating researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre of the University of Minho.
She has developed research on sociabilities in digital social networks, participation and social media, feminist media studies, masculinities, gender and media, media and digital literacy, technologies and active ageing, audiences and media consumption in the digital age, and disinformation.
Inês is the Principal Investigator of the project "(d)e-HATE - Exploring Cyber Hate: Online Racism Targeting Immigrant and Racialised Communities in Portugal" (2024.18170.PEX). She previously served as Principal Investigator of "MyGender - Mediated practices of young adults: promoting gender justice in and through mobile applications" (PTDC/COM-CSS/5947/2020), and as Co-Principal Investigator of "MediaTrust.Lab - Regional Media Laboratory for Civic Trust and Literacy" (PTDC/COM-JOR/3866/2020). She currently participates in the research teams of the projects "DeAppeal - Deconstruct and Resist Autocratic Appeal to Reinvigorate Democracy" (Horizon Europe, 101289057), "NEXTDIGIMEDIA - Artificial Intelligence in Digital Media in Spain: Effects and Roles" (PID2024-156034OB-C22), "ProTest - Protest as a Democracy Test: Protest Culture under Transformation and as a Transformative Power" (Horizon Europe, 101177963), "STORYline - Exploring youth citizenship through intergenerational approaches and digital narratives" (2023.11571.PEX), and "UnCoveR - Sexual violence in Portuguese media landscapes" (2022.03964.PTDC). She was a member of the research teams of several funded projects, including "YouNDigital - Youth, News and Digital Citizenship" (PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021); "Equal.STEAM - Integrated Programme for the Attraction and Retention of Girls and Women in Higher Education in Technological and Engineering Fields" (POCH); "Gender in pandemics of hate: social media, COVID-19 and women journalists" (FCT - ID 758936851); "DecoDeM - (De)Coding Masculinities: towards a better understanding of the role of the media in shaping perceptions of masculinities in Portugal" (PTDC/COM-CSS/31740/2017); VIOxMulheres19 - Online violence against women: preventing and combating misogyny and violence in digital contexts based on the COVID-19 pandemic experience (FCT Project no. 058 Gender Research4Covid-19, Principal Investigator from July 2021 to July 2022); SMaRT-EU: Social Media Resilience Toolkit (LC-01563446); "Opportunities and Challenges of Journalism in Open Environments" (CSO2016-80703-R); MIA: Media in Action (LC-00644630); CEDAR: Consortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research (AH/M008681/1); Digital Rights: a password for the future (Fund for the Promotion of Consumer Rights); and EMEDUS. She was a Consultant to the project "(De)Othering: Deconstructing Risk and Otherness" (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029997). From November 2021 to May 2022, she was the focal point at FLUC of the SUPERA project.
Currently, she is a member of the COST Action CA21107 - Work inequalities in later life redefined by digitalization (Portugal representative), having participated in eight others (CA18230 - Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations; CA17135 - Constitution-making and deliberative democracy; CA15122 Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy; IS1409 Gender and health impacts of policies extending working life in western countries; IS1401ELN European Literacy Network; IS1402 Ageism - a multi-national, interdisciplinary perspective; FP1104 New Possibilities for Print Media and Packaging - combining print with digital; ISO 906 Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies).
Inês Amaral was an Invited Scientist Fellow at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid within the founded project ENCAGE-CM (S2015/HUM-3367), and an Invited Professor at the University of Cape Verde and at the Agostinho Neto University. She is a certified trainer by the Ministry of Education, the Union of Portuguese Journalists and the National Scientific-Pedagogical Council of Continuous Education.
Member of the IAMCR, ICA, European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (SOPCOM), she served as co-coordinator of the Journalism and Society section of the SOPCOM. She is a member of GILM's Advisory Board. Inês is a member of the Portuguese research team of the Global Media Monitoring Project 2020. She is a co-founder of the Portuguese Association of Distance Education and Training and a Cyberjournalism Observatory, Media, Information and Literacy Observatory and NIP-C@M member. Inês is also a member of the Civic Tech group of the Association for the Promotion and Development of the Information Society (APDSI), where she served as a co-coordinator (January 2018-September 2021).
Contact:
Colégio de São Jerónimo, Piso 1
ines.amaral@uc.pt
Links:
Selection of recent publications:
- Moroni, J., & Amaral, I. (2026). Discurso de ódio na esfera digital: Algoritmos discriminatórios, propulsores de processos de geração de conflitos na opinião pública. In Correia, J. C., Fátima, B., Salvador, I., & Mugnaini, H. (Eds). Esfera pública na era dos algoritmos. Mediação algorítmica, experiência pública e futuro da democracia (pp. 111-130). Covilhã: Editora Labcom.
- Amaral, I., & Ventura, D. (2026). Racialized Menstruation. In Hughes, B., & Standing, K. (Eds.) The Sage Encyclopedia of Menstruation and Society (Vol. 1, pp. 415-420). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- García de Torres, E., Amaral, I., Jerónimo, P., & Cebrián Enrique, B. (Eds.) (2025). Open environments: key challenges and opportunities for journalism. 25 years of online journalism. Participation, disinformation, disintermediation & artificial intelligence. Madrid: McGraw Hill. ISBN: 9788448631666.
- Amaral, I., & Ventura, D. (2025). Representations of gender-based violence on The Handmaid’s Tale Instagram page and audience engagement. European Journal of Women's Studies, 32(4), 480-496. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068251375683
- Amaral, I., & Ventura, D. (2025). Digital Youth Activism on Instagram: Racial Justice, Black Feminism, and Literary Mobilization in the Case of Marley Dias. Journalism and Media, 6(3), 104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6030104
- Ventura, D., & Amaral, I. (2025). Racismo Algorítmico e Colonialismo Digital: As Literacias Críticas na Era da Inteligência Artificial. Revista Comunicando 14(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.58050/comunicando.v14i1.418
- Amaral. I., Flores, A. M. M., Simões, R. B., & Antunes, E. (2025). Critical Literacies and Gender Studies: Navigating Media, Education, and Civic Engagement for Social Justice. Leeds: Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN: 978-1-83662-595-7.
- Jerónimo, P., & Amaral, I. (Eds.) (2025). Building Media Trust. Covilhã: LabCom.
- Amaral, I., Simões, R. B., & Santos, S. J. (Eds.). (2025). Renegotiating Masculinities in European Digital Spheres. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/97810033441555
- Amaral, I., Simões, R. B., & Flores, A. M. M. (Eds.). (2024). Young Adulthood Across Digital Platforms: Digitally Constructing Gender and Sexualities. Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-83753-525-5
- Amaral, I., Flores, A. M. M., & Antunes, E. (Eds.) (2024). Apps e Jovens Adultos: Contributos para um Mapeamento de Práticas Mediadas. Braga: UMinho Editora. DOI: 10.21814/uminho.ed.82
