Biography

Cláudia Nogueira is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, member of the Research Group'Risk(s), Ecologies, Health'. She holds a Master's and a PhD in Sociology. She completed her doctoral degree with the thesis "Para lá dos Silenciamentos. Sofrimento mental, integralidade e (im)possibilidades de uma ecologia de cuidados" ("Beyond Silencing. Mental suffering, integrality and the (im)possibilities of an ecology of care"). She also completed a Lato Sensu postgraduate program (360 hours) in Integrating Spirituality into Clinical Practice (NEISME - Juiz de Fora, Brazil). Her current research interests focus on issues related to mental suffering, disability, the integrality paradigm, ecology of care, public health policies, ethics of care/ethics of justice, community mental health teams, epistemological diversity in health, and spirituality-health. She took part in a pioneering study on psychiatric deinstitutionalisation in Portugal and co-authored the book Doença Mental, Instituições e Famílias. Os desafios da desinstitucionalização em Portugal, with Pedro Hespanha et al. (Almedina, 2012). She is currently a member of the Portuguese team of FRANET, the Multidisciplinary Research Network of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Within FRANET, she recently took part in the research project "Fundamental rights protection of persons with disabilities living in institutions", which resulted in the national report Fontes, Fernando; Nogueira, Cláudia (2024). Fundamental rights protection of persons with disabilities living in institutions. Experiences and views of practitioners and persons with disabilities. Portugal, Vienna: FRA. This report served as a national contribution to the FRA's European report "Places of Care = Places of Safety? Violence against persons with disabilities in institutions", which documents situations of neglect, abuse, and violence against persons with disabilities living in institutions across the European Union. Her work has earned recognition for scientific excellence, most notably through the distinction awarded to her doctoral thesis with two honourable mentions in 2025: the 1st Honourable Mention of the Social Sciences and Humanities for Inclusion Prize (1st Edition), granted by the Institute for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (IDiPD), I.P., and the Honourable Mention of the Engenheiro António de Almeida Foundation Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis across all scientific areas of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra.