Biography

Rita Basílio de Simões is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC), where she is part of the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information, currently serving as head of the Communication Section. She is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) and a member of its Permanent Scientific Council. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences, a Master's degree in Communication and Journalism, and a Bachelor's degree in Journalism, all from the University of Coimbra. She also completed a postgraduate degree in Communication Law at the Institute for Legal Research in Communication, Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra. She is also a collaborating researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CEIS20) of the University of Coimbra and at the NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. She coordinates the Gender and Sexualities Working Group of the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (SOPCOM) and serves as national coordinator of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) - Who Makes the News?, promoted by the World Association for Christian Communication. Her research focuses on media and communication from an interdisciplinary perspective, encompassing the sociology of journalism, feminist and gender studies of the public sphere, critical internet studies, and criminology. Her work explores topics such as media production and representation, the public sphere, crime and justice, digital media, violence, hate speech, digital technologies, and media regulation. She has coordinated and participated in several national and international research projects and networks. Currently, she leads the Portuguese participation in GMMP 2025 and is a researcher in the project UnCover - Sexual Violence in Portuguese Mediascape (2022.03964.PTDC | 3/2023 to 2/2026). She was the principal investigator of the project Online Violence Against Women: Preventing and Combating Misogyny and Violence in Digital Contexts Based on the COVID-19 Pandemic Experience (Gender Research4Covid-19 - FCT Proj. 58), and co-lead researcher of the project MyGender - Mediated Practices of Young Adults: Promoting Gender Justice In and Through Mobile Apps (PTDC/COM-CSS/5947/2020 | 3/2021 to 10/2024), both funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Outside academia, she is a member of the Council of Europe's Expert Committee on Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls.