Ana Horta is research fellow at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa. She holds a PhD in Sociology, a MSc in Communication, Culture and Information Technologies, and a degree in Sociology from ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon University Institute). After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at Observa - Observatory of Environment and Society. She taught “Sociology of Communication”, “Research Methods and Techniques applied to Journalism” and “Theories of Communication and Journalism” at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social of the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon. Since 2007, she has been a researcher at ICS, being part of the SHIFT: Environment, Territory and Society research group and Observa.

She is part of the coordinating team of the Portuguese Sociological Association’s Section on Environment and Society and is a board member of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Environment and Society (RN12). She has participated in the organization of the biannual Energy & Society Conferences. She was a member of the Working Group on Social Behaviors for the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency. She received the “Young Portuguese Language Sociologist” award from the Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française, and the honorable mention of the Jacques Delors Prize 2006, awarded by the Jacques Delors European Information Center.

Her current research interests include social practices and sociocultural aspects related to household energy consumption, energy poverty, media discourses on energy and climate change, food practices, and relations between humans and animals.