Patrícia Ferraz de Matos (Coimbra, 1973) is an Anthropologist and an Integrated Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Education and Development Studies (CeiED) at Lusófona University since 2026, within the framework of the FCT Institutional Call to Stimulate Scientific Employment (CEEC). She is also a Member of the Scientific Council of CeiED. She was an Auxiliary Researcher (2019-2025) and Post-Doctoral Researcher (2013-2019) at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (ULisboa), and is a member of the teaching staff of the PhD Programme in Anthropology at ULisboa since 2013, where she coordinated the Postgraduate Seminar in Anthropology (2020-2021) and co-coordinated the curricular unit Research Seminar in Anthropology (2013-2020; 2024-25). She co-coordinated the Seminar of the Research Group Diversities: Ethnographies in the Contemporary World of the ICS-UL (February 2019 – December 2020).

She was a member of the ICS-UL School Board (2009-2011), and a member of the elected Statutory Assembly to review and write ICS-UL statutes (2008).

She is Associate Editor of the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures (2020-2026), Convenor of the Europeanist Network (with over two hundred members) of EASA (2020-2026), Deputy Director of the journal Análise Social (2021-2026), corresponding member in Portugal of HOAN (History of Anthropology Network, EASA), since 2019, Secretary-Elect of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE, American Anthropological Association), since 2025, and Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, elected in 2019. She also represented the distinguished member ICS-UL at the International Association of Social and Human Sciences in Portuguese Language (AILPcsh) (2021-2025).

She has collaborated, in a timely manner, in undergraduate and postgraduate courses of other institutions, namely: University of Évora, University of Oxford, University of Cagliari, University of Porto, NOVA University of Lisbon (UNL), Complutense University of Madrid, University of Lisbon, University of Coimbra, Campinas State University, Autonomous University of Madrid, Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), University of Covilhã, and Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS).

She has supervised several PhD theses, at different universities, and she regularly supervises visiting doctoral students and visiting researchers.

She is the author of these books:

Anthropology, Nationalism and Colonialism: Mendes Correia and the Porto School of Anthropology (Oxford & New York, Berghahn Books, 2023, Paperback 2026, 394 pp., DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800738751), reviewed by, among others, Aleksandar Bošković (Anthropological Journal of European Cultures), Peter Schröder (Anthropos), Alexander Keese (H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences) and Daniel Florence Giesbrecht (História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos);

The Colours of the Empire: Racialized Representations during Portuguese Colonialism (Oxford & New York, Berghahn Books, 2013, 288 pp., DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/9780857457622), reviewed by, among others, Mercedes Lopez Rodriguez (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute), Frederico Delgado Rosa (American Anthropologist), Richard Cleminson (Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies), Samuel Lempereur (Social Anthropology /Anthropologie sociale), Nuno F. Ribeiro (Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change) and Cheryl Mei-ting Schmitz (Cahiers d’Études Africaines);

As Côres do Império: Representações Raciais no Império Colonial Português (Lisbon, ICS, 2006 [1.ª edição], 2012 [2.ª edição], 287 pp.), reviewed by, among others, Michel Cahen (Africana Studia), Marcos Cardão (Ler História), Nuno Dias (Le Monde Diplomatique) and Augusto Nascimento (Expresso).

She edited 11 volumes (or special sections), of which 10 already published:

1. with Michel Cahen (Casa de Velázquez, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS/Sciences Po Bordeaux), Novas Perspectivas sobre o Luso-Tropicalismo/ New Perspectives on Luso-Tropicalism, Portuguese Studies Review 26 (1), 2018, 350 pp.;

2. with Livio Sansone (UFBA), Decolonising Europe: National and Transnational Projects, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 30 (2), 2021, 79-140;

3. with Frederico Delgado Rosa (UNL) and Eduardo Dullo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), História das Antropologias do Mundo, Horizontes Antropológicos 28 (62), 2022, 438 pp.;

4. with Christian Muleka Mwewa (UFMS), Racismo(s), Educação, e Formação Cultural, Poiésis 16 (29), 2022, 292 pp.;

5. with Hande Birkalan-Gedik (Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main), Andrés Barrera-González (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Pegi Vail (New York University), World Fairs, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 31 (2), 2022, 1-132;

6. with Christian Muleka Mwewa (UFMS), Infâncias, Racismos e Educação Infantil, Zero-a-Seis 25 (47), 2023, 434 pp.;

7. with Daniel Florence Giesbrecht (University of Coimbra), Como Estudar a Intolerância? Contributos da Antropologia e da História (Contexto Português e Brasileiro), Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia 63, 2023, 153-316;

8. with S. Aboim, E. Sanches, F. C. da Silva, P. Puntoni, R. Gouveia, S. Tulumello and V. Pereira, Análise Social: 60 Anos, Análise Social 58 (249), 2023, 665-910;

9. with M. Abrunhosa, A. Chambel, S. Peppoloni, A. Aragão, M. Petitta, and H. I. Chaminé, Hydrogeoethics for Water Resources Management: Groundwater – Geoethics – Sustainable Society Nexus Sustainable Water Resources Management, Springer, 2024 (16 articles by 70 authors).

10. with Livio Sansone, Decolonizing Europe: Ethnographies of National and Transnational Projects, Berghahn Books, 2026.

Her current project (DOI: 10.54499/DL57/2016/CP1441/CT0001) is entitled The weavings of science: an anthropological view on the networks underlying the forging of scientific knowledge, which objective is to study the network of people connected to the Porto School of Anthropology, between the 1910s and the 1970s, and to the Portuguese Society of Anthropology and Ethnology (Sociedade Portuguesa de Antropologia e Etnologia), founded in 1918, with the aim of understanding how scientific societies and their international exchange contributed to the institutionalization of anthropology and what knowledge was produced. The starting point of the research is in Portugal, but it extends to other countries, such as Brazil, taking into account other schools and scientific societies in connection with anthropology, such as the Royal Anthropological Institute, which develops a project about its own history, in which she has collaborated.

In 2023, she had the honour of participating in the George Stocking Symposium in the History of Anthropology at the AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada.

She graduated in Anthropology (pre-Bologna system) (1997) at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) with specialization in material culture and ethnographic museology and the dissertation entitled “The Path of ‘Art’: We started from objects and returned to objects” (1997, 127 pp.), on African art and the concept of “primitive art” and highlighted the work of José Redinha at the Dundo Museum in Angola. This work and the visit to the Angolan field were the bases for writing an article, published in full version as a book chapter.

She worked as Research Assistant (1997-2000), associated to the Anthropology Research Center (CIA) of the then Anthropology Department of FCTUC, in the project “Power and Differentiation on the Coast of Bahia: Cultural Identities, Ethnicity and Race in Multiethnic Contexts” (FCT PRAXIS XXI Program, Project PCSH/ANT/96; PI: Miguel Vale de Almeida), having carried out, under the guidance of Susana de Matos Viegas, field and archive research and built databases of birth, marriage and death records, between 1889-1998, of the population of Olivença (Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil), which inspired an article, and created the Database “Speeches and Knowledge on Race: Portuguese Bibliography (1870-1970)”.

Her master thesis on Social Sciences (2005, ICS-UL), which analyzed the racial representations produced in the context of the “Portuguese colonial empire”, was supervised by José Manuel Sobral, and awarded the Victor de Sá Prize for Contemporary History 2005.

Her doctoral thesis in Social Sciences, in the specialty of Social and Cultural Anthropology (2012, ICS-UL), supervised by José Manuel Sobral, studied the relations between anthropology, nationalism and colonialism between the end of the monarchy and the end of the New State (Estado Novo), from the personal and intellectual biography of Mendes Correia (1888-1960), having conducted research in Portugal (Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Torre de Moncorvo), in Brazil (Salvador and Rio de Janeiro), and in the USA (Washington DC), and carried out several interviews.

She has obtained several research grants in internationally competitive applications, namely at the FCT: Post-Doctoral (SFRH/BPD/91349/2012, 2013-2019), PhD (SFRH/BD/25537/2005, 2005-2009), Master’s Degree (SFRH/BM/2194/2000, 2001-2002), Initiation to Scientific Research (PRAXIS XXI/BIC/14728, 1997-1999), and obtained an internal grant from the ICS-UL (2000).

Prizes: Victor de Sá Prize in Contemporary History 2005 from the Cultural Council of the University of Minho, Portugal; ERICS Prize 2014 (Stimulus and Recognition Award for Internationalization in Social Sciences Prize) from ICS/Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) (category: articles); Scientific Prize – Honourable Mention 2019 (UL/CGD); ERICS Prize 2024 (category: books); ERICS Prize 2024 (category: book chapters).

She collaborated in several research projects: “Printed Photography and Propaganda in Portugal (1933-1974)” (PTDC/CPC-HAT/4533/2014), PI: Filomena Serra (UNL), with 2 entries for an anthology and 1 article; “Texts and Contexts of Portuguese Orientalism: The International Congresses of Orientalists (1873-1973) (TECOP)” (PTDC/CPC-CMP/0398/2014), IP: Marta Pacheco Pinto (FLUL), with a book chapter; “Dictionary of Antis: The Portuguese Culture in Negative”, PI: José Eduardo Franco (CLEPUL), with 3 entries; “Knowledge and Vision: photography in the Archive and the Portuguese Colonial Museum (1850-1950)” (PTDC/HIS-HIS/112198/2009), PI: Filipa Lowndes Vicente (ICS-UL), with a book chapter; “The Presidents of the Portuguese Parliament, Estado Novo (1935-1974)”, PI: Fernando de Sousa (CEPESE), co-PI: Conceição Meireles Pereira (CEPESE), financed by the Assembly of the Republic, with a book chapter; “Power and Differentiation on the Coast of Bahia: Cultural Identities, Ethnicity and Race in Multiethnic Contexts” (PCSH/ANT/96), PI: Miguel Vale de Almeida (IUL), with a Database with 1044 entries.

She prepared (research and concept), with Vítor Oliveira Jorge (FLUP and IHC-UNL), the exhibition “The Portuguese Society of Anthropology and Ethnology (1918-2018): 100 Years at the Service of Science”, held at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (2018-2019), and collaborated (texts and images) in the exhibition Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonizing the Imaginary, coordinated by Isabel de Castro Henriques, held at the Lisbon National Museum of Ethnology (2024-25).

She organized, among others, these events: 1. with Panas Karampampas, the Workshop Overlapping crises in Europe (or a never-ending crisis), ICS–UL, 2023; 2. with Hande Birkalan-Gedik, Fabiana Dimpflmeier and Frederico Delgado Rosa, the Conference Anthropological Pathways and Crossings: Knowledge Production and Transfer in and beyond Europe, 2021, with more than 100 delegates.

She organized, among others, panels for the: EASA Biennial Conference (Barcelona, 2024; Lisbon, 2020; Stockholm,  2018); Luso-Afro-Brazilian Congress of Social Sciences and CONAILPcsh (Cabo Verde, 2023); Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association (2022, 2019, 2016 and 2006); Conference of the Lusophone Studies Association (Ponta Delgada, 2022); International Conference “Geoethics & Groundwater Management Congress” (Porto, 2020); Iberian Congress of African Studies (2014, 2010); and SPAE conference cycle (2017).

She was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Conference Slave Subjectivities in the Iberian World (15th – 20th Centuries) (2018).

She was a member of the Scientific Committee of: International Colloquium “Ficções do Império: (re)visões da literatura colonial portuguesa”, University of Aveiro, 2023; Workshop “Overlapping crises in Europe (or a never-ending crisis)”, ICS-UL, 2023; XV CONLAB and IV CONAILPcsh “Reinventando a Democracia num Mundo de Inseguranças: Desafios para as Ciências Sociais e Humanas”, Praia, Cabo Verde, 2023; IV Congresso Ibero-Americano de Humanidades, Ciências e Educação: Desafios Contemporâneos nas Sociedades Ibero-Americanas, UNESC, Santa Catarina, Brasil, 2021; Conference “Anthropological Pathways and Crossings: Knowledge Production and Transfer in and beyond Europe”, 2021; International Conference “Geoethics & Groundwater Management Congress”, Porto, 2020; International Conference The Lusophone World: Global and Local Communities, Évora, 2019; Conference “Forty Years of Independence”, Lisbon, 2015; XVIII Semana de Educação, UFMS, Brazil, 2014.

Her research interests (which are analysed with contributions from Anthropology and History) include: history of anthropology; world anthropologies; scientific societies; museums and collections; racism, racial representations and other forms of social discrimination, such as gender discrimination and the representation of women; anti-racism; eugenics; crime and deviant behaviour; miscigenation; luso-tropicalism; nationalism and national identity; production of scientific knowledge; ideology and colonial propaganda, namely in films and documentaries, and with the exhibition of human beings in expositions; colonial photography; music and popular traditions; technology; networks and cyberculture; and anti-colonialism.

Networks and partnerships: Convenor, with Hande Birkalan-Gedik (2020-2022) and with Panas Karampampas (2022-2024; 2024-2026), of the Europeanist Network (EASA); corresponding member, in Portugal, of the History of Anthropology Network (HOAN) since 2019; member of the Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity (ARE) Network, since 2020; member of the History of Anthropology Network (HOAN), founded as “The History of European Anthropology Network” (Prague, 1992), since 2016; member of Aleph – Network of action and critical research of the colonial image, since 2015; member of HOAIG (History of Anthropology Interest Group), connected to American Anthropological Association, which publish the History of Anthropology Review, since 2009.

Member of the editorial board of:

2021-2026: Análise Social;

2021-…: Collection AfroFuturas: Estudos Étnicos, Estudos Africanos & Diversidade, series Posafro/CEAO, UFBA;

2020-24: Topical Collection “Hydrogeoethics for Water Resources Management: Groundwater – Geoethics – Sustainable Society Nexus”, Springer Nature;

2020-…: Anthropological Journal of European Cultures;

2019-…: Criar Educação: Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação – UNESC;

2018-…: Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia;

2010-2012: Cenários collection, Nova Harmonia, São Leopoldo, Brazil.

2010-…: Poiésis, Brazil.

Peer review in publications: Afro-Ásia; Análise Social; Anthropological Journal of European Cultures; Berghahn Books; Bloomsbury; Boletín de Antropología; Brasiliana, Journal for Brazilian Studies (King’s College); Cadernos de Estudos Africanos; Citcem; Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea; Culture & History Digital Journal; Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities; e-Journal of Portuguese History; Estudos do Quaternário/ Quaternary Studies; Estudos Ibero-Americanos; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Etnográfica; Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power; Journal of History Science and Technology; Língua-lugar: Literatura, História, Estudos Culturais; Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies; OPHIUSSA; Poiésis; População e Sociedade; Portuguese Journal of Social Science; Portuguese Studies; Portuguese Studies Review; Práticas da História: Journal on Theory, Historiography and Uses of the Past; Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais; Revista Brasileira de História; Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens; Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura; Revista História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos; Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educação; Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais/Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies; Revista Portuguesa de História; Springer; Varia História (Brasil); Vista: Revista de Cultura Visual; Zero a Seis.

Scientific and professional associations: Royal Anthropological Institute (elected RAI Fellow in 2019); American Anthropological Association (AAA); Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE); European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA); Associação Portuguesa de Antropologia (APA); Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa (SGL); Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et Folklore (SIEF); Sociedade Portuguesa de Antropologia e Etnologia (SPAE); Women in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (WISPS); Associação Internacional de Ciências Sociais e Humanas em Língua Portuguesa (AICSHLP); Lusophone Studies Association (LSA); and Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS).