Sónia Alves is a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of University of Lisbon, Affiliate member of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, and a visiting researcher at the Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, in Copenhagen. She holds a BSc in Geography, a master’s degree in Urban Planning and a PhD in Sociology. Her area of expertise includes social geography, housing studies and planning theory and practice. Her current research activity focuses on planning and housing activities to address problems of housing shortage, affordability, and segregation of housing tenures. 

In September 2012, after being awarded an individual grant by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, she returned to academia and, in the context of a post-doctoral research project, she researched extensively on comparative welfare state regimes and the differential impact of urban and housing policies upon social groups and areas within cities. Between 2018 – January 2020, within the framework of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, she worked at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge on the project PLANAFFHO (PLANning for AFFordable HOusing). The research investigated planning and housing activities in three cities (Copenhagen, Lisbon and London), notably how they seek to address problems of housing shortage, affordability, and segregation of housing tenures. She is currently the PI of the project SUSTAINLIS - Sustainable urban requalification and vulnerable populations in the historical centre of Lisbon / Requalificação urbana sustentável e populações vulneráveis no centro histórico de Lisboa (PTDC/GES-URB/28853/2017), which aim to investigate the effects of housing and urban requalification policies and practices on citizens with high levels of vulnerability, that is, young adults, seniors, and immigrants living in the historic centre of Lisbon. More details at: http://www.ceg.ulisboa.pt/sustainlis/