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Academic Degree

Doctorate

Category

Collaborators

About

Research Context

Portugal

Research Interests

Gender configurations | Prison regimes | Ethnographic revisitation | Comparative study

Institutional Subunit

UMinho

Biographical Note

Anthropologist with a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Coimbra and a collaborating researcher at CRIA. Specializing in gender studies, sexualities, prevention and intervention models on gender violence; collaborative ethnography and action research; justice and incarceration; identities, ethnicity, and racism; cultural mediation. She has collaborated and participated in civil society organizations and national and international projects in the field of human rights for women, LBTQIA* people, children, people deprived of liberty, and those in situations of social exclusion. Her career intersects research, civic participation, and artistic practices, with experience in co-leading and co-coordinating groups and projects through creative research and community action methodologies, enabling the creation of spaces for reflection and dialogue and the collective construction of social transformative projects.

Status

Collaborator (2023-09-01)

All projects

Data updated on 01-02-2026, from platform CIÊNCIAVITAE.

2024/11-2030/09/30

The INTERACT Project. Intersectional Approach to Combating Homelessness for Women

101172611

Researcher

2024/11-2030/09/30

The INTERACT Project. Intersectional Approach to Combating Homelessness for Women

N0

Researcher

2022/09/01-

eSefarad: modalities and practices of digital patrimonialization of the Sephardic cultural legacy in Mediterranean contexts

UID/ANT/04038/2020

Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia

Financiers: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

2021/03/01-2022/12/31

Children and Youth Intervention Centre - Trampolim E8G

0/0

Researcher

2021/09-2023/10

3C's Transformation Agents (Knowledge, Awareness, Empowerment)

00

Researcher

CASPAE

2021/09-2023/10

3C's Transformation Agents (Knowledge, Awareness, Empowerment)

00

Researcher

CASPAE

2019/01/01-2019/12/31

Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia

UID/ANT/04038/2019

Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia

Financiers: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

2017/03/01-2017/08/31

Bystanders: Developing bystander responses to sexual harassment among young people"

JUST/2015/RDAP/AG/SEXV

Research Fellow

Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação; Universidade de Lisboa Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudos de Género

2017/10/01-2024/05/13

Gender configurations in female prisons: permanences, continuities and variations

SFRH/BD/132518/2017

Universidade de Coimbra; Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia

Financiers: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

2015-2016

Challenging Sexual Violence in the University I

N

Other

União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta (Union of Women, Alternative and Response)

2015/05/01-2016/09/30

Cultural Encounters in Interventions against Violence

12-HERA-JRP-CE-FP-058

Researcher

Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação; Universidade de Lisboa Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudos de Género

Financiers: Humanities in the European Research Area

2013-2014

Memory and Feminisms New Gazes, Other voices III Uncovering the everyday lives of women

N/0

Other

União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta (Union of Women, Alternative and Response)

Financiers: Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género

2013-2014

Puppets of Orada – PIMTAÍ

N0

Researcher

All Publications

Data updated on 01-02-2026 , from platform CIÊNCIAVITAE .

Report

Status quo diagnostic report on women’s homelessness in Portugal

Silva, Vera, 2025.

Report

Limits and Possibilities of Art in Prison: A Reflection on Artistic Practices and Justice

Silva, Vera; Câmara, Catarina, 2025.

Book chapter

Children and the Portuguese prison system

Silva, Vera, TOOLBOX Intervention with children/young people with parents or legal representatives in detention and/or imprisonment: Manual of good practice for legal, security, education and social professionals. CASPAE - Centro de Apoio Social de Pais e Amigos da Escola (Center for Social Support for Parents and Friends of the School). Coimbra, Portugal. 2024. Published

Book chapter

The rights of children and young people with parents or legal representatives in detention and/or in prison - background

Silva, Vera, TOOLBOX Intervention with children/young people with parents or legal representatives in detention and/or imprisonment: Manual of good practice for legal, security, education and social professionals. CASPAE - Center for Social Support for Parents and Friends of the School. Coimbra, Portugal. 2024. Published

Conference abstract

Bentham's panopticon and entangled care in prison

DORES, António Pedro, 2022.

Book

2nd IEF International Colloquium ROADS TO CARE: Book of Abstracts

Cera, Agostino; Falcato, Ana; Dores, António; Viña, Beatriz Rayón; Ferro, Bernardo; Casalini, Brunella; Botrugno, Carlo; et al, Instituto de Estudos Filosóficos. Coimbra, Portugal. 2022. Published

Newspaper article

The hidden reality in prisons, silenced violence

Silva, Vera, Le Monde Diplomatique - edição portuguesa (portuguese edition). 01-2022.

Journal article

Gender Configurations in Prison Regimes and the Reproduction of Carcerality

Silva, Vera Inês Costa da, e-cadernos do CES. 37. 2022. https://journals.openedition.org/eces/7232 . 10.4000/eces.7232 . Published

Book chapter

Work in three acts about light and resistance

Giuliani, Gaia; Esposito, Francesca; Luigi Pitarelli; Emerson, Pessoa; Gustavo Piovezan; Rodrigo Pedro Casteleira, Aura. Luz de Presença (Aura. Presence light). Criaatividade Cósmica - Cultural association. Sintra, Portugal. 2021. Published

Conference abstract

The Prison of Gender and The Gender of Prison. A Feminist Ethnography on Gender Configurations in Prison Regimes

Silva, Vera, 2020.

Conference abstract

Science/Irresponsibility: Prisons Facing the Coronavirus

Silva, Vera; DORES, António Pedro, 18-05-2020.

Report

COVID-19: what is happening in European prisons? - April, May and June reports on the pandemic management in Portuguese prisons

Silva, Vera, European Prison Observatory . 2020. http://www.prisonobservatory.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32:covid-19-what-is-happening-in-european-prisons&catid=7&Itemid=101 .

Journal article

The management of Covid-19 in Portuguese prisons

Silva, Vera, RIVISTA «ANTIGONE» Semestrale di critica del sistema penale e penitenziario. 85 - 90. 1. Anno XV. 2020. https://www.antigone.it/rivista-archivio/Rivista_Anno_XV_N1/_Rivista%20Anno%20XV%20N1.pdf . Published

Journal article

The Prison of the Pandemic: The (Im)possible Management of COVID-19 in Prisons

Silva, Vera, Diálogos Possíveis. 2020. http://revistas.unisba.edu.br/index.php/dialogospossiveis/article/view/647 . 10.5281/zenodo.4768789 . Published

Journal article

Notes for a feminist genealogy of prison in Portugal (XVII-XIX)

Silva, Vera, Cabo dos Trabalhos. 1 - 15. 17. 2018. https://cabodostrabalhos.ces.uc.pt/n17/documentos/07_vera_silva.pdf . Published

Report

Context Background Paper — Portugal: political, social, and intervention context regarding sexual harassment and prevention programs among teenagers in schools.

Silva, Vera, 2017.

Conference abstract

Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation: Between Sex Markets and Border Regulation, Where is the Agency of the Victims?

Silva, Vera; Magalhães, Maria José; Rita Lopez, 03-06-2016.

Conference abstract

Postcolonial Feminism and Intersectionality in a Comparative Analysis of Interventions in Violence Against Women

Carol Hagman-White; Magalhães, Maria José; Rita Lopez; Silva, Vera, 25-05-2016.

Working paper

Comparative Paper of the Intervention Against Domestic Violence in Portugal, Slovenia, Germany and the UK

Carol Hagemann-White; Magalhães, Maria José; Rita Lopez; Silva, Vera, 07-2015. https://www.fpce.up.pt/love_fear_power/pdfs/publicacoes/2016_MJM_CHW_CEINAV_DV_Comparative_paper.pdf .

Journal article

Control and Punishment: Women’s Prisons

Silva, Vera, Ex Aequo. 59 - 73. 28. 2013. http://www.scielo.gpeari.mctes.pt/scielo.php?pid=S0874-55602013000200006&script=sci_arttext . Published

Thesis / Dissertation

Control and punishment: women's prisons. Exploratory research into a feminist anthropology of prison in Portugal

master. 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/20330 .

Journal article

Women in the Rwandan Armed Conflict

Silva, Vera, Ex Aequo. 93 - 104. 24. 2011. https://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0874-55602011000200008&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt . Published