Rita Luís

Culture — Power, Mediations, and the Arts
Contact:
rita.luis@uevora.pt
Biography
Rita Luís (PhD at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, 2015) is specialized in the history of mass media in the context of the Iberian dictatorships of the 20th Century. Her dissertation, which was awarded the 2017 International Prize for Doctoral Research of the History of Communication Association (ASHISCOM), concerned the reception of the Portuguese revolutionary Process of 1974-1975 in the late-Francoist press.
She currently works as a researcher at the University of Évora, at the Institute of Contemporary History, where she coordinates the Research Group in Culture and was a member of the Board of Directors from 2021 to 2022. Se developed a project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology on the practice and daily life of Iberian censorship (CEECIND/02813/2017) and was the PI of the exploratory project Censorship(s): an analytical model of censorship processes (EXPL/COM-OUT /0831/2021). Previous work includes the field education and argumentation, namely in the didactic of history, and the role of the public television in developing an image of the colonies. She maintains a close collaboration with the Journalism Research Group (Grup de Recerca en Periodisme) at the UPF in Barcelona.
Research fields
- Communication media
- Censorships
- Regulatory/exclusionary practices in public spaces
- Production/circulation/reception
Selected publications
- Luís, Rita, “O império colonial português e a televisão,” in Cultura Popular e Império. As lutas pela conquista do consumo cultural em Portugal e nas suas colónias, organised by Nuno Domingos, 241-279. Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2021. [link]
- Luís, Rita. “Negativity, conflict and resistance: The Portuguese revolutionary process (1974‐75) and its international mediations ‐ Spanish newspapers and the Inter Press Service,” International Journal of Iberian Studies 33 (2020): 139-155. [link]
- Luís, Rita & Chrysi Rapanta. “Towards (Re-)Defining historical reasoning competence: A review of theoretical and empirical research,” Educational Research Review 31 (2020): 100336. [link]
- Luís, Rita, Espanhóis em Portugal: ócio, militância e exílio no contexto do processo revolucionário (1974–1975),” in Iberian Studies: Reflections Across Borders and Disciplines, edited by Núria Codina Solà and Teresa Pinheiro, 115-137. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2019. [link]
- Pont-Sorribes, Carles, José M. Sanmartí & Rita Luis. “Aproximación etnográfica del periodista de la Transición como fuente histórica: Estudio de la relación con los actores políticos y de los cambios en la producción de los medios escritos,” Historia y Comunicación Social 22 (2017): 141-156. [PDF]
Main projects
- Coordinator of the project “Censorship(s): an analytical model of censorship processes” — Hosted by the IHC and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (EXPL/COM-OUT/0831/2021; https://doi.org/10.54499/EXPL/COM-OUT/0831/2021). 2022-2023 [link]
- Researcher in the project “Portuguese Colonial Empire and Urban Popular Culture: comparing visions from the metropolis and the colonies (1945-1974)” — Coordinated by Nuno Domingos (ICS — ULisboa) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPC-CMP/2661/2014). 2018 [link]
- Researcher in the project “Ortodoxias y rebeldías. La pluralidad de intereses en la convergencia peninsular hacia Europa (1961-1986)” — Coordinated by Alberto Carrillo Linares and Ángeles González Fernández (Universidad de Sevilla) and funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain). 2016-2018 [HAR2015-65909-R]
- Researcher in the project “REVTRANS- El papel de la prensa no diaria en la transición española. Información, política y partidos (1975-1982)” — Coordinated by Jaume Guillamet (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain). 2016-2018 [CSO2015-67752-P]
- Researcher in the project “PreTRANS- El papel de la prensa en la Transición democrática. Cobertura informativa y comportamiento de periódicos y periodistas” — Coordinated by Jaume Guillamet (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain). 2013-2015 [CSO2012-36774]
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Events
março, 2026
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Detalhes do Evento
Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and
Ver mais
Detalhes do Evento
Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.
Mind the Gap III:
Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene
Online Research Seminar
The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.
At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?
Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.
📎 Download full programme (PDF)
Programme:
Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.
We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.
Everyone is welcome.
To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.
For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.
30 March | Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance
13 April | Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals
27 April | Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil
11 May | Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society
25 May | Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life
8 June | Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries
22 June | Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones
6 July | Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism
Organisation:
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Tempo
(Segunda-feira) 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Localização
Link to be provided to registered participants
Zoom
Organizador
Institute of Contemporary History — NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities and Interuniversity Center for the History of Science and Technology
News
‘Double Void’ exhibition opens in Lisbon
Mar 23, 2026
Opened at the Space Zero gallery
Yvette Santos begins archival mission in Paris
Mar 18, 2026
The Laboratoire des Études Romanes at Paris 8 University hosts the IHC researcher
VINCULUM — An end and a new beginning
Feb 24, 2026
FCSH hosted the closing session of the VINCULUM project
CONTACTS
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