Cristina Brito is an Assistant Professor at the History Department and the Head of CHAM – Center for the Humanities (2020-2022) both at NOVA FCSH (tje School of Social Sciences, Arts and the Humanities of NOVA University of Lisbon. She is currently the co-PI of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS (2021-2027) and the PI of two EEA Grants Bilateral Funds Initiatives (Marine Lexicon and H-WHALE).
She is also a member of the Board of OPI – Oceans Past Initiative, and an active member of several international networks and research projects, within the thematic line of research (Environmental History and the Sea), such as the UNESCO Chair on Oceans’ Cultural Heritage and the H2020 RISE project CONCHA.
She holds a PhD in History – History of the Portuguese Discoveries and Expansion, NOVA FCSH, a Masters in Ethology from ISPA, and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology Applied to Animal Resources – Marine Resources, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Prior to her current positions, she has been awarded a Research Contract by the Portuguese FCT (IF/00610/2015) to investigate ‘Cow-fish, ngulu-maza or iguaragua? Local and Global Knowledge Production, Changing Perceptions and Practices on Marine Animals in the Atlantic, 1419–1758’ (2016-2019), and she has secured a grant for a short-term research mission at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University (2018). Cristina Brito has an interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural approach to her research. Her scientific interests include early modern marine environmental history, local and global perceptions and practices and uses of the seas, Atlantic and oceanic histories, humans and nonhumans relationships, and new perspectives on the environmental humanities, including interactions between science and the arts.