is the President of the Observatorio das Actividades Culturais and is a Member of the Board of Governors of the ERICarts Institute. She is also a senior researcher for the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon since 1993.
Maria de Lourdes received her Ph.D. in the field of the sociology of culture and has been a professor in the Sociology Department of the Institute of Work and Corporation Studies (Lisbon) for many years. In 1996, she became President of the Observatório das Actividades Culturais (OAC). She has been a Member of the Consultive Council of the Portuguese Association of Sociology since 1992. From 1990-1995, she was a member of a Research Evaluation Committee for the Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT). Her research interests have included studies on cultural participation, audience research, cultural policies, the working conditions of artists and intellectuals, recent changes in art worlds, etc. Throughout her career she has tutored more than 20 master and doctoral students, published several books and over 50 articles and has organised many national and international conferences. Maria de Lourdes is responsible for the compilation of a book collection which brings together the body of research works in the field of cultural sociology (Colecção OBS-Pesquisas).
