Biography
Mafalda Dâmaso is Researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam, which she originally joined in 2021 as Lecturer in Cultural Industries and Policy. Her research investigates the intersections between culture, policy, diversity management and international relations, with a particular focus of attention on the European Union’s transnational cultural policy. She is also interested in expanding current academic understanding of the links between culture, the economy, and development. Currently, Mafalda is EUR’s Principal Investigator on REBOOT (REviving, BOsting, Optimising and Transforming European Film Competitiveness), a project funded by Horizon Europe (2023-2026) and coordinated by the University of Vienna. REBOOT aims to connect the existing strengths of the European Film Industry, identify and overcome weaknesses, and plan for future competitiveness in the fields of policy, practice and experience. Mafalda is also working on an edited book about the European Union’s cultural policy for De Gruyter (expected in in 2024) and on a co-edited special issue for the International Journal of Cultural Policy (expected in 2025).
Areas of Expertise: EU cultural policy, cultural diplomacy/relations and public diplomacy, European film industry, geopolitics of culture
Previously, Mafalda was Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Education in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative industries at King’s College London, and an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London. She was also Visiting Lecturer in the Economic and Social Sciences Department of the Institut Catholique de Paris, and a Postdoctoral Research Assistant working on a project led by the University of the Arts London funded by the British government (DMCS and the UKRI). In 2019–2021, Mafalda was Research Fellow with the Centre on Public Diplomacy of the University of Southern California, where she led empirical research on the EU’s approach to culture in foreign affairs. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London.
As an educator, she has experience of teaching at BA and MA levels across a range of disciplines, including cultural policy, creative economy, creative economics, cultural management, cultural diplomacy, history of art, and research architecture. Her teaching method is guided by a problem-driven approach to the examination of current debates and broader issues, drawing on methods such as exercises based on real world problems, visual media analysis, and case studies encouraging critical reflection.
Beyond academia, Mafalda was the lead researcher on a project commissioned by the European Parliament leading to policy recommendations to strengthen the status of artists and cultural workers with Cultural Action Europe, the main European network of cultural organisations, artists and policymakers, and currently works as policy expert for the consortium CultureForHealth, which implements the Preparatory Action Bottom-Up Policy Development for Culture and Well-being in the EU. Mafalda also serves as Subject Matter Expert for the Canada Council for the Arts and as expert for the Latvian Council of Science. Finally, she is a member of the management committee of the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance, set by the British Council and the German Institute of Foreign Cultural Relations.
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- damaso@eshcc.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Mafalda Damaso (2024) - Imagining a New Gender Contract for Cultural Rights - doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-59993-4_6
- Mafalda Damaso & Rarita Zbranca (2023) - Culture for health and well-being. On culture’s potential contribution to the economy of well-being - Economia della Cultura
- Eric Sundtröm & Mafalda Dâmaso (2023) - When their communication trumps your policy: What progressives must learn in the age of populism - [link]
- Matjaz Nahtigal & Mafalda Dâmaso (2023) - Active Globalization and the EU: Towards More Inclusive, Decentralized and Sustainable International Development - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso, & (2023) - Culture for Health and Well-being Compendium: A Guide for Practitioners - [link]
- Patrycja Kaszynska, Diane Coyle, Emma Dwyer, Ricky Lawton, Patrizia Riganti, Sadie Watson, Mafalda Damaso & Yang Wang (2022) - Scoping Culture and Heritage Capital Report - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2022) - Reframing Cultural Policy - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2021) - Implementing the EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations: Toward a New Paradigm - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso & Andrew Murray (2021) - The EU’s Dualistic Regime of Cultural Diversity Management: The Concept of Culture in the Creative Europe program (2014–2019; 2021–2027) and in the Strategy for International Cultural Relations (2016–) - Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, 1, 153-184 - doi: 10.14361/zkmm-2021-0108
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2021) - Research for CULT Committee – The situation of artists and cultural workers and the post-COVID cultural recovery in the European Union: Background Analysis - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso & Culture Action Europe (2021) - Research for CULT Committee – The situation of artists and cultural workers and the post-COVID cultural recovery in the European Union: Policy Recommendations: Concomitant expertise for INI report - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2018) - From the cultural and foreign policies of western European far-right parties to the European Union’s 2015–2018 Work Plan for Culture–identifying and opposing nativism - International Journal of Cultural Policy, 24 (6), 811-825 - doi: 10.1080/10286632.2018.1526927 - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2017) - The art collection of the United Nations: Origins, institutional framework and ongoing tensions - doi: 10.4324/9781315718408-14 - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2017) - Unstable Mediation: The United Nations as a Visual Entity
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2016) - On May 1, 2011 (Alfredo Jaar, 2011)-expanding the frame of the original photograph - doi: 10.4324/9781315723778 - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2016) - Gerhard Richter’s September and the politics of ambivalence - doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-40654-1_9 - [link]
- David Stevenson, Sara Selwood, Charlotte Bonham-Carter, Mafalda Dâmaso & James Doeser (2015) - Four observations on The Arts (2015) by Jeremy Corbyn - Cultural Trends, 25 (1), 57-65 - doi: 10.1080/09548963.2015.1111705 - [link]
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2013) - Images against Images – On Goshka Macuga's The Nature of the Beast
- Mafalda Dâmaso (2013) - Review of Georges Didi-Huberman, Images in Spite of All - Visual Studies, 28 (3), 288-289
- Mafalda Damaso (2024) - Impact of Political Dynamics on International Cultural Relations (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2024) - Shifting European Landscapes: How EU Elections Will Shape UK Foreign Policy (Participant)
Activity: Attending an event › Professional - Mafalda Damaso (2024) - Guest speaker, European Parliament, CULT Committee Exchange of views, Recent developments in the EU's Cultural Diplomacy (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2023) - Guest speaker, Policy directions in EU international cultural relations towards 2024, Culture Solutions roundtable, European Parliament (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Professional - Mafalda Damaso Bernardino (2022) - EUNIC Knowledge Sharing Workshop Report: Afghanistan - Providing Professional Perspectives for Displaced Afghan Cultural Workers (Participant)
Activity: Other › Professional - Mafalda Damaso (2022) - Guest speaker, closed meeting with the EU Member State Cultural Counsellors in Washington, European Union Delegation to the United States in Washington (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2022) - Rencontres Européennes de la Création Artistique, French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (Participant)
Activity: Attending an event › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2022) - Research seminar (Participant)
Activity: Attending an event › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2021) - Guest talk. To what extent can cultural policy be transnationalised? The case of the European Union (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Mafalda Damaso (2021) - International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (External organisation) (Chair)
Activity: Membership of committee › Academic
- Mafalda Damaso Bernardino (2021) - Research Fellowship, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries
- Mafalda Damaso Bernardino (2019) - 2019–2021 Research Fellowship, Centre on Public DIplomacy, University of Southern California
International Cultural Relations Research Allianc
- Start date approval
- September 2023
- End date approval
- September 2026
- Place
- LONDON
UK Coalition for Cultural Diversity
- Start date approval
- September 2023
- End date approval
- September 2026
- Place
- LONDON
Creative UK
- Start date approval
- November 2023
- End date approval
- October 2025
- Place
- LONDON
- Description
- Member, UK Council
Parsuk, Portuguese Association of Researchers UK
- Start date approval
- November 2023
- End date approval
- October 2025
- Place
- LONDON
- Description
- Member, Scientific Council
The British Foreign Policy Group
- Start date approval
- April 2024
- End date approval
- March 2027
- Place
- LONDON
- Description
- Associate Fellow
Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institu
- Start date approval
- September 2024
- End date approval
- January 2025
- Place
- FLORENCE
Internship
- Year Level
- BA-2, BA-2
Creat. Econ. and Creat. Org.
- Year Level
- Minor, Other
Econ. Geogr. of Creat. and Urban Dev.
- Year Level
- Pre-master, BA-3, BA-3, BA-2, BA-2
Advanced Ec. Aspects of Cult. Industr.
- Year Level
- Pre-master, BA-3, BA-3, BA-2, BA-2
Innovation and Cultural Industries
- Level
- MA
- Year Level
- MA
Master Thesis
- Level
- MA
- Year Level
- MA