Joana Catela obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology at FCSH-NOVA, a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Post- Graduate certificate in Anthropology of Health from ISCTE-IUL. In 2018 Joana was awarded a PhD in Anthropology also at ISCTE-IUL for her thesis entitled “On the margins and in transit: mental health and good intentions in an IPSS in the suburbs of Lisbon”. This research was based on intensive fieldwork at a rehabilitated neighbourhood in Lisbon. The space and conditions which these residents inhabit, as well as the history of the old Quinta do Mocho, from where these residents were displaced, were central in the analysis of how local subjectivities are formed and negotiated.

Joana Catela joined ICS as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in October 2018 to support the third phase of project “exPERts – Making sense of planning expertise: housing policy and the role of experts in the Programa Especial de Realojamento”. During this investigation she was responsible for collecting and analysing significant ethnographic data from two different municipalities – Cascais and the neighbourhood of Alta de Lisboa – and for conducting semi-structured interviews with both residents and municipal workers involved in the rehousing process.

Her main research interests include urban anthropology, medical anthropology, immigration and housing. She has published about these subjects and participated in national and international conferences.

Joana Catela is also an active member of the Urban Transitions Hub and the Human-Animal Studies Hub, based at ICS.

Joana Catela has recently joined project SPLACH at Dinâmia-CET.