HELENA VILAÇA
I graduated in Sociology, in 1985, at Faculty of Human and Social of the New University of Lisbon and received a PhD in Sociology, in 2003, from Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (FLUP), were I teach as an Assistant Professor with Aggregation - an extra degree mandatory to all applicants (Assistant or Associate Professors) to the rank of full professor (similar to the French Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) – in the Sociology Department. In 2001, I was a Visiting Professor at the Uppsala University Theology Department (Sweden) and in 2013 was elected for the Council of International Society for the Sociology of Religion.
I am a researcher at Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto and my scientific work has been particularly focused over religion, e.g., religious and ethical pluralism; migrations, ethnicities and religion; Portuguese Catholicism, protestant and evangelical communities. I have been researching this subjects in various international networks and projects, of which I highlight: EUREL network (since 2013), L’Église catholique face aux nouveaux défis éthiques, sociaux et politiques” (1009-2013), under the scope of GERICR network, financed by the Spanish Science Ministry; “Imigração, etnicidades e religião: comunidades religiosas e imigrantes da Europa de Leste” (Immigration, Ethnicity and Religion: Religious and Immigrant Communities from Eastern Europe” (2008-2010), supported by Portuguese Science Foundation; “Church and Religion in an Enlarged Europe” (2004-2008), supported by Wolkswagen Foundation; “Religious and Moral Pluralism” (1995-2001), financed by European Science Foundation.
Among my publications, I indicate: Da Torre de Babel às terras prometidas: pluralism religioso em Portugal (From the Tower of Babel to the Promised Lands: Religious Pluralism in Portugal), Afrontamento, 2006; Religião em movimento: migrações e comunidades religiosas na Itália e em Portugal (Religion in movement: migrations and religious communities in Italy and in Portugal), Estratégias Criativas, 2010, (Ed. with E. Pace.). Portrait du Catholicisme au Portugal (in A. Perez-Agóte, (Ed.) Portraits du Catholicisme: une comparaison européenne), Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2012 (co-authored with M. J. Oliveira); The Changing Soul of Europe: Religions and Migrations in Northern and Southern Europe, Ashgate, 2014 (Ed. with E. Pace, I. Furseth, P. Pettersson); Ethical Challenges of the Catholic Church in Portugal: the Case of Same-Sex-Marriage (in K. Dobbelaere, Karel & A. Perez-Agóte (Ed.) The Intimate: New Conflicts between Religion and Politics), KADOC, Leuven University Press, 2015 (co-authored with M. J. Oliveira); (co-authored with M. J. Oliveira).