Mafalda Dâmaso's research investigates the intersections between cultural and media policy, international relations, and sustainable development with a particular emphasis on the European Union.

Currently, she is EUR’s Researcher/Principal Investigator on REBOOT (REviving, BOsting, Optimising and Transforming European Film Competitiveness), a Horizon project. REBOOT aims to identify untapped pathways to support the competitiveness of the European Film Industry.

Alongside her role at EUR, Mafalda is also a Part-time Professor at the European University Institute in Florence, where she works as Work Package leader on two new Horizon projects.

Additionally, she is working on an edited book about the European Union as a Global Cultural Actor for De Gruyter (expected in in 2025) and on a co-edited special issue about a Regenerative Approach to Cultural Policy for the International Journal of Cultural Policy (expected in 2025).

Areas of Expertise: EU cultural policy, EU media 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.