Research and teaching

My research examines how migration and forced displacement are depicted in documentary and visual culture, with a focus on border crossings into Europe and Britain across the Mediterranean and the English Channel. Combining close film analysis, participatory filmmaking and reflexive enquiry, I ask questions of positionality, authorship and the conditions that enable or constrain migrant-led filmmaking.

Research areas: media representations of migration · forced displacement · documentary ethics · participatory filmmaking · arts-based and visual methods · oral history · border representation · practice-based research

Practice research

For the Sound of Her Voice, essay film, in post-production

The practice component of my PhD. Bordering practices in the English Channel. In progress.

Publication

“A camera in the water: reframing the migrant image in documentary film”

Screen 65:2, 2024. Shortlisted for the 2025 Screen Essay Award, with a special mention from the judges.

Scholarships

Edinburgh College of Art PhD Scholarship

2021–2026

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Scholarship

Kino Eyes, 2018–2020

Education

Practice-based PhD in Film (part-time), Edinburgh College of Art

Documentary, migration and border crossings into Europe and Britain. Submission expected December 2026.

MA Film, Kino Eyes Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's

Edinburgh Napier University, Baltic Film School and Universidade Lusófona, 2018–2020

MA Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding Management

University of Turin, 2009–2010

BA History

Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), 2006

Teaching

Tutor in Design and Screen Cultures, Edinburgh College of Art

Since 2023. Contemporary Cinema seminars and around 30 final-year dissertations supervised.

Postgraduate Teaching Assistant, Edinburgh Futures Institute

2022–2025. Workshops on documentary and the creative industries.

Associate Fellow, Advance HE (AFHEA)

2026

Talks, networks and peer review

Paper: “A camera in the water”

Citizenship and Migration Research Network, University of Edinburgh, 2025

Chair, Surviving Translation screening and panel

Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 2024

Contributor, The Unmade Films, Free Lens Collective

Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 2022

Getting Real Conference

International Documentary Association, Los Angeles, 2022

Member, IMISCOE

International Migration Research Network, since October 2026

Peer reviewer

Screenworks and Journal of European Studies

Documentary reviewer

BAFTA Student Awards, 2025