Biography
Cristina Gil is an Assistant Professor at the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (ESE-IPS), where she co-coordinates the Bachelor's Degree in Portuguese Sign Language Translation and Interpreting (TILGP), as well as being co-founder of the Deaf Studies Lab (CECC). She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the Portuguese Catholic University (Faculty of Human Sciences, 2020) she developed transdisciplinary research in the fields of Cultural Studies, Utopia Studies and Deaf Studies, through which she coined the neologism Deaftopia, a concept that designates the utopian representations and discourses present in deaf communities and sign language peoples globally. This research was funded by a full doctoral scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, 2016-2020) and included a period as a visiting researcher at Gallaudet University in Washington, USA.
Her academic background also includes a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Languages, Literatures and Cultures, with a specialisation in Cultural Studies (NOVA FCSH, 2014), a Master's Degree in Deaf Communities, Education and Sign Languages (Universitat de Barcelona, 2010) and a Bachelor's Degree in Translation and Interpreting of Portuguese Sign Language (ESE-IPS, 2007), during which she participated in an Erasmus exchange programme at Högskolan Väst, in Trollhättan, Sweden. In 2013, she was recognised by the University of Minho as an accredited trainer in the field of Deaf Education and Special Education.
Her research interests focus on human diversity, with a particular emphasis on the disciplinary intersections between Deaf Studies, Deaf History and Cultures, as well as Deaf epistemologies and ontologies and Sign Language Interpretation and Translation Studies.