She has a degree in Advertising from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1993), a Master's degree (1997) and a PhD in Communication and Semiotics (2004) from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil, recognised by UNOVA, Portugal. She carried out research internships at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1996) and the University of Dublin Trinity College (2000-02). She did post-doctoral research at CIAC at the University of the Algarve (UAlg) in 2005-08 (FCT contract) and in 2019-20. She is a lecturer at UAlg, where she works on the BA in Communication Sciences (deputy director 2023-25) and Communication Design, the MA in Communication and Digital Media and the PhD in Digital Media-Art. She is also an accredited lecturer in the Postgraduate Programme in Communication at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (PPGCOM-UFJF), of which she was coordinator (2016-2019) and vice-coordinator (2019-2021), and a collaborating lecturer in the Interuniversity Doctorate in Communication at the University of Huelva. She coordinates the Brazilian team of the Euro-American Interinstitutional Research Network on Media Competence for Citizenship (ALFAMED) with eighteen universities. She is a member of the Obitel Brazil Network (Brazilian Network of Television Fiction Researchers), made up of ten universities, and is a team member of the project Brazilian television fiction as a resource for promoting citizenship (2022-2024), funded by CNPQ (421215/2022-4). She also participates in the National Network of Cultural Studies with twelve universities in Portugal. Member of the research team for the Spanish funded projects Competencias mediáticas de la ciudadanía en medio digitales emergentes (2016-18) (with nine countries) and Youtubers e instagrammers: La competencia mediática en los prosumidoes emergentes (2019-21) (RTI2018-093303-B-I00). She has coordinated projects funded by the Brazilian government: Media Competences in Brazilian and Euro-American scenarios (2014-19), CNPq (449573/2014-1) and the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG) (CHE APQ 2824-15) and the scientific dissemination platform Observatório da Qualidade no Audiovisual (2013-17), UFJF and FAPEMIG (APQ-1258-13). She has more than 80 articles published in well-qualified journals, 3 books of her own, 60 book chapters and 13 organised books. She has been the editor of Lumina, a PPGCOM-UFJF scientific journal, since 2013, and a reviewer for several well-qualified international scientific journals and for Fapesp (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo/Brazil) since 2009.