معرفی
Maria Inês Amaro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon and an integrated researcher at CIES-Iscte. She teaches across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs in Social Work while serving as Director of the Department of Social Development at Portugal's Social Security Institute since late 2019, with national responsibilities for childhood/youth policies, social responses, and intervention systems.
Her academic credentials include:
- PhD in Social Work (Catholic University of Portugal, 2004-2009)
- Master's in Communication, Culture and Information Technologies (ISCTE, 2000-2005)
- Bachelor's in Social Work (Instituto Superior de Serviço Social de Lisboa, 1993-1998)
- Additional qualifications in Agile Project Management, Collaborative Leadership, and Science Communication
Her research examines structural inequalities through critical analysis of social work practice, technology-society interfaces, and policy implementation. She investigates how digital transformation impacts social exclusion while developing frameworks for ethical social intervention in poverty, disability inclusion, and homelessness. Current projects focus on entrepreneurial approaches to social integration and cross-national family policy comparisons between Portugal and Brazil.
As academic leadership, she chairs Portugal's National Commission for Early Childhood Intervention (SNIPI) and National Council for Adoption (2024-2026), while serving on committees addressing migration, civil protection, and poverty reduction strategies. Her policy work directly informs national implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
She actively supervises 32 doctoral candidates and 57 master's students across institutions, with current research spanning housing-first models for homelessness, social entrepreneurship in public health, and ethical frameworks for digital social work practice. Her methodological approach combines critical policy analysis with participatory action research in community settings.
