Gabriela Sá

Gabriela Sá, PhD (Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2026). MA in Illustration and Animation (IPCA, 2018). BA in Fine Arts – Multimedia (FBAUP, 2015).

Gabriela is a Lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA) and the Polytechnic Institute of Maia (IPMAIA), teaching across the fields of Design, Animation, and Digital Games. Her previous academic experience includes a lectureship at the University of Algarve (ESEC).

As a practitioner, Gabriela works as an artist for animation and digital games, contributing to international projects for clients such as ESL, Dota 2, DHL, and Rippaverse.

She is a Researcher at the ID+ Research Institute for Design, Media, and Culture. Her research interests focus on representation in media and its social and pedagogical impact, developed through a feminist perspective and with a particular focus on character design and visual storytelling.

Current positions

  • Lecturer IPCA
  • Lecturer IPMAIA

PhD Details

  • Title Sisterhood - Representation and Representativity of Women and Archetypal Design of Female Characters in Animated Feature Films (2001-2022)
  • Field Design
  • Year 2026

Research Groups

Collaborator

Publications

Books
  • Moreno, A., Chatterjee, A., Herbawi, B., Vieira-da-Silva, D., Luna, F., Sá, G., Alvelos, H., Mendes, M., Néo, M.B., Zanini, M.R., Mourão, S., Meira, S. (2023) “Poster of a Doctorate. PhD Design 2016-2023+”. Porto, Portugal: ID+Instituição de Investigação em Design, Media e Cultura. Link
International conferences
  • Caruso, Ana Paula; Tavares, Paula; Caruso, Ana Paula; Sylla, Cristina; Sá, Gabriela. “Animating for a Digital Manipulative: how to create restricted action libraries without restricting the areas”. Trabalho apresentado em CONFIA – 7th International Conference in Illustration and Animation, Viana do Castelo, 2019
  • Sá, G., Tavares, P. & Alvelos, H. (2023). Domee Shi’s Turning Red as Feminist Hope for Feature Animation. Tercer Congreso Creadoras: Dibujo, Diseño y Acción, Seville, Spain.
  • Sá, G., Tavares, P., Alvelos, H. “Where are the women? An overview of female representation in popilar contemporary animation feature films.”. Trabalho apresentado em CONFIA 10th International Conference in Illustration and Animation, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, 2023 Link
  • Sá, G., Tavares, P. & Alvelos, H. (2023). Where are the Women? An Overview of Female Representation in Popular Contemporary Animation Feature Films. In CONFIA – 10th International Conference on Illustration and Animation.
  • Sylla, C., Pereira, I. & Sá, G. (2019). Designing Manipulative Tools for Creative Multi and Cross-Cultural Storytelling. In ACM Creativity and Cognition, San Diego. Link
  • Sá, G., Menegazzi, D., Sylla, C. & Caruso, A. (2019). Visual Development Processes for a Multicultural Storytelling Tool. In Confia – International Conference on Illustration and Animation, Viana do Castelo. Link
  • Sá, G. & Tavares, P. (2019). Color Differences in Male and Female Protagonists of Mainstream Animation Film. In Confia – 7th International Conference on Illustration and Animation, Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
  • Sá, G., Sylla, C., Menegazzi, D. & Caruso, A. (2019). Multiculturalism and Creativity in Storytelling – Visual Development of a Digital Manipulative for Children. In Creativity & Cognition, San Diego, USA. Link
  • Sylla, C., Sá, G., Martins, V., Caruso, A., Amaro, B., Menegazzi, D., Sylla, F. (2019). Designing Narrative Learning in the Digital Era. In ACM International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI19, Glasgow. Link
  • Sá, G. & Tavares, P. (2018). Desperfeitamente – an activity book for inducing creativity in female character design. In CONFIA – 6th International Conference on Illustration and Animation (pp. 80-88). Norprint. Link
  • Sá, G. & Tavares, P. (2017). Female Character Design in Today’s Cartoons: The typical and the alternative “girl squad”. In CONFIA – 5th International Conference on Illustration and Animation (pp. 346-355). Link
  • Sá, G. & Tavares, P. (2017). Representação feminina no cinema de animação mainstream dos últimos 25 anos. In AVANCA International Conference Cinema – Art, Technology, Communication (pp. 606-612). Link
See all 12 international conferences

Scientific, artistic and cultural production

Scientific events organization
  • Moreno, A., Herbawi, B., Vieira-da-Silva, D., Luna, F., Sá, G., Alvelos, H., Mendes, M., Néo, M.B., Zanini, M.R., Meira, S. (2023) Comissão de organização da UD23, encontro de estudantes de doutoramento em Design, intitulado de “Actions and Reflections on Design Research”.