Marina Estela Graça develops investigation in Animation. As both artist and as researcher, she experiments, reflects and teaches about conditions and processes by which animated images are shaped into discourse. Until the date of her retirement on 1 August 2023, she was a tenured Professor Coordinator at the University of Algarve, having participated in the creation of a graduation in Communication Design (1992) and another in Moving Image (2010), being their course leader after approval. She has been also a teacher and researcher at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, between 2003 and 2006, participating in the adaptation of a graduation and in the creation of a master in Medialogy. She was due to finish her teaching career as a visiting professor in the postgraduate programme of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, but the pandemic made this impossible. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences (Cinema / Animated Cinema), from Nova University Lisbon, 2003. She has published 1 book (a reference in doctoral programmes in the field in Brazil), 1 booklet, 22 chapters and 11 scientific articles, all on specific formal aspects of enunciation in Animation. She has supervised (8) master's degrees and (2) doctorates, and has been the main arguer in 6 of 12 national and international doctoral exams. She participated in international scientific conferences, seminars and commissions in her field of research. She also has experience in the pedagogical, technical and technological organisation and supervision of animated audiovisual production teams, of different age groups, with different backgrounds and literacies, cognitive skills and different social and cultural situations. Her academic and artistic career is characterised by her affinities with the kind of Animation that is carried out by an author through experimental processes. She was the first Portuguese academic researcher in Animation, having completed the first Master (1990) and PhD (2003) in the field. She created and directed the first cycle of studies in higher education (Design, University of Algarve, since 1992) with hands-on curricular units in animation (first with U-Matic video equipment, then digital), training professionals currently active. She made two animated short films alone, Interstícios / Interstices (2001) and Claro Azul Ausente / Light Absent Blue (2005), with Interstices being the first Portuguese film produced in Full HD, completely digital, 24 fps, transferred to 35mm in order to allow screening at the time. She participated in the organisation, and subsequent writing of the report, of the 'Caminhos da Animação Portuguesa' movement, between 2009 and 2011, which brought together more than a hundred Portuguese professionals, in order to determine and claim adequate conditions for the development of animation production in Portugal. She was vice-president of 'Casa da Animação', an association that brings together and represents the sector in negotiations with the Government and internationally, between 2011 and 2015. Between 2007 and 2018, she was part of the ICA (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual) expert group for granting financial support to productions, and since 2014, she has been part of the A3ES (Agência de Avaliação e Acreditação do Ensino Superior) expert group, having participated in 21 evaluation committees in the field of CNAEF 213 - Audiovisual and Media Production. She has lived in 4 other countries and is fluent in English, Italian, French and Spanish, in addition to her native Portuguese.

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• ORCID • 0000-0003-4990-0176