Short Bio

Sofia Fonseca (Setúbal, 1975): Archeologist, graduated in 1997 from the University of Coimbra, where she obtained the Feijó Curricular Prize in 1997 and, in 1999, the António de Almeida Foundation Prize. In 2001 she obtained a Master’s degree in Egyptology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain. Between 2001 and 2010, she was the field director of the first Portuguese mission in Egypt, at the Apries Palace in Memphis and Assistant Director of the project between 2008-2010. Over the past 20 years Sofia has worked in Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania and Niger as an archaeologist and as a member of international cultural cooperation projects at UNESCO heritage sites such as Memphis in Egypt and Tichitt and Walata in Mauritania. In 2008, she founded “Teiduma, Consultancy on Heritage and Culture”, a technical consultancy promoting culture and heritage as a tool for sustainable local development.

Sofia is a member of the IEPOA of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), where she develops her doctorate on the “Iconography of wine in the private tombs of the Tebana necropolis”, directed by Dr. Josep Cervelló Autuori (IEPOA-UAB). Currently, she is also a invited researcher at ICArEHB at the University of Algarve, where she coordinates the project to create the first online course on African archeology and heritage, in partnership with the German Archaeological Institute (DAI, Germany), the University of Louisville (US), the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and the Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique). Sofia is a member of the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE) and the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAFA). She is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of African Cultural Heritage, and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Community on Integrating the Management of Archaeological Heritage and Tourism.