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About my academic life and work
I am an interdisciplinary researcher, with disciplinary training in Psychology. I was awarded a PhD in Clinical Psychology, by the University of Coimbra, and the title of Specialist in Clinical Psychology, with Advanced Specialty in Community Psychology, by the Portuguese Order of Psychologists. My interdisciplinary research includes a focus on processes of human flourishing and well-being, positive change and development and resilience, in Families and Communities, especially targeting contexts of multiple risks and challenges and of child protection and promotion. I adopt a Systems and Complexity-Informed approach to the study of Family Processes and to investigate Love (Love-Force) as an emergent relational force, from a complex systems perspective, and its role as a key human resilience and flourishing process.I have conducted action-based and applied research focused on the development, implementation and evaluation of models, resources and tools for family and community assessments and interventions. I am interested in the field of Complexity studies from a theoretical, methodological and applied point of view, in relation to processes of change in complex systems. My research aims at the development and evaluation of theoretical models, resources and strategies for evaluating and scaffolding the practice of ‘Complex Thinking’ applied to the decision-making and the management of interventions in conditions of high risk, complexity and uncertainty. I focus on complex human systems in the coupling with their environments, adopting a qualitative and mixed-methods approach. I explore the implications of a Complexity paradigm to understanding human experiences and managing individual and collective modes of Relating and for understanding the nature of relations in constructing transformative realities. Additionally, my work encompasses themes related to Interdisciplinary Methodologies and Methods and Inter/Transdisciplinarity processes, in relation to scientific creativity and abductive modes of knowing, and other themes of the Philosophy of Sciences (e.g. Epistemologies). I am particularlry interested in the facilitation of creative and abductive interdisdisciplinary processes, informed by a complex-systems perspective. I am a Vice-President and Founding member of the LiLo Institute (2025-…), a non-profit association focused on investigating, promoting and facilitating epistemically potent environments for complex knowings, Vice-President of the Complex Systems Society (2023-2026) and have been previously elected member of the Executive Committee (2020-2023) and of the Council (2019-2022; 2022-2025). I am currently also an Academic Editor of the journal Complexity (from 2021) and part of the editorial board of the European Journal of Mental Health. I am an Associate of the University of York(2016-…), having been an associate of the former York Cross-Disciplinary Centre for Systems Analysis (2016-2023), where I was also a visiting academic (2016-2018), along with the Department of Health Sciences . I was a contracted senior researcher (2018-2024; May-September 2024) at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. My work has been developed at the intersection of theory, research and practice, with a strong focus on innovative methodologies and methods. My research is also strong embedded in “real-world” contexts of practice and I have strongly invested in dissemination and scientific extension activities. I have published innovative and potentially ground-breaking work interdisciplinary work with meaningful implications for contexts of practice and for addressing real-world complex challenges.
Other professional websites
Please visit my academic websites at Research Gate, CienciaVitae and ORCID, through the links below
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ana-Teixeira-De-Melo-2/research
https://www.cienciavitae.pt//en/2615-C898-6D1E
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-7816-3836
Publications
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Ana Teixeira de Melo 