Centro de estudos sobre a Mudança
Socioeconómica e o Território

Leonor Matos Silva is an integrated researcher at the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), Dinâmia-CET. She was Co-Principal Investigator of the project WomArchStruggle—Women Architects in Former Portuguese Colonial Africa: Gender and Struggle for Professional Recognition (1953–1985) and is currently Research Fellow on LabourMap-Macao: Mass Labour Impact on Public Works in Macao under Portuguese Administration (1849–1999). She holds a PhD from ISCTE-IUL on the interplay between pre- and post-revolutionary architectural education in Lisbon, and was postdoctoral researcher on MCMH-EU—Middle-class Mass Housing in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Her recent publications include Women’s Absence from the Public Sphere: Gender Inequality in Portuguese Architecture Schools in Postcolonial Directions in Education (University of Malta). She is a member of the COST Action Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality (VOICES) and previously contributed to the COST Action MCMH—Middle-class Mass Housing in Europe, serving provisionally as Grant Holder Manager.

She convened the international seminar Gender Struggles in Architecture, Colonialism, and Housing (Lisbon, 2024) and coordinated the session Asian (Post)Colonial Works, Labour and Gender Through the Camera Lens at the SAH Virtual 2025 Conference. She is also a member of the organising committee of the III International Congress on Colonial and Post-colonial Landscapes (Fundação Gulbenkian, February 2026).

She has presented at major international conferences, including the SAH Virtual conferences (2024, 2025), the 18th International Docomomo Conference (Santiago, 2024), the SAH Annual International Conference (Atlanta, 2025), and the ACSA Annual Meeting (New Orleans, 2025).