The work on the EPH-FEM-PI project was conducted by Dr. Sofia P. Caldeira within the Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, between 2022 and 2025.
During the fellowship, Sofia P. Caldeira worked on the three empirical work packages originally outlined in the project proposal:
WP1) the exploratory analysis of Portuguese feminist Instagram Stories;
WP2) the participant observation and in-depth interviews with content-creators who share feminist content;
and WP3) focus groups with a diverse range of social media users who engage with feminist content on Instagram.
These work packages have generated extensive empirical data, drawing on the analysis of 2822 Instagram Stories (WP1), 18 in-depth interviews with feminist content creators (WP2), and 8 focus groups with 46 participants who consume feminist content on Instagram (WP3).
In addition to this work, Sofia P. Caldeira has also conducted additional research on the relationship between digital feminisms and practices of digital disconnection, as well as on broader issues on the politics of gendered practices on social media.
During the course of the fellowship, this work has resulted in the publication of 6 peer-reviewed articles and 16 presentations in national and international academic conferences.
In addition, a 3-day international conference entitled Contested Visibilities: Everyday Politics and Online Imaginaries of the Body,” was organised in the context of the project – in collaboration with three ECREA sections: Digital Culture and Communication (DCC), Gender, Sexuality and Communication (GSC) and Visual Cultures (VC).
This results from this work will continue to be explored in the future. At the time of writing, there are 3 articles under-review in key peer-reviewed journals, 2 abstracts accepted for presentation in international conferences, and 2 other conference abstracts under-review.
