Maria Laura Bettencourt Pires

Maria Laura Bettencourt Pires is Full Professor of English and American Studies at the Portuguese Catholic University where she has been teaching Cultural Theory, English Culture, Cultural Management and American Culture at graduate and postgraduate level. She coordinated a Master's on Media Studies, a Postgraduation Course for African Journalists and the Research Project: New York-From Topos to Utopos. She is now Head of the Research Project Cultural Wars, Public Intellectuals and the Making of Citizenship. Previously she taught at Universidade Nova and Universidade Aberta in Portugal and was Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University, Gulbenkian Fellow at Brown University and Visiting Professor at Fairfield University in the United States.

She published University Teaching-From Crisis to Innovation (2007), Cultural Theory (2004, 2007 2nd ed.), Essays-Notes and Reflections(2000), American Culture and Society (1997), William Beckford and Portugal (1987), History of Portuguese Children's Books (1982), Portugal Seen by the English (1980), Walter Scott and Portuguese Romanticism (1979) as well as several articles and critical studies, among them The Reception of William Beckford in Europe (Ready for publication),William Beckford and the New Millennium (2004), Literature of Travel and Exploration-An Encyclopedia (2003); Engendering Identities (1996); Chronologic Dictionary of Portuguese Authors (1994); and Vathek and The Escape from Time(1990).