Specialisation in Global Studies
DOCGLS-2024-01: Crosscultural Media and Communication Studies
Crosscultural Media and Communication is a research topic that studies contemporary media and communication across cultures. It proposes to study cultural phenomena and media production and develop a critical perspective on how modern, technological-based mixed media represent and shape society and their impact on individuals, not only on a local or national level but in a cross-cultural and transversal perspective. At USJ, we are particularly interested in how interactions between the fundamental components of modern communication (media institutions, their contents and messages, and their audiences or public) generate cultural meaning.
Principal Supervisor: José Manuel da Silva Simões (jmsimoes@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: No keywords available
DOCGLS-2024-02: Crosscultural Creative Design
Design is a research topic that studies the human experience with its environment and proposes roads for improvements. The design practice continuously evolves on both ends: in the industrial fields, where it is becoming increasingly fundamental and by its methodology, practice and the technological tools available to imagine the future of human-to-machine interfaces. This research field offers to dive into the cross-cultural concepts and philosophical methodologies as well as the inherent technological practices that modern design approaches allow us. At USJ, we are focusing our work on topics such as Human-centered Design, Interaction Design, Enabling Technology and Interactivity, or Digital Prototyping.
Principal Supervisor: Carlos Caires (carlos.caires@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: No keywords available
DOCGLS-2024-03: Human-Centered Design, Art & Technology
The field of Human-Centered Design, Art, and Technology focuses on understanding user interactions with digital and physical products and systems to develop impactful solutions. At USJ, our research centres on HCD, Art, and Technology, where digital interaction systems enhance user experience and usability. Our design research, which encompasses art and design studies, shapes early-age digital interactions and addresses evolving educational needs. We prioritize creativity, technology, collaboration, and AI integration to enhance digital systems. Technology facilitates immersive digital environments, aiding learning. Our studies encompass multimodal digital environments, integrating AI-driven elements to foster learning and creativity in the younger generation. By observing interactions with technology-driven interfaces, behaviours, cultural concepts, and creative outcomes, we conduct experimental studies using screen-based multi-touch platforms and technology-powered digital systems to support learning. Our focus is on creating multimodal digital environments that emphasize digital inclusion and recognize the significance of AI-driven systems in the lives of the younger generation.
Principal Supervisor: Filipa Martins (filipa.martins@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: No keywords available
DOCGLS-2024-04: Global Media, Art and Technology
At the intersection of Media, Arts, and Technology, this research field stands at the vanguard of emerging interdisciplinary paradigms and interactive art experiences. By integrating advanced technology with digital media and physical interfaces, this field offers a theoretical approach and an artistic practice rooted in media and digital technology.
USJ primarily emphasises Interactive Digital Multimedia, Creative and Artistic Programming, Interactive System Design, Art based on Artificial Intelligence, and general artistic-cultural post-digital artefacts.
Research question: How can media technologies be utilised to develop new aesthetic discourses centred around interactive artefacts that can deliver meaningful immersive experiences?
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Digital media arts, Digital and Post-digital Artefacts, Interactive Arts, Meaningful immersive Experiences, New Aesthetic Discourses
DOCGLS-2024-07: Transnational Legal studies
Global interaction and integration have led to a rethinking of norms, institutions and processes governing inter-states and inter-institutions relationships. New actors have also emerged, and their role in building transnational norms and institutions has been remarkable. This area of research offers students the opportunity to conduct both empirical and legal doctrinal research on different topics, such as Legal issues in China and Africa Relations; Emerging global civil society organisations and their role in creating norms; International Dispute Resolution: Prospects and challenges; Law and technology - applications, trends and governance.
Principal Supervisor: Ansoumane Douty Diakite (doutyk@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: No keywords available
DOCGLS-2024-08: Comparative Philosophy
Comparative philosophy aims at exploring major issues and concepts across different cultures. This exploration is done by investigating philosophical texts' intellectual, historical and cultural backgrounds. Special emphasis is placed on East-Asian philosophy through the texts of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Those schools of thought will be explored by those who wish to study topics such as ethics, reality, knowledge and self comparatively.
Principal Supervisor: Edmond Eh (edmond_eh@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Chinese philosophy, Western philosophy, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism
DOCGLS-2024-10: Global Creative and Cultural Industries
With the globalisation of information and communication technologies and the rise in the movement of people between countries, creativity and culture play an increasingly significant role in both local and global economies, generating innovative products with international potential, fostering entrepreneurship, creating wealth, and producing employment.
From the perspective of culture and creativity, globalisation and location are not opposing social phenomena and practices; rather, they can coexist with societal benefits. The emphasis on strengthening local identities and cultures manifests as a "reflux" of the globalisation process and constitutes an integral part of the same social dynamics. In this context, this line of inquiry will generate knowledge from a global and local - "glocal" - perspective, enabling the sharing of ideas and experiences concerning innovation, business models, digital strategies, entrepreneurship, new projects, funding opportunities, and public policies in the creative and cultural industries.
This knowledge can address new social challenges, such as establishing more economically and environmentally sustainable businesses, bolstering and improving existing ones, creating job opportunities for young creatives and entrepreneurs, and enhancing the expression and affirmation of local cultures within a global context.
At USJ, we envision that the research in this area focuses on analysing the continuities and changes in the creative and cultural industries across various domains: political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental. The aim is to stimulate the intensive valorisation of creative, cultural, and territorial resources, alongside the corresponding economic and social fabric, to generate technical, scientific, and technological knowledge, particularly in the relevant areas of the creative and cultural industries as well as companies and organisations with market approaches in both local and global dimensions.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), João Paulo Faustino (joao.paulo@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Creative and Cultural Industries, New Social Challenges, Young Creatives and Entrepreneurs, Local Cultures, Creative, Cultural, and Territorial Resources, Economic and Social Fabric
DOCGLS-2024-11: Hybrid Immersive Media applied to Cultural Heritage
Despite advancements in technology related to 3D modelling and photography, illustration—especially scientific illustration—remains a crucial element of cultural heritage documentation and dissemination. This is evident in specialised scientific communication, museum documentation, and even commercial tourism.
Hybrid immersive media is an emerging field of art that connects the physical and digital domains. It offers new opportunities for the visual documentation of architecture and cultural heritage. Hybrid immersive media integrates the unique strengths of handcrafted scientific illustration with the capabilities of VR and AR visualisations.
At USJ, we are prepared to collaborate with researchers specialising in cultural heritage, providing equipment and expertise to explore how this emerging technology can enhance cultural heritage studies.
Main research question: How can hybrid immersive media be designed and applied to the architecture and cultural heritage of Macau or the Greater Bay Area to foster new aesthetic discourse and artefacts while promoting culturally meaningful experiences for the public?
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), António Araújo (antonio.araujo@uab.pt)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Virtual and Augmented Reality, Immersive Media, Cultural Heritage, Culturally Meaningful Experiences, Interactive Art, New Aesthetic Discourse, Digital Artefacts
DOCGLS-2025-01: Media Design and Production
With digital technologies' increasing presence in the most varied fields of human interaction, special attention is required to design and develop any product or communication endeavour.
Growing entertainment industries are increasingly exploring transmedia storytelling, audiovisual, participative, and interactive approaches to foster meaningful connections with their audiences. Media production in the most diverse fields, like education, journalism, or advertisement, explores new formats and strategies to create engaging, long-lasting, and fruitful relationships.
At USJ, we are focused on research in media design and production because it is relevant for devising innovative communication approaches. We stress the user's centrality and the need for holistic research methodologies focusing on usability and user experience.
Principal Supervisor: António Carvalho Maneira (antonio.maneira@usj.edu.mo), Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Media Design and Production, Digital Technologies, Transmedia Storytelling, Innovative Communication, Holistic Research Methodologies
DOCGLS-2025-02: Autobiographical Digital Narrative as a Tool for Transdisciplinary Cultural Cohesion
The research here aims to analyse the impact of academic radiophonic and audiovisual communication based on autobiographical narrative as a tool for transdisciplinary cultural cohesion, with a special focus on Macao. It will also examine the role and importance of autobiographical narratives in the Lusophone world in light of the Charter of Transdisciplinarity, the UN 2030 Agenda, and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.
The research corpus is based on the collection of academic interviews conducted in recent years within the radio and audiovisual/TV programmes in Macao, then expanding to other programmes in other universities and cities Lusophone World (e.g., Lisbon (Portugal), São Paulo (Brazil), Luanda (Angola), Maputo (Mozambique), Dili (East-Timor), etc.) (Portugal), as well conducting new interviews and collection of autobiographical narratives and its critical and careful assessment as a tool for memory recovering, identity and cultural cohesion.
The research will take Macao as a multicultural epistemological reference, a living laboratory of cultural diversity for sustainable development and cultural cohesion, where envisioning how autobiographical digital narratives play a decisive role in this endeavour.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Autobiographical Digital Narrative, Transdisciplinary Cultural Cohesion, Lusophone World, Sustainable Development, Cultural Diversity
DOCGLS-2025-03: Computational Creation in Textile Art
Computational creation in textile art is an emerging field of research that combines traditional practices with contemporary technologies. It encourages a rethinking of traditions and traditional knowledge from an innovative and cross-disciplinary perspective. This domain explores the uniqueness and universality of textile traditions, analysing their impact and potential within contemporary artistic practices, both tangible and virtual.
This research line focuses on developing approaches that integrate traditional artisanal techniques with digital media, such as creative programming, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, to generate new expressive and discursive formats in textile art.
The objective is to understand how digitalisation and computation can preserve, reinterpret, and revitalise textile traditions, simultaneously promoting innovative, inclusive, and sustainable artistic practices.
Notice: This research supervision will be mainly conducted in Portuguese.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), Selma Pereira (selma.pereira@ismat.pt)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Digital textile art, Textile traditions, Creative computation, Culture
DOCGLS-2025-04: Post-Digital Art-Fashion
Post-digital art-fashion is an emerging research field exploring the intersection of fashion and contemporary digital technologies. This field analyses how fashion, as an artistic and cultural phenomenon, reinvents itself through rematerialisation processes that blend physical and digital elements. Drawing from the concept of art-fashion, the study examines fashion's influence on mainstream contemporary art, highlighting emerging trends and hybrid forms of artistic expression that challenge traditional boundaries between fashion, contemporary art, the digital, and the tangible.
The objective is to understand how post-digital fashion generates new aesthetic discourses by exploring innovative forms of audience interaction, particularly hybrid artistic expressions that push traditional boundaries between fashion, contemporary art, and digital and tangible mediums.
Notice: This research supervision will primarily be conducted in Portuguese
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), Selma Pereira (selma.pereira@ismat.pt)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Post-digital fashion, Art-fashion, Rematerialisation, Contemporary art, Hybrid artistic expression, Contemporary aesthetics
DOCGLS-2025-05: Global Environmental Ethics
Our planet and the global human family calls for sustainable forms of living together in view of respecting the planetary boundaries. The research explores ethical questions about global environmental challenges, like planetary boundaries; biodiversity (BD), climate justice, resilience, etc. The research will elaborate on strategic principles of Sustainable Development (SD), e.g., Efficiency, Consistency, Sufficiency, or the Polluters-Pay-Principle (PPP) and Kostenwahrheit (price internalization), in view of overcoming destructive externalizations. Research results aim at supporting societies to reach a consistent and sustainable development path. Potentials and contributions of spiritual and religious values and resources for sufficiency are also a primary research focus. Research Questions include the following issues: Global Environmental Justice (e.g. climate justice; equitable emission budget per person per year, etc.); Relevance and interplay of the principles of efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency for a Sustainable Development Path; Contribution of wisdom traditions, spirituality, and religious values for sustainable development; Individual and institutional promotion of Food Waste Prevention for Sustainable Development Path; development of contributions for Resource, Energy and Consumer Ethics.
Principal Supervisor: Franz Gassner (franz.gassner@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Prevention of Food Loss and Waste, Sustainable Development, circular ecomomy, waste hierarchy
DOCGLS-2025-06: Communication and New Technologies: Creative Content Production and Transdisciplinary Dissemination of Sciences and Knowledge
This research explores transdisciplinary communication practices that bridge boundaries between science, art, education, and technology, fostering public engagement and the collaborative construction of knowledge. It investigates how artificial intelligence, digital platforms, social networks, and multimodal tools facilitate the dissemination of scientific, cultural, and social knowledge in accessible and innovative ways. The study includes an analysis of the ethical and social implications of science communication, seeking ways to broaden the understanding and impact of science in contemporary society.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), Paulo Cesar Teles (pteles@unicamp.br)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Science communication, transdisciplinarity, artificial intelligence, creative content, knowledge dissemination, social networks, digital media
DOCGLS-2025-07: Hi-Tech + Low-Tech: Epistemological Transmutation in Multidisciplinary Artistic Procedures
This research explores contemporary epistemological transmutations encompassing fields such as art, design, science, philosophy, history, and technology, seeking to understand how the fusion of these worlds can redefine artistic production and experience. It examines this redefinition through knowledge and techniques from seemingly disparate areas, challenging traditional paradigms of artistic creation. The study includes a discussion and exploration of recent changes in creative processes, aesthetic perception, and interactions between artists and audiences through procedures that combine AI, digital, analog, and manual resources.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), Paulo Cesar Teles (pteles@unicamp.br)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Epistemology, Hi-Tech, Low-Tech, Multidisciplinary Art, Digital Art, Hybrid Arts, Creative Processes
DOCGLS-2025-08: Multicultural Creative Processes: Scientific Methods and Ancestral Knowledge
This research investigates how the integration of modern scientific knowledge and ancestral knowledge can enrich creative processes. It explores diverse cultural practices, combining methods of contemporary science with traditions and techniques from different peoples to generate new forms of artistic expression and innovation. The study focuses on understanding how this fusion can broaden comprehension of creative processes, promoting respect, appreciation, and preservation of knowledge from diverse ancestral cultures resistant to the Western colonization of knowledge through a multidisciplinary approach. It reflects on the possibilities of intercultural dialogue that drives new forms of creation and innovation in the global context.
Principal Supervisor: Adérito Marcos (aderito.marcos@usj.edu.mo), Paulo Cesar Teles (pteles@unicamp.br)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Keywords: Multiculturalism, Ancestral Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, Intercultural Dialogue, Decolonization, Creative Processes
