Last Monday, May 11, the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change joined with the World Political Analysis Laboratory (LABMUNDO) to present a lecture titled Ocean Regions and the Ocean Research Agenda in International Relations” delivered by guest speaker Licínia Simão (University of Coimbra – Portugal) at the Institute of Social and Political Studies (IESP-UERJ).

Throughout the afternoon, the professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (FEUC) presented to members of both groups and the public in attendance an analysis of the challenges involved in building an integrated Atlantic regional space and the various forms this region adopts in terms of governance as it addresses its multiple challenges. This analysis was developed based on research conducted in collaboration with the Ocean Regions Programme (University of Pretoria – South Africa). In particular, the conclusions presented are based on research for the book Africa and the Politics of Ocean Regions, edited by the lecturer with Daniela Marggraff (University of Pretoria), which serves as the basis for the curriculum of the graduate program in International Ocean Policy currently under development at the University of Coimbra. Researchers from LABMUNDO and OIMC are authors of one of the chapters to be published in this collection, analyzing the case of Brazil in the South Atlantic.

PhD in International Relations, specialising in European Studies, from the University of Coimbra (DRI-UC), Licínia Maria dos Santos Simão is an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, and a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies at the same institution (CES-UC). Since 2024, she has been Deputy Director of FEUC and co-coordinator of CES Thematic Area 1, ‘(Semi-)peripheral Capitalism: Crises and Alternatives’. Between December 2018 and January 2023, she held an official position as an adviser to the Portuguese Minister of National Defence, where she was responsible for coordinating the Atlantic Centre. She was a visiting researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels (Belgium) and at the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University (CES) in Ottawa (Canada). Her academic interests include Foreign Policy, Security and Defence Studies, and Ocean Governance, with a focus on European policy, the post-Soviet states, and maritime security in the Atlantic.