The archaeologist Maria Catarina Coelho has been appointed deputy director general of Cultural Heritage, on a replacement basis, the Ministry of Culture announced this Friday.
Director of the Department of Cultural Assets of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (DGPC), since February 2013, Catarina Coelho assumes the vacant position for the appointment, in substitution, of João Carlos dos Santos as general director of Cultural Heritage, reads the government statement.
This appointment comes into force as of June 28, 2022, according to an order signed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Isabel Cordeiro”, according to the same document.
Catarina Gomes Coelho, born in 1971, has a degree in History, variant of Archeology, from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, and completed the curricular component of the Master’s Degree in Prehistory and Archaeology.
As a researcher, “she develops projects in the area of Medieval Archaeology, specifically on the Islamic presence in the territory of Sintra”. She is part of the CIGA Project (Islamic Ceramics of Garb al-Ândalus), having also been a collaborator of the Archeology Center of the University of Lisbon.
Catarina Coelho joined the DGPC in 2012, as head of the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage Safeguarding Division, assuming the following year as director of the Department of Cultural Assets.
According to the same source, he was part, on behalf of the DGPC, of the team in charge of implementing the Culture Program of the EEA Grants 2014-2021 financial mechanism, within the scope of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), signed in 1992, in in which Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are partners in the internal market of the Member States of the European Union.
In this context, Catarina Coelho participated “in the design of the application program ‘Local development through the restoration and revitalization of coastal cultural heritage’ and in the predefined project for the safeguarding of underwater cultural heritage (Water World)”.
He represented the DGPC on the Council of the European Archaeological Council (EAC) and on the commission for the implementation of the Mário Ruivo Award: Oceanic Generations, for the promotion of literacy among young people around knowledge of the oceans , resulting from the protocol established between the Ministers of the Sea, Education and Culture.
Promoted the initiative “Archaeology in Portugal. Recovering the past in…”, which promotes archaeological activity through a traveling exhibition, being responsible for various communication actions on the safeguarding, protection and dissemination of cultural heritage.
Source: Observadora
