Alexandra Curvelo is an Associate Professor at the Department of History of Art, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas - Universidade Nova de Lisboa and holds a Ph.D. in History of Art on Nanban Art and Its Circulation between Asia and America: Japan, China and New Spain (c.1550 – c.1700).

She is the Director of the Art History Institute (IHA) and Associate Researcher of the Portuguese Center for Global History (CHAM) at NOVA FCSH.

From 2010 to 2016, she was the Editor in chief of the Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies and is currently a member of the Board of Direction of the Art History Journal published by IHA.

Previously she worked at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (Azulejo National Museum), at the Portuguese Institute for Conservation and Preservation, and the National Art Museum (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga), Lisbon.

Her experience in Museum Studies and her field of research led her to be invited to be Co-Curator of the Exhibition A striking story: Portugal-Japan 16^th-20^th centuries, Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon (29 November 2018-26 March 2019) and of the exhibition Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods, Boston, McMullen Museum of Art, 16 February-2 June 2013. She was the Scientific Curator of the exhibition Namban Commissions. The Portuguese in Modern Age Japan.Lisbon, Museu do Oriente, 17 December 2010 – 31 May 2011.

From March 2012 until September 2015 she was the Principal Investigator of the research project Interactions between rivals: the Christian mission and Buddhist Sects in Japan (c.1549-c.1647), financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

She has participated in many international conferences and workshops and has also co-organized international conferences and workshops.

In January 2018 was appointed Adviser of Nanban Culture by the Mayor of Amakusa Island, Japan.

Her research focuses on the visual and material culture of early modern Japan during the Iberian presence and on processes of cultural transfers between Asia and the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.