Alexandra Curvelo is a full professor at the Art History Department of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and, since January 2023, Director of the Art History Institute (IHA, NOVA FCSH) and its representative at the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art (RIHA). In 2022, she was elected to the Scientific Council of NOVA FCSH. At the Art History Department, she coordinates the Master in Art History and Museum Studies and is responsible for graduate and post-graduate courses on Museology, Early Modern Art and Japanese Art.

With a PhD in Art History on Nanban Art and Its Circulation between Asia and America: Japan, China and New Spain (c.1550-c.1700) (2008), her research is mainly focused on the material and visual cultures of the Iberian presence in Asia, particularly Japan, during the early modern period, including processes of production, circulation, reception, consumption, and cultural transfers. From 2012 to 2015, she was the Principal Investigator of the FCT-funded project 'Interactions between Rivals: the Christian Mission and Buddhist sects in Japan (c.1549-c.1647)' with an international team of researchers and collaboration from the École Française d'Extrême Orient (Paris) and the Italian School of East Asian Studies (Kyoto, Japan). This project is associated with an open-access book (Peter Lang Publishing, 2021) and database (https://www.peterlang.com/document/1190560).

With extensive working experience in museums (1996-2014), she curated exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. Her research also focuses on the history and exhibits of museums and collections in Portugal. Between 2018 and 2020, she was appointed Cultural Adviser for Amakusa Nanban Heritage (Japan). In 2019, she received the Special Merit Commendation Award from the Japanese Ambassador in Lisbon for the national and international dissemination of Portuguese-Japanese studies.