Underwater Archaeology

Eraly Modern Archaeology

Ports and Harbours Studies

Maritime History

History of science

Enviromental History

 PhD in History-variant Archaeology at NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities  (NOVA-FCSH), with the thesis: “Atlantic Island ports of the Portuguese and English maritime empires: a comparative approach (15th-18th centuries)”. Research from CHAM - Center for the Humanities (NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities  (NOVA FCSH) and University of the Azores). Master’s degree in Insular and Atlantic History and degree in History – Archaeology. She is a research assistant of CHAM, at the Environment, Interactions and Globalization research Group, which she coordinates. She is a post-doctoral researcher of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS Project (2021-2027), Human History of Marine Life Extraction, Knowledge, Drivers and Consumption of Marine Resources, c.100 BCE to c. 1880 CE". She is also a member of the project CONCHA "The construction of early modern global Cities and oceanic networks in the Atlantic: An approach via Ocean's Cultural Heritage" and H-WHALE: "A chronology of change: an Heritage network of historical WHALing in Europe". She is member of the UNESCO Chair Cultural Heritage of the Oceans, attributed to the University of Lisbon. She has recently integrated the projects DRESS - "Designing Fashion from 16th-century Sources" (2018-2021), funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (ref. no. 227751); and MARINE LEXICON: "Bilateral construction of a cross- European thesaurus about early modern marine mammals", funded by EEA Grants and OPP - Oceans Past Platform (COST Action IS1403). She was a Research Fellow to the project: "History of Whaling in Portugal (2016-2018)”, and a Fulbright Researcher Fellow (February-July 2014) at Texas A&M University, Nautical Archaeology Program, Department of Anthropology; and a FCT, PhD Grant (2011-2015). 

Prior to the current affiliation, she was the archaeologist responsible for the management of the archaeological heritage of the Azores Autonomous Region (2000-2011) and underwater archaeologist at the National Centre for Nautical and Underwater Archaeology (1996-2000), with participation and coordination of several scientific projects within the scope of underwater archaeology. Specialized in underwater archaeology since 1996, worked for about 15 years in the Azores related to archaeological heritage management, including the classification process of Angra Bay as Underwater Archaeological Park. 

She has recently been working on environmental history, contributing to its emergence at University NOVA of Lisbon, in a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the history of whaling in Portugal, the study of port debris in early modern age, landscape and coastline studies. Catarina Garcia has more than 30 articles published in his specialty and a large experience in the field of maritime archeology.