r
a
p
h
i
c
l
s
s
t
n
d
e
r
e
n
c
e
GENTEEL (2023.14621.PEX) is an exploratory research project funded by the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).
Carried out by a research team that brings together academics with recognised experience in gender and comics studies, as well as in adopting qualitative social science methodologies, GENTEEL aims at studying the reception of graphic novels on the topic of gender-based violence among secondary school students in the North of Portugal. The team includes Nicoletta Mandolini as principal investigator, Cristina Álvares (CEHUM - UMinho), Ece Canli (CECS - UMinho), Alice Balbé (CECS - UMinho) and Daniel Cardoso (Universidade Lusófona Lisboa).
The project consists of the following phases:
Nicoletta Mandolini is an Auxiliar Researcher at CECS (Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade) at Universidade do Minho, where her work focuses on the intersections of gender and comics studies. She holds a PhD in Arts from University College Cork (Ireland) and she previously worked as postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven (Belgium).
She authored the monograph Representations of Lethal Gender-Based Violence in Italy between Journalism and Literature (Routledge 2021) and co-edited the volume Representing Gender-Based Violence. Global Perspective (Palgrave 2023) with Caroline Williamson Sinalo. She is founding member of the research group on Italian comics SnIF - Studying'n'Investigating Fumetti.
ORCID
Cristina Álvares is full professor of French Studies at the Department of Romances Studies of the University of Minho. Her research interests focus on French Literature and Culture (medieval and contemporary), and include psychoanalysis, comics studies, and zoopoetics. She has published articles on comics in Cincinatti Romance Revue (2017), Revue Romane (2020), Synergies Espagne (2020), Neuroptica (2021), European Comic Art (2021), and Contemporary French and Francophone Studies (2023, 2025).
ORCID
Ece Canli is a researcher, artist and musician whose work intersects body politics, material regimes and decolonial queer epistemologies. Holding a PhD in Design from the University of Porto (PT), she is currently a researcher at CECS (The Communication and Society Research Centre) at University of Minho (PT) where she investigates spatial, material and technological conditions of the criminal justice system, penal design, and abolition feminism. She is a board member of ATGENDER (NL) and a member of Carceral Geography Working Group (CGWG) (UK), SOPCOM (PT) (in Gender and Sexualities and Cultural Studies WGs), and A Passeio (Platform for the study of art and urban culture) (PT). As an artist, she explores counterfactual narratives of marginalised bodies through extralinguistic expressions, extended vocal techniques, staged electronics, and sound installations.
Ciência Vitae
Alice Balbé is a junior researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) at the University of Minho. Her work focuses on gender-based violence representation in Portuguese graphic novels and their potential as educational tools in secondary schools.
She is particularly interested in how graphic narratives can facilitate difficult conversations about gender violence among adolescents.
ORCID
Dr. Daniel Cardoso (they/them), PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Lusófona University, Portugal, and a Guest Assistant Professor at the Nova University of Lisbon. Their main areas of research are consensual non-monogamies, BDSM, gender and sexualities, young and new media, and cybercultures.
danielscardoso.net
Dr Giorgio Busi Rizzi is an expert in the field of comics studies who has worked on young comics readers as part of the ERC project Children in Comics. He is currently senior postdoctoral researcher at Universiteit Gent. In his internationally published analyses of graphic narratives, he has used both a narratological and a cognitive methodological perspective to understand how comics’ storytelling and reading practices linked to graphic narratives evoke and trigger specific emotions (Busi Rizzi 2023a; 2023b) and involvement (Busi Rizzi 2021). Dr Busi Rizzi’s participation as a consultant is crucial in the context of GENTEEL, given his ability to provide the research team with fundamental insights on comics’ narrative potentials, their connection with readers’ emotional engagement and their appeal for young audiences.
ORCIDNicole Ruta is an interdisciplinary researcher exploring the areas of overlap between art and science. Her work investigates the affective, cognitive and embodied implications of mid-level visual properties, such as symmetry and curvature, across architecture, games, fashion, theology and art. She has also studied gender bias in Abstract Expressionism and visual perception of art in both laboratory and ecological settings. Her current postdoctoral research at the GestaltRevision Lab (KU Leuven) investigates how drawing styles shape the temporal understanding of sequential images, as well as the role of Gestalt principles in the perception of animacy, understanding and appreciation of camera movements in cinematic long takes. In 2024, her interdisciplinary programme was recognised with the IAEA's Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten Award for Outstanding Contributions of Young Scientists. She is a co-founder of CREA: Crossroads of Research and Experience of Art, where she curates initiatives connecting artistic and scientific research dissemination.
ORCIDInteractive Maps of Gender-Based Violence Research
This collection gathers the research results of mapping processes conducted as part of the GENTEEL project. Each map explores different aspects of gender-based violence through graphic novels and educational resources.
An interactive map showcasing graphic novels from Portugal and Brazil that address gender-based violence, part of the GENTEEL research project.
A comprehensive guide for educators featuring graphic novels and teaching materials to address gender violence in classroom settings.
Guidelines on how to implement the introduction of graphic novels on GBV in Portuguese schools.
GENTEEL Final Event
GENTEEL participated in the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference in United Kingdom
GENTEEL participated in the SOPCOM round-table on Education, gender and violence
GENTEEL participated in the Comics Studies Society in Ohio, United States
GENTEEL participated in the open lecture series organised by the Visual Culture Working Group of SOPCOM, in partnership with Batalha Centro de Cinema
GENTEEL participated in the Permanent Seminar on Gender Studies "Voices, perspectives, identities" in Italy
GENTEEL organised a day workshop with the consultants of the project:
GENTEEL participated during two major European conferences in the areas of Comics and Feminist Studies
GENTEEL participated in the event "Feminist Studies and Gender Issues in the Universe of Contemporary Comics" in Brazil
GENTEEL realised the Kickoff meeting
Book chapter
Journal
DataRepositoriUM
genteel@cecs.uminho.pt
+351 922255369
Principal Investigator: Nicoletta Mandolini (CECS – Universidade do Minho)
Institution: Universidade
do Minho
Start Date: 31/01/2025
Duration: 18 months