Dr Carla Figueira is a Portuguese-British expert in international cultural relations, cultural & creative sectors’ policy, management, and education. She works alongside individuals, communities, networks, and organisations committed to making a better world for all.
Carla has a portfolio career that bridges consultancy, policy, management, research, mentoring and academia. Through her independent practice, CCF Consultancy, she provides strategic advice, research, evaluation, facilitation, mentoring and learning support, connecting policy, practice and knowledge across national and international contexts.
She is a Strategic Policy Advisor for ENCATC, contributing to cultural policy development, research and policy engagement, and the creation of social learning spaces. Alongside this work, she maintains an active independent research practice, including her long-standing involvement in EUROVISIONS, an international research and public engagement collaborative and conference examining the Eurovision Song Contest as a cultural, media and political phenomenon.
Carla continues to teach, supervise and mentor in higher education in the UK and internationally, drawing on extensive experience in cultural policy, international cultural relations, cultural management, tourism and social learning.
For more than 15 years, Carla was associated with Goldsmiths, University of London. At the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE), she designed the unique MA in Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy, which she convened, alongside the MA in Tourism and Cultural Policy, for a decade. She later continued her association as a Visiting Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the School of Creative Management.
She is also a Social Learning Leadership Fellow at the Social Learning Lab with Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, exploring innovative ways to facilitate engagement, knowledge production and exchange.
Prior to her academic career, Carla spent a decade as a senior arts manager at the Municipality of Lisbon, where she had operational and strategic roles, culminating in her position as Director of the Fonoteca Municipal de Lisboa.
Carla is fluent in Portuguese, English, and French, with working knowledge of Spanish and Italian. A firm advocate for cultural and linguistic diversity, she believes in the transformative power of cultural engagement and social learning. Her approach to her work is shaped by transdisciplinarity, innovation, inclusivity, and regenerative sustainability.
You will find a list of her publications here.
