Dr. Dora Sampaio

Biography

Dora Martins Sampaio is a human geographer with research interests spanning social, cultural, and development geographies. Her research and teaching focus on transnational mobilities, ageing, transnational families, gender, inequalities, care, and emotions throughout the life course. She critically examines the complex and uneven dynamics defining trends over time, particularly in mobility and ageing, using ethnographic, multi-method, and creative qualitative approaches. Sampaio has conducted extensive field research in Brazil, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She currently leads a five-year European Research Council (ERC) funded project, RETIREWEL, which explores retirement across six countries through a tripartite analysis of the welfare state, family care networks, and the retirement industry. In 2022, she published a book titled 'Migration, Diversity and Inequality in Later Life: Ageing at a Crossroads' with Palgrave Macmillan. Before joining Utrecht University, Sampaio held positions at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany, the University of Sussex in the UK, and the Centre for Geographical Studies at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. She has also spent research periods at Universidade Vale Rio Doce (Univale) in Brazil and Brandeis University in the United States, and is scheduled to conduct research at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil in 2024. Sampaio is a member of the Editorial Boards for the journals Global Networks and the Journal of Global Ageing.

Research Interests

Experience