MeLCi Lab Welcomes Two New Members: James Dennis and Hugo Barata

The MeLCi Lab is delighted to welcome James Dennis and Hugo Barata as new members, strengthening our research capacity across political communication, media studies, and media arts.

James Dennis joins the Lab as a Researcher at CICANT – Universidade Lusófona. He is Co-Convenor of the Political Studies Association’s Media and Politics Group (UK) and Co-Editor of Political Studies Review. Before joining Lusófona, he spent over eight years as a Senior Lecturer in Political Communication and Journalism at the University of Portsmouth.

James’ research focuses on political communication, journalism, social media–driven participation, and young people’s news consumption. His work has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Information Technology and Politics, Journalism Studies, and Political Studies. He is the author of Beyond Slacktivism: Political Participation on Social Media (Palgrave, 2018) and is currently completing a new book exploring how social inequalities shape young adults’ experiences of news and political communication. This project draws on 47 interviews with journalists, influencers, party representatives, and young adults facing inequality in England.

James has also signed a contract with Routledge for the edited collection Research Methods in Online Political Communication: After the APIcalypse (with Emily Harmer, Paul Reilly, Liam McLoughlin, and Rosalynd Southern), due for publication in 2027.

Hugo Barata is a visual artist, curator, professor, and integrated researcher at CICANT. He holds a PhD in Media Art from Universidade Lusófona. He has an extensive career as a curator, including serving as Curatorial Assistant to Jean-François Chougnet at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Marseille (MCB). Since 2000, he has curated and produced exhibitions by renowned national and international artists such as Paula Rego, Jeff Wall, Thomas Struth, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Michael Borremans, and many others.

His curatorial collaborations span major institutions including the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Zé dos Bois Gallery, MACBA, Warburg Institute, Haus Lange–Haus Esters, Serralves Museum, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Centre Pompidou, Walter Benjamin Archives, and the FUSO Video Art Festival.

As an invited artist and educator, Hugo has developed training programmes for DMC – Lisbon’s Municipal Culture Department, EGEAC, Acesso Cultura, the Gulbenkian Foundation’s Education Programme, and the National Arts Plan. He is also involved in several ongoing funded projects, including Creative Europe’s Healing Nature, ENACT_NOW, FilmEU Dynamic Cluster (PR), and PI E – E-Pedagogical Innovation through Essayism.

Upcoming outputs include exhibitions in São Paulo and Lisbon, book chapters, and illustrations for the bilingual volume Dada: antologia bilingue de textos teóricos e poemas (Sr. Teste Editions, February 2026).

We are thrilled to have James and Hugo join the MeLCi Lab and look forward to the contributions they will bring to our growing community of researchers and creators.