Patrícia Martinho Ferreira holds a B.A. in Modern Languages and Literatures (2005) and a M.A. in Theory and Narrative Analysis (2009) from University of Coimbra (Portugal), an M.Ed. in Teaching Portuguese as Foreign and Second Language from University of Porto (Portugal), and a Ph.D. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies (2018) from Brown University.

Previously, she held positions at UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell. Prior to that she served as the Director of the Camões Lectureship at University of Bucharest and at Georgetown University where she taught Portuguese language and Lusophone cultures, and curated academic and cultural events. 

Her work has been published in Hispania, Transmodernity, and the Journal of Lusophone Studies, among other venues. She has co-edited the volume 40 (June 2019) of Cadernos de Literatura Comparada, “Transatlantic Voices: The Literary Atlantic in Perspective” and the special issue “I Am Embedded in a History of Imposed Silences. Decolonial Luso-African Literary and Artistic Practices” for the Journal of Lusophone Studies (2023).

She is the author of Órfãos do Império. Heranças Coloniais na Literatura Portuguesa Contemporânea (Lisboa-ICS, 2021) which explores the literary trope of the orphan in contemporary fiction that constitutes a critical revisiting of Portuguese colonialism in Africa and the consequences of the decolonization process as they relate to a renegotiation of cultural identity. The association between the orphan and the end of the colonial empire is pertinent when considering that this figure represents a rupture with notions of being, particularly home, nation, discourse, and writing. 

Currently, she is working on literary and filmic analyses under the theoretical framework of sound studies. This book project (tentatively titled Modes of Listening in Lusophone Literatures and Film) posits that acoustic elements are employed in fiction and film as a means of responding to and critiquing social, political, economic and ecological crises.