Ana Maria Santos holds a degree in History (2015) and a Master’s in History, International Relations and Cooperation (2020) from the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto. In her Master’s thesis, she analysed the religious practice and discourse of a neo-Pentecostal church – the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus – in the face of the 2010-2014 financial crisis and the subsequent austerity policies in the Portuguese context.

Her current research interests are in the sociology, history, and anthropology of religion, with a particular focus on Christian groups (mainly Evangelical and Roman Catholic) and how religious discourse and practice are affected by shifting trends in global politics and economics towards a neoliberal paradigm. More recently, she has developed research on the intersection of religion and health, particularly how religious rituals such as prayer and exorcism are understood as pathways to individual experiences of healing.