Emerson Heleno da Cruz

Emerson Heleno da Cruz (Emerson Vicente-Cruz), PhD, is a historian (2005) graduated from the State University of Londrina (UEL), Brazil. In Spain, he completed a postgraduate specialization in ExpressionCommunication, Languages, and Interculturality in Socio-Educational Practice (2009) at the University of Barcelona (UB), where he also earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology (2014), a Master's degree in Psychosocial Intervention (2014), and a PhD in Social and Organizational Psychology (2020). These academic degrees were officially recognized in 2020 by the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), allowing him to register with the Regional Psychology Council of São Paulo (CRP 06/166291). In 2020, he completed his first postdoctoral fellowship, focused on academic teaching, at the University of Barcelona. In 2022, he concluded a second postdoctoral fellowship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. He is currently conducting research on strategies for addressing homophobic bullying in schools in the Global South (Brazil, Nicaragua, and Mexico) and in Europe (Spain), at the Department of Social Psychology of São Paulo State University (UNESP), campus Assis. A specialist in Social Psychology and Education, he served as an associate professor in both undergraduate and graduate programs at the Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology at UB, from 2015 to 2023. During this period, he taught courses such as Group Psychology and Collective Behavior, Social Psychology, and Psychosocial Intervention with a Gender Perspective (LGBT+ topics). He also taught in Psychology and Education programs at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), where he delivered courses such as Group Processes and Collective Action, Strategies and Contexts of Social Intervention, and Social Assessment and Intervention. At UOC, he additionally contributed to the techno-pedagogical design and co-authorship of didactic materials related to Group Psychology and Collective Action. He collaborates with various national and international research groups. His research areas include anti-bullying policies, psychosocial intervention and evaluation with LGBT+ populations, ethnic preferences and racial-ethnic prejudice from childhood through adolescence, gender-based violence and recovery processes, psychological abuse in same-sex relationships, and the construction of masculinity. As a social activist, he has collaborated since 2012 with Stop Sida, one of Barcelonas leading organizations in the fight against HIV/AIDS among socially vulnerable groups, including Latin American male sex workers, trans women sex workers, and Chemsex users. Since 2017, he has also worked with the Observatory Against LGTBIphobia of Catalonia, and since 2022, he has served as the lead social researcher responsible for the annual Report on the State of LGTBIphobia in Catalonia, analyzing the incidents reported to the NGO. In addition, he collaborated as a program specialist at Episteme Investigación, Intervención y Evaluación, focusing on issues related to drug use. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)