Born in Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal, Sérgio Dias Branco is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Coimbra, where he directs the MA in Art Studies and coordinates LIPA - Laboratory for Investigating and Practicing Art. He is a researcher at CEIS20 - Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Coimbra and collaborates with the Research Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal and Nova Institute of Philosophy. He has taught at Nova University of Lisbon and the University of Kent, where he was awarded with a MA and a PhD in Film Studies. Presently, his major research project is an investigation into the representation of the theological virtues in contemporary cinema for the MRes in Theology at Durham University. He was President of the Association of Moving Image Researchers between 2018 and 2020 and member of its Direction Board between 2014 and 2020. His research falls within the scientific areas of film, religious, television, and working-class studies. He co-edits Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies. His latest books are Escrita em Movimento: Apontamentos Críticos sobre Filmes [Writing in Motion: Critical Notes on Films] (2020) and O Trabalho das Imagens: Estudos sobre Cinema e Marxismo [The Work of Images: Studies on Cinema and Marxism] (2020).
Since 2014, he is a leader of the Teachers’ Union of the Centre Region, part of the National Federation of Teachers, and was elected for the National Council of the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers - Intersindical and its Executive Board in 2020.
He was admitted as a layman of the Order of Preachers in 2012 and made the perpetual promise in 2017.