In Memory of Danielle Barbosa Lins de Almeida: Scholar, Mentor, and Friend
It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing of our dear colleague and former doctoral student, Danielle Barbosa Lins de Almeida, after a courageous battle with a severe form of cancer.
Danielle was a distinguished alumna of the Postgraduate Program in English at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, where she earned both her Master’s and PhD degrees. She went on to become a full professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and at the Postgraduate Program in Linguistics at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), where she led a dynamic research group in multimodality.
During her doctoral studies, under the supervision of Professor Viviane Herbele, she developed pioneering research in Visual Semiotics, focusing on multimodality in toys and ludic culture. She collaborated with Professor Louise Ravelli at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and later became a Visiting Scholar at the Universidad de Buenos Aires through a binational CAPES/Brazil project. As an undergraduate, she also took part in an academic exchange at the University of Leeds.
From 2015 to 2024, Danielle held a prestigious research grant from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Her academic contributions include two authored books on visual analysis and several chapters, such as her recent contribution to Multimodality Studies in International Contexts: Contemporary Trends and Challenges (2024). Her articles appeared in respected journals such as Visual Communication, Ilha do Desterro, Linguagem em Foco, and Linguagem em Discurso.
She also served as a regional representative for the North of Brazil at ALSFAL (Associação de Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional da América Latina) and was a member of the editorial boards of Multimodality and Society (SAGE) and Frontiers in Communication. This year, she was preparing to collaborate with Professor Theo van Leeuwen on a project exploring music and multimodality.
Her loss is deeply felt, and her legacy as a scholar, mentor, and friend will remain with us.
