Miguel Sopas de Melo Bandeira was born in Porto and came to Braga in 1962.
He is an Associate Professor with aggregation in the Department of Integrated Studies of Literacy, Didactics and Supervision on the Institute of Education at the University of Minho. He graduated in Geography from the University of Porto (1982), completed his master's degree at the University of Coimbra (1993) and has a PhD in Human Geography (2002), with aggregation from the University of Minho in 2015.
In 1989 he began his career as a trainee assistant, working in the training of secondary school teachers, kindergarten teachers and primary school teachers. He was a lecturer at the Institute of Social Sciences at UMinho, where he held the position of President (2011-2013) and Vice-President (2003-2010). He participated in the process of creating the Architecture degree at the University of Minho, where he taught until 2021, having been part of its first scientific board. He was also involved in the foundation of the Geography and Planning degree.
He has taught in several undergraduate and post-graduate courses, integrating master's and doctoral orientations and juries in several universities, in areas as distinct as: urbanism, architecture, history, geography, sociology, communication sciences, spatial planning, cultural heritage, cultural studies, engineering, environmental and educational sciences, teacher training, cartography and art history. As an author and lecturer, he is frequently invited to be a preface writer, to present books and to participate in multiple debates and public events.
He is the President of the Cultural Council of the University of Minho, and a member of the Lusíadas Studies Center and of the Academic Senate of UMinho.
He has been elected for several representative positions at UMinho, such as Representative of Professors in the Statutory Assembly of the University. He has been involved in several post-graduation protocols of UMinho for teacher training in Mozambique, Timor and Angola. He is an expert for A3ES - Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education, where his participation in assessment panels of programs of the University of Lisbon stands out.
He was a member of the Board of the National Geography Commission; he was part of the first National Board of the Association of Geography Teachers, of which he was a founding member and the first representative in the Northern Region of the country; founder of the Centre for Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT) - with the Universities of Coimbra, Porto and Minho - where he integrated the research line "Cities, Competitiveness and Welfare" and the group - P3DT - Public Policies, Planning and Spatial Planning. He is also a collaborating researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS-UMinho), since 2006.
He was Secretary General of the Foundation CEER-Centro de Estudos Euroregionais Norte de Portugal/Galiza (CEER), a Galician institution of public interest.
In civic life he held the public positions of Councillor of Braga City (2013-2021), with the Executive Departments of: heritage, planning and zoning, urbanism, urban regeneration, mobility and relationship with universities. He was Vice-President of the Strategic Council for Heritage and Urban Regeneration of the municipality of Braga (2019-2021). He is currently a member of the Braga Municipal Housing Council, having also held positions in the governing bodies and administration of several Municipal Companies (Biblioteca Lúcio Craveiro da Silva, Theatro Circo, BragaHabit - Habitação Social, and Transportes Urbanos de Braga, having been Chairman of the Board of Directors in the latter two corporations). He was President of the Municipal Transport Authority, Vice-President of the Strategic Council for Patrimonial and Urban Regeneration, and of the General Assembly of the NGO - "Quadrilátero Urbano". He represented Braga in several projects of the Association of Northwest Peninsular Cities - Eixo Atlântico, where today he is accredited as an expert.
Representing the Municipality of Braga, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Association of Municipalities with Historic Centre, having earned a commendation in this function and was also founder of the Association of Municipalities of Roman Portugal. He integrated two European programmes of the URBACT network: CityMobilNet (2016-2018) and UrbanRegenerationMix (2018-2021) and participated in the creation of the Atlantic Roman Cities Network-ATLANTIACA. He was also President of the Association "Roman Routes Heritage in Europe - Cooperation Network (Iteromanum)", having become part of the Scientific Council.
He is associated with ASPA - Association for the Defence, Study and Promotion of Cultural and Natural Heritage (Braga), having been its president and leader (1991-2013). He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bracara Augusta Foundation, composed by the Braga Municipality, UMinho, the Catholic University and the Cabido da Sé Primacial, since 2019, being Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2013-2019).
He usually publishes in the media, namely Jornal de Notícias (2003/2004), Público (2002), Diário do Minho (1994/2017) and Rádio Universitária do Minho, where he was a regular contributor and a weekly columnist (2008/2013).
As part of his education and personal development, it is important to note that he studied at the schools Sá de Miranda (Braga) and António Nobre (Porto), and that he was a Secondary School teacher between 1982 and 1988 in Porto, Gaia and Braga. He did his Mandatory Military Service in the Army, in the Military Engineering and Infantry Weapons, as a militia officer.
He was founder and first Chief of the Water-Polo Section of the University Sports Centre of Porto - CDUP and was President of the University Theatre of Porto.
