Raquel Varela is a historian, researcher and university professor at New University of Lisbon / IHC, where she coordinates the Study Group on Global Labour History /UNL). She is International visiting senior professor at the Fluminense Federal University and honorary fellow of the International Institute for Social History, where she co-coordinates the international project ‘In the Same Boat? Shipbuilding and ship repair workers around the World (1950-2010). She is an international evaluator of CNPQ / Brazil; Vice-Coordinator of the Portuguese Network for the Study of Labour, Labour Movements and Social Movements (RE).

She coordinated the labour network of the European Social Science History Conference in 2012-2014 – ESSHC. In 2013 she was awarded the Santander Prize for Internationalization of Scientific Production and in 2014 was nominated national scientific coordinator of the Historical Itinerary of 25 April 1974 – National Official Celebrations.

Raquel Varela is the author of 10 books, editor of 13 books and the author of 58 chapters in books, both nationally and internationally published. She authored 44 articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals. She is a member of the editorial board of a peer-reviewed international history journal (Workers of the World. International Journal on Strikes and Social Conflicts, Campinas, Amsterdam), and referee for several international journals.

She is the president (2 mandates 2011-2013; 2013-2015) of the academic association International Association Strikes and Social Conflicts. Her main areas of interest are global labour history, history of labour relations, and contemporary history of Portugal.