María Elia Gutiérrez Mozo holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Navarra (1992) and a PhD in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) (1999). She is Professor of Architectural Composition in the Department of Graphic Expression, Composition and Projects at the University of Alicante (UA), where, since 2003, she has been teaching undergraduate, Master’s and PhD courses. She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Lisbon (2010 and 2014), at the University of Lima (2015) and at the ENSA of Nantes (2016 and 2019), and also at the UPM as part of the UNESCO Chair in Gender Equality Policies in Science, Technology and Innovation (first semesters of 2022 and 2023 and all of 2024).

Her line of research, also developed at the UA Institute for Gender Studies Research, combines proximity and necessity, social issues, cooperation and participation with the gender perspective and sustainability, and is characterised by a qualitative, sensitive and contextualised approach to the topics of study. She is the principal investigator of the project “Miradas situadas: arquitectura de mujer en España desde perspectivas periféricas, 1978-2008” [“A situated view: women’s architecture in Spain from peripheral approaches, 1978-2008”], awarded to established research teams and funded by the Valencia Region Government (2021-2023) (AICO/2021/163). She is the head of the winning team of the third edition of the Lilly Reich Scholarship for Equality in Architecture of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona with the project “Anna Bofill Levi. La arquitectura como contracanto: 1977-1996” [“Anna Bofill Levi. Architecture as a counter-melody: 1977-1996”]. She has participated in seven competitive research projects (and led three) and nine research contracts (and led seven). She has been a member of scientific committees of conferences and is a regular reviewer for research journals.

Her research team has been recognised in the fourth and sixth editions of the Urbanism, Mobility, Landscape, Housing and Architecture with a Gender Perspective Awards of the Valencia Region Government (2020 and 2022); the 15th Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (2021); the 2022 EAHN Award for Best Publication 2020-2021; the 13th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (2024); the first and second editions of the Castilla La Mancha Architecture and Urbanism Awards (2022 and 2024); the Architecture Awards of the CSCAE (2023 and 2024); and the REDS-SDSN Spain (2024).

She directs the UA’s Research Group in Architecture: Experiences of the Environment. She is a member of the academic committee of the following PhD programmes: PhD Programme in Materials, Structures and Geotechnical Engineering: Sustainable Construction; Interuniversity Programme in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (both at the UA); and PhD Programme in Architecture, Design, Fashion & Society at the UPM. She has three 6-year research activity periods recognised by the Spanish Committee for Research Activity Assessment (CNEAI), as well as a 6-year knowledge transfer period. She has supervised six doctoral theses, two of which have received the Special Doctoral Award. With three 5-year teaching periods recognised, she has obtained an overall rating of “Highly satisfactory” in the UA Docentia programme for teaching assessment. She served as coordinator of the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism between 2006 and 2012, coordinator of University Development Cooperation Projects in Lima between 2015 and 2017 and director of the UA Campus Development Office between 2013 and 2020.