Rafaela Ferraz is an author and independent researcher.

With a degree in Criminology and a Master’s in Forensic Medicine, she is a co-autor of Death and Funeral Practices in Portugal (Routledge, 2022) and the author of Portugal de Morte a Sul (Quetzal, 2025).

She has written for Atlas Obscura, History Today, and Hyperallergic, among others; in Portugal, she has contributed to magazines Almanaque and Shifter.

She is interested in emerging funeral practices, the cemetery as a site of perpetuating inequality, and the display of human remains in religious, cultural, and/or museum contexts.

She manages the Museu das Pagelas, a project dedicated to digitizing funeral cards (mainly Portuguese) dating from 1900 to 1985.