Reinaldo Cordova

The beginnings of my academic career took place in Brazil; however, after completing my degree in History, the opportunity arose to pursue a master's degree —formerly known as the DEA— in Spain, thus continuing the research for my doctoral thesis. I decided to leave my position as a teacher and move to Spain in order to conduct research at the University of Murcia.

My interest focused on the history of the Catholic institution, the Church, though with a more political than religious approach. My aim was to understand how the Church's discursive and power structure could be configured as an influential element in the decisions of both states and individuals.

In my early publications, one can observe the intention to identify in the Church's proposed demographic policy a strategy for legitimizing its power. As I deepened my understanding of the roles adopted by this institution —which we could consider a pioneer in the field of geopolitics— I was able to envision other forms of power constitution.

Research on the family, demography, and power structures in the contemporary period allowed me to perceive some of today's challenges (political, border-related, migratory, violent, etc.) from a historical perspective — some even of long duration. Currently, my research focuses on phenomena directly related to the challenges arising from the transformation of power structures, which result in problems on a human level. For this reason, I am particularly interested in Human Security, as it involves understanding problems beyond political-bureaucratic actions.

My professional experience has spanned nearly all levels of the educational system. I have been a secondary school, high school, and university teacher, which allows me to view teaching as a process of collaboration, continuous feedback, and constant review of protocols and outcomes. I believe that each educational stage requires a specific approach from the educator, but in all of them the need to foster self-learning and the use of the scientific method to solve problems stands out. For this reason, I have developed scientific initiation programs for high school students and devote a significant portion of my teaching time to supervising academic and scientific research, with special emphasis on the preparation of master's theses.

I currently have the honor of directing the Master’s in Security, Defense, and Leadership at the International University Isabel I. Among my main objectives in leading this program is ensuring that students have access to the necessary resources to carry out high-quality research, applying research techniques and methods to the topics they address in their master’s theses.

Given the importance I attach to both research and teaching, I chaired the scientific committee and co-organized, together with colleagues, the Congress on Security, Defense, and Leadership held at Isabel I University in 2023. This event met all the initially established standards of quality and attendance. Building on the experience gained, we are currently organizing the next edition of the congress for the upcoming academic year, with even more ambitious goals.

As of 2025, I am the Dean of the Faculty of Criminology, where I lead projects aimed at increasing research output and knowledge transfer. I promote publications, the organization of academic conferences, and the signing of agreements with various academic, military, and business institutions, among others.

I understand that technical and professional training is an essential demand, but I also see it as a key component of self-fulfillment. For this reason, I continue my training in English, am pursuing a second degree, and am preparing for a research stay within an R&D&I project — all while remaining active in academic publishing and other activities relevant to the role of a university lecturer and researcher.