Raquel is an associate professor at the Departments of Applied Linguistics and Social Communication in Universidade Católica de Pelotas (UCPel) in Brazil. Her research focuses on Internet social networks, virtual communities and computer mediated-communication in general, trying to understand the impact of the Internet in sociability and language in South America and Brazil.

She received her PhD in Communication and Information from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) for her dissertation on "Social Networks in Fotolog.com" in 2006, and has recently published her first book in Portuguese, Internet Social Networks (Redes Sociais na Internet: Sulina, 2009). She also has worked as a research consultant for several companies, including Google and UOL.  

Raquel also maintains a blog on social media (in Portuguese) since 2001.