Boaventura de Sousa Santos is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra (Portugal), and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Director Emeritus of the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra. He earned an LL.M and J.S.D. from Yale University and holds the Degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, by McGill University. His most recent project - ALICE: Leading Europe to a New Way of Sharing the World Experiences - was funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), one of the most prestigious and highly competitive international financial institutes for scientific excellence in Europe (http://alice.ces.uc.pt/en/). He has written and published widely on the issues of globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, social movements and the World Social Forum in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French, German, Chinese, Danish, Romanian and Polish.>FURTHER 

Bruno Sena Martins is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (CES/UC). He is co-coordinator of the Doctoral Programme "Human Rights in Contemporary Societies". He was Vice-President of CES Scientific Board (2017-2019) and co-coordinator of the Research Group on Democracy, citizenship and law (2013-2016). He lectures in the PhD Programmes: "Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship"" (FEUC/CES) and "Human Rights in Contemporary Societies" (CES/IIIUC). His research interests include body, disability, human rights, racism and colonialism. He was a member of the coordinating team of the project ALICE - Strange Mirrors, Unexpected Lessons, directed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and funded by the European Research Council (2011-2016).>FURTHER

Cristiano Gianolla is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, where he is part of the research unit on Democracy, Citizenship and Law. He obtained a PhD in Sociology and Political Science by way of a dissertation on Gandhi's democratic theory and a comparative study of emerging political parties in India and Italy. Cristiano is the Principal Investigator of the UNPOP project (FCT, 2021-2024) and is a team member of the ECHOES (H2020, 2018-2021) and ALICE (ERC, 2011-2016) European projects. He is a founding member of the "Inter-Thematic group on Migrations" and co-coordinates the research group "Epistemologies of the South" at CES. He is coordinating editor of the Alice News, editor of e-cadernos scientific journal and Rightsblog, and a referee for other scientific journals. Cristiano coordinates the PhD course "Democratic Theories and Institutions", the MA course "Critical Intercultural Dialogue" (both at the Faculty of Economics of the UC), and the virtual course "The Challenges to Democracy in the XXI Century" (Latin American Council of Social Sciences). He has authored two books, and various articles and chapters elaborating on democratic theory, populism, postcolonialism, intercultural dialogue, heritage processes, movement-parties, citizenship, human rights, migrations, and cosmopolitanism. His current research interests focus on emotions and narratives in democratic processes.>FURTHER

João Arriscado Nunes is Full Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics and Senior Researcher at the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal, of which he was Executive Director (1998-2000). He is co-coordinator of the Doctoral Program "Governance, Knowledge and Innovation) and a member of the Advisory Council of the Portuguese Sociological Association. He was a member of the coordinating team of the project ALICE - Strange Mirrors, Unexpected Lessons, directed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and funded by the European Research Council (2011-2016). In 2011-2012, he was Visiting Researcher at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research interests include social studies of science and technology (namely social studies of biomedicine, health and the life sciences and public engagement with science and technology), political sociology (democracy and participation), Human Rights and social theory. >FURTHER

José Manuel Mendes holds a PhD in Sociology by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, where he is an Associate Professor with Habilitation. He is also researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, where he has been working in the fields of risk and social vulnerability, planning, public policies and citizenship. He is coordinator of the Risk Observatory (OSIRIS) of the Centre for Social Studies and is the Editor in Chief of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais.>FURTHER

Maria Paula Meneses is a Principal researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. A Mozambican scholar, she did her graduate studies in Russia (MA in History from St. Petersburg University) and obtained her PhD in the USA, by Rutgers University. In 2009 she was a visiting scholar at EHSS, Paris. Currently she is the Vice-President for Scientific activities at CES. Her research focus on the political history and socio-legal complexity of southern Africa, especially in Mozambique, Angola and South Africa. At the heart of her interests are the relations between knowledge, power and societies. Paying special attention to people who experienced the violence of the colonial encounter her academics and activist activities seek ways to decolonize knowledge and contribute towards the Epistemologies of the South. At the CES Maria Paula Meneses develops several research projects and teaches in two PhD programs, namely Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship and Human Rights in the 21st th century. Internationally she co-coordinates, with Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Karina Bidaseca, CES-CLACSO e-learning specialization course on Epistemologies of the South. Her work has been published in journals, books and reports in several countries, including Mozambique, Spain, Portugal, Senegal, USA, England, Germany, Colombia, amid others.>FURTHER

Sara Araújo is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies and invited assistant professor in sociology at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She got a PhD in Sociology of Law with a thesis on legal pluralism and Epistemologies of the South. She was a member of the coordinating team of the Alice project (B. S. Santos ERC Advanced Grant), currently transformed into the Research Programme in Epistemologies of the South. She is cocoordinator of the PhD Programme "Sociology of the State, law and justice" and of the Epistemologies of the South Summer School. She was part of the Permanent Observatory for Portuguese Justice (2003-2005), member of the research team of the Legal and Judicial Training Centre of Mozambique (2005-2006), associate researcher at the Centre for African Studies-Eduardo Mondlane University (2008-2010). Her research interests include legal pluralism, the state, post-abyssal judicial cartographies, human rights and interculturality, popular education, ecology of knowledges and ecology of justices. She has fieldwork experience in Portugal, Mozambique and East-Timor. In 2008 she was awarded with the prize Agostinho da Silva (Lisbon Academy of Sciences). >FURTHER

Teresa Cunha holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Coimbra. She is a senior researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra where she lectures in several PhD Courses; co-coordinates the publication 'Oficina do CES', and the Gender Workshop Series and the Research Program 'Epistemologies of the South. She coordinates the Advanced School 'Feminist Ecologies of Knowledges'. She is an associated-professor at the College of Education of the Polytechnic College Coimbra and an associate researcher at CODESRIA and the Center for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. In 2017, the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste awarded her with the Order of Timor-Leste. Her research interests are feminisms and postcolonialisms; other feminist economies and women's economies; post war transition, peace and memories; women's human rights in the Indian Ocean space. She has published several scientific books and articles in several countries and languages of which stand out: Women InPower Women. Other economies created and led by women from the non-imperial south; Never Trust Sindarela. Feminisms, Postcolonialisms, Mozambique and Timor-Leste; Essays for Democracy. Justice, dignity and good-living; They in the South and North; Women's Voices of Timor; Timor-Leste: Chronicle of an Observation of Courage; Feto Timor Nain Hitu - Seven Women of Timor; Walking Through Other Paths and Roots of Participation.>FURTHER