Maria Puala MENESES is a Principal researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), 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, at 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 focuses 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 academic and activist activities seek ways to decolonize knowledge and contribute towards the Epistemologies of the South. At, the CES Maria Paula Meneses has developed several research projects and teaches in two PhD programs, namely Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship and Human Rights in the 21st 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.
https://ces.uc.pt/en/ces/pessoas/investigadoras-es/maria-paula-meneses