Voices of the People – About the Authors

Birgit Embaló is a senior researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa (INEP) in Bissau. She has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Bochum, in Germany, and is the author of several publications on gender and conflict resolution in Guinea-Bissau and Africa.

Carlos Cardoso is the founding director of the Amílcar Cabral Center for Social Studies in Bissau. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the Friedrich Schiller University, in Jena, Germany. Cardoso is the former head of the Research Department at CODESRIA, in Dakar, and director of INEP. He has published extensively on politics and the social sciences in Guinea-Bissau and Africa.

Ismael Sadilú Sanhá is a PhD candidate in Public Policy from the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE), preparing a thesis on security sector reforms in Guinea-Bissau. Sanhá has held several positions in Guinea-Bissau’s public administration and served as a lecturer in different local universities.

Joshua B. Forrest is a professor of Political Science and History at La Roche University in Pittsburgh. He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and authored several books on Guinea-Bissau and Africa, including, Lineages of State Fragility: Rural Civil Society in Guinea-Bissau.

Miguel Carter is the director of DEMOS and the coordinator of the Voices of the People initiative. He has a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in New York and a post doctorate from the University of Oxford. Carter served as lecturer in International Development at American University, in Washington, DC and is the author of several publications on Brazil, Paraguay and Latin America.

Nafiou Inoussa is a senior demographic and statistical consultant and research associate at DEMOS. He has a master’s degree in Demography from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and conducted national surveys for UNICEF and other agencies in several African countries.  

Paulina Mendes is a senior researcher at INEP. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Coimbra and has prepared various reports for international organizations operating in Guinea-Bissau.

Philip J. Havik is principal investigator and lecturer at the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He has a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Leiden and has published widely on colonial and post-colonial governance, development and trade networks, in Guinea-Bissau and other Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

Rui Jorge Semedo is a senior researcher at INEP and Tiniguena, in Bissau, and the Center for African Studies at the University of Porto. He has a master’s degree in Political Science from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), in São Paulo, and is the author of various publications on Bissau-Guinean politics and society.

Toby Green is a Senior Lecturer in Lusophone History and Culture of Africa at King’s College, London. He has a PhD in African Studies from the University of Birmingham and has authored and edited several books on Guinea-Bissau and Africa, including, Guinea-Bissau: Micro-State to ‘Narco-State’, with Patrick Chabal, and A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution.