I am a political scientist (Ph.D.), and currently, a Post-Doctoral Fellow funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with a double affiliation CIES-ISCTE / University of Mannheim – Chair of Comparative Government, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Konstanz. Previously I worked in several other institutions like the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, the University of Mannheim, the Open University, the Lisbon University Institute, CIES and the University of Évora, CISA-AS. I was a Research Visiting Scholar at the New York University, at the University of Mannheim and the University of Barcelona. I am an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History – New University of Lisbon. I obtained my Doctorate in Political Science (specialization in Comparative Politics) from the University of Lisbon – Institute of Social Science. I also hold a Master’s Degree and a University Degree (Licenciatura), both pre-Bologna, in Political Science from the Technical University of Lisbon – ISCSP. My research is inter-disciplinary and centers on political institutions; comparative politics and comparative political economy; EU; legislative behaviour and decision-making; public policy analysis; political accountability and corruption. In my PhD dissertation entitled: Government’s Decision: A Theoretical and Empirical Study on Legislative Initiative as Strategic Behaviour, I developed and tested a formal model of legislative decision-making. There I show, with original data from Portugal (1982-2009), that majority status changes the strategic decisions of Governments towards law proposals. My work is published, among others, in West European Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, Crime, Law and Social Change, Rowman & Littlefield – Lexington Books, Nação e Defesa, Bertrand.

Ana concluded her PhD in political and social sciences in 2011 at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence. Since 2011, she has worked as an assistant professor at the ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon University Institute) and as a researcher at the Centre for Sociological Studies and Research, Lisbon University Institute (CIES-IUL). Prior to starting her PhD, she worked as a research assistant at the ICS (2002-2005), as a guest junior researcher at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB, 2005-2006), and as a junior researcher at Complutense University in Madrid (2007). Between January and March 2011, she worked as a teaching assistant at the University of London, Birkbeck College. Furthermore, Ana holds an undergraduate degree in sociology (2001) and a master’s degree in political science (2006) – both of these from the ISCTE. Her main research interests are gender and politics, comparative politics, political representation, electoral systems, and methodology and data analysis. She has been part of various national and international research projects focusing on these and other topics at the ICS, CIES-IUL, EUI, and University of California, San Diego (USA). She is the author and co-author of several book chapters and articles in prestigious journals, such as West European Politics, Electoral Studies e a Party Politics. Her work has been presented at several national and international conferences, including APSA, MPSA, and ECPR.

 Ana Maria Belchior is an associate professor, with aggregation, in the Department of Political Science and Public Policies at ISCTE-IUL (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) in Lisbon, and senior researcher at CIES-IUL. She is currently the coordinator of the Master in Political Science, both at ISCTE-IUL. She has been involved in research on several projects related to the themes of democracy and globalization, political participation, democratic representation, political congruence, and electoral pledges and decision-making. She has published her findings in books and book chapters, and in diverse national and international journals (eg. Comparative Political Studies, International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Sociological Methods & Research, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, or The Journal of Legislative Studies).  

Ana Mónica Fonseca is Assistant Professor at the Department of History at Iscte and, since 2022, director of the Center for International Studies at Iscte. Since January 2022, she has been the Director of the Master’s in Modern and Contemporary History and, between September 2019 and September 2023, Sub-Director of the Masters in International Studies. She is an integrated researcher at the Center for International Studies at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL), having been an elected member of its Scientific Committee between 2016 and 2022. Between 2006 and 2015 she was a research assistant (2006-2011) and researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IPRI-NOVA). She completed her Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary History in 2011 at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) with a thesis entitled "«The carnations need water now!» German Social Democracy and the Portuguese transition to Democracy (1974-1976)", which received the Honorable Mention of the Vitor de Sá Prize for Contemporary History 2012 and also the Honorable Mention of the Mário Soares-EDP Foundation Prize 2012. Her M.A. dissertation in History of International Relations (ISCTE-IUL), which received the Fundação Mário Soares Award in 2006, was published in 2007: A Força das Armas: The support of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Estado Novo (1958-1968) [Lisbon: MNE-ID, 2007]. Her research areas focus on transitions to democracy in Southern Europe, Portuguese-German relations during the Cold War and European social democracy, and the promotion of democracy. She has published regularly in national and international journals (Journal of European Integration History, Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences, Ler História, Relações Internacionais), and participated in several collective works.

Giulia Daniele is Assistant Professor at the History Department of the University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte). She is Deputy Director of the Centre for International Studies (CEI-Iscte) and of the Master in International Studies (MEI) in the same university.  She completed her Ph.D. in Politics, Human Rights and Sustainability under a co-tutelle agreement between the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy) and the University of Exeter (UK) in 2012. She has conducted fieldwork researches across the Middle East and North Africa, especially in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Tunisia. She has also been engaged with international organisations and cooperation projects.  Her main research interests extensively cover the intersection of Middle East politics with a focus on Palestine and Israel, social movements, gender and feminist studies, conflict resolution, settler colonialism, and ethno-national narratives. Her first book is entitled Women, Reconciliation and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Road Not Yet Taken (Routledge, 2014 hardcover and 2018 paperback). Among her latest articles: "Intersectional Politics and Citizen Activism: An Israeli Mizrahi Feminist Lens" (Women's Studies International Forum, 2023), "Mizrahi Jews and the Zionist Settler Colonial Context: Between Inclusion and Struggle" (Settler Colonial Studies, 2020), "Political and Social Protests From The Margins: The Role of Mizrahi Jews in Israeli Grassroots Activism" (Etnográfica, 2019).

I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte-IUL) and Integrated Researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (Cies-IUL). Since 2020, I have been the co-coordinator of the Research Group on 'Politics and Citizenship'  and the Deputy-Director of the Observatory of Democracy and Political Representation (both at CIES-Iscte). I was co-charing the Social Movements RN of the Council of European Studies, being now a board-member. Between 2018 and 2022 I coordinated the FCT funded research project HOPES - HOusing PErspectives and Struggles. Futures of housing movements, policies and dynamics in Lisbon and beyond (230,000 €). My main areas of interest are social movements, right to the city and to housing, gentrification and tourism, digital activism and participation, protest and politics, democratization. I have published articles in journals including Housing Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, Partecipazione e Conflitto, Current Sociology, Mobilization, Social Movement Studies, Journal of Contemporary Religion, West European Politics, Estudos Ibero-Americanos, Democratization, Cultures et Conflits, Análise Social, Storia e Problemi Contemporanei, Historein. My monography 'The Revolution before the Revolution' and the book I co-edited with Olivier Fillieule 'Social Movement Studies in Europe' were both published in 2016 by Berghahn. I have been teaching courses on social movements, democracy, citizenship, political culture and digital era.   

João Terrenas is Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of History, School of Public Policy, ISCTE-IUL and Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Beira Interior, where he is also the Director of the Masters in International Relations. He completed a PhD at the Department of Politics, University of York (2015-2020). He was Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of York (2016-2018) and Junior Visiting Fellow at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (2018) in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduating in International Relations at ISCSP-ULisboa (2011-2014), he completed an MA in Security Studies at Aberystwyth University (2014-2015).

Pedro Seabra is an Assistant Professor at Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon and Deputy Director of the Center for International Studies (CEI-Iscte). He holds a PhD in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations from the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS, ULisboa). Between April 2022 and April 2024, he worked as an Adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of National Defence of the XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal. Previously, he was a Researcher at the National Defence Institute (IDN), a Nuclear Security Fellow at the School of International Relations-Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), a SUSI Fellow of the US State Department and a Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellow of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). In 2022 he was selected as a Paris Young Defence Leader by the Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'Ecole Militaire (IRSEM) and as Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund of the US (GMF). In 2019 he was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of International Relations-University of Brasília, Brazil (IREL-UnB) and at Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII). Between 2013 and 2016, he was a Visiting Researcher at IREL-UnB, at the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, University of Pretoria, South Africa (GovInn-UP) and at ICS, ULisboa. His main research interests focus on international relations, international security, South Atlantic geopolitics, and security capacity-building in Africa and his publications verse on such topics as well as on Brazilian and Portuguese foreign and defense policy, Africa and Lusophone countries.