Boaventura
de Sousa
Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra (Portugal), and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned an LL.M and J.S.D. from Yale University and holds the Degree of Doctor of Law, Honoris Causa, by McGill University.
He is Director Emeritus of the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra and has written and published widely on the issues of globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, social movements and the World Social Forum. His books have been published in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French, German, Chinese, Danish, Romanian, Polish, and Korean.
His most recent project – ALICE: Strange Mirrors, Unsuspected Lessons: Leading Europe to a New Way of Sharing the World Experiences – was funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council, one of the most prestigious and highly competitive international financial institutes for scientific excellence in Europe.
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He has been awarded several prizes, most recently Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement 2022, by the Caribbean Philosophical Association; Science and Technology Prize of Mexico, 2010; the Kalven Jr. Prize of the Law and Society Association, 2011.
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Among his many books in English:
Author
Law and the Epistemologies of the South (Cambridge University Press, 2023); Decolonising the University. The Challenge of Deep Cognitive Justice (Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Paperback Edition, 2021); Toward a New Legal Common Sense. Law, Globalization, and Emancipation - 3rd Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2020); The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South. (Duke University Press, 2018); Decolonising the University. The Challenge of Deep Cognitive Justice (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017); If God Were a Human Rights Activist (Stanford University Press, 2015); Epistemologies of the South. Justice against Epistemicide (Paradigm Publishers, 2014); The Rise of the Global Left. The World Social Forum and Beyond (Zed Books, 2006. Also published in Chinese by Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2013); Toward a New Legal Common Sense. Law, globalization, and emancipation (Butterworths, 2002. Also published in Chinese by Cambridge University Press & China Renmin University Press, 2009); Toward a New Common Sense: Law, Science and Politics in the Paradigmatic Transition (Routledge, 1995).
Edited or co-edited books
(Co-edited with Sara Araújo and Orlando Aragon) Decolonizing Constitutionalism Beyond False or Impossible Promises (Routledge, 2024); (Co-edited with Bruno Sena Martins) The Pluriverse of Human Rights: The Diversity of Struggles for Dignity. (Routledge, 2021); (Co-edited with José Manuel Mendes) Demodiversity: Toward Post-Abyssal Democracies. Toward Post-Abyssal Democracies (Routledge, 2020); (Co-edited with Maria Paula Meneses) Knowledges Born in the Struggle. Constructing the Epistemologies of the Global South (Routledge, 2019); (Ed.) Voices of the World (Verso, 2010); (Co-edited with Conceição Gomes, Madalena Duarte and Maria Ioannis Baganha) Trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Portugal (Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género, 2009); (Ed.) Another Knowledge is Possible. Beyond Northern Epistemologies (Verso, 2007); (Ed.) Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledge for a Decent Life (Lexington, 2007); (Ed.) Another Production is Possible. Beyond the Capitalist Canon (Verso, 2006); (Co-edited with João Carlos Trindade and Maria Paula Meneses) Law and Justice in a Multicultural Society. The Case of Mozambique (CODESRIA, 2006); (Ed.) Democratizing Democracy. Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon (Verso, 2005); (Co-edited with César Rodríguez-Garavito) Law and Globalization from Below. Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality (Cambridge UP, 2005); (Co-edited with João Arriscado Nunes) Reinventing Democracy. Grassroots Movements in Portugal (Routledge, 2005); (Co-edited with Jane Jenson) Globalizing Institutions: Case Studies in Regulation and Innovation (Ashgate, 2000).
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is also a poet and writes lyrics for rap, as shown in his book Rap Global (Rio de Janeiro, Aeroplano, 2010; Confraria do Vento, 2019).