Joana Vaz Sousa


Biography

Working in different socioenvironmental contexts and at the intersection of ecology and anthropology, have influenced my approach and directed me towards interdisciplinary frameworks. I have a bachelor in Environmental Biology (University of Lisbon) and a PhD in Social Anthropology (Oxford Brookes University), which was followed by a post-doctoral year at the University of Geneva. My research experience was built from opportunities to work in Ecuador, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Portugal. I have deepened my experience in ethnographic research between late 2009 and 2013 while collecting data in rural Guinea-Bissau for my PhD research. My dissertation is entitled "Shape-shifting nature in a contested landscape in Guinea-Bissau", and includes sections on local livelihoods, cosmologies and oral history, perceptions of risk, local understandings of nature and nature conservation, and non-humans in witchcraft and magic. More recently my research interests also include knowledge interfaces and climate change (Kenya and Guinea-Bissau), particularly regarding the tecnology of mangrove rice farming in Guinea-Bissau. I taught at universities in Guinea-Bissau and was involved in the production of a collaborative documentary with farmers in southern Guinea-Bissau, Maboan.


Latest Publications

Book Chapter

Girei, Emanuela; Jimenez, Andrea; Doezema, Tess; Purvis, Ben; Ripa, Maddalena; Sousa, Joana Vaz; Veronese Passerella, Marco; Pansera, Mario; Genovese, Andrea (2024), Decolonizing CE: some reflections ontheory and praxis from the JUST2CE experience, in Renato Passaro, Patrizia Ghisellini, Mario Pansera, Stefania Barca, Martin Calisto Friant (org.), Circular Economy for Social Transformation: Multiple Paths to Achieve Circularity, 92-105

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Article in Scientific journal

Sousa, Joana; Campos, Rita; Mendes, Orlando; Duarte Lopes, Paula; Matias, Madalena; Rosa, Ana Paula; Mendes Fernandes, Raul; Cruz, Cristina; Indjai, Bucar; Infande, Adilson; da Costa, Maira; Salvaterra, Gonçalo; Lourenço, Juelson; Tavares, Dionísio; Camala, Djone; Ainslie, Andrew; Catarino, Luís (2023), "The (dis)engagement of mangrove forests and mangrove rice in academic and non-academic literature on Guinea-Bissau", PLOS ONE, 18, 4, e0284266

Book Chapter

Sousa, Joana Vaz (2022), Farming Rice at the Margins in West Africa [Chapter 12], in Kołodziej-Durnaś, A., Sowa, F., & Grasmeier M. C. (org.), Maritime Spaces and Society. Brill, 223-239

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