Renato Lessa

(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1954). Professor of Political Theory at the Fluminense Federal University (Brazil) and researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, also in Brazil, he has been Director of Studies at the Department of Art History and Theory at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. He is presently an associate researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon, and director of the Instituto Ciência Hoje (Science Today Institute), Brazil. He is president of the management committees of the Pro-Africa and Social Sciences programmes of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil. Moreover, he is academic coordinator at the Laboratory of Hum(e)an Studies and of the Observatory for Lusophone Countries. In 2006, he was awarded the Medal for Scientific Merit by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil.