Conversation of the World II – Valentin Y. Mudimbe and Boaventura de Sousa Santos
This second “Conversation of the World” was held on the 20th of June 2013 at Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra (Portugal) with V. Y. Mudimbe and Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
Valentin Yves Mudimbe was born in Likasi, formerly Jadotville, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is professor of literature, novelist and researcher with a wider international experience. His research interests include phenomenology, structuralism, mythical narratives, and language. He was critical of ethnocentrism in anthropology and of the essentialist conceptions of the African literature. His work had a huge impact on different disciplines as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, linguistics and history. He received his Doctorate “Philosophie et Lettres” from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1970. In 1997 he became Doctor Honoris Causa at Université Paris VII Diderot and in 2006 became Doctor Honoris Causa at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He has a vast experience of teaching and his work is widely published. Currently he is Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature at Duke University.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos was born in Coimbra. He studied law and sociology. He is Professor of Sociology at the University of Coimbra, Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Global Legal Scholar at the University of Warwick. He is Director of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. He has written and published widely on the issues of globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, democracy, interculturality, social movements and the World Social Forum. He has done research in Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau, Mozambique, South Africa, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and India. He has received several international academic prizes and is a recognized activist of the World Social Forum.
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