João Figueiredo has a PhD in High Studies in History (Empire, politics, and post-colonialism) from the University of Coimbra (2016), a PgD in Human Rights from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (2006), and a BA Hons in Anthropology from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (2005). His work focuses on Portuguese colonialism in Angola during the long 19th century from a historical and anthropological perspective. He investigates the interactions between the Portuguese administration and local normative systems, especially the materiality of writing and ethnographic objects played in those entanglements. He has taught and acted as a consultant at the University Jean Piaget Luanda (Angola, 2009) and worked as an anthropologist for the Lamego municipality (2016 - 2018). He has also translated a monograph about Mozambique into Portuguese (2018) and collaborated with the Educational Service of the Douro Museum (2017 - ). As an anti-racist activist, he has collaborated with Djass - Associação de Afrodescendentes and SOS Racismo, contributing to organising events concerning anti-racism, critical museology, and the restitution of African objects and human remains. He has presented his research findings at several international conferences, most recently the European Conference on African Studies (2023), the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (2022), and the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) 4th Biennial Conference (2022). He has written several book chapters and peer-reviewed articles for journals such as Postcolonial Studies (H Index 19), South African Historical Journal (H Index 15), Cadernos de Estudos Africanos (H Index 5) or Social Sciences and Missions (H Index 3). He is working on his first monograph, "Sorcery and Jurisdiction in Angola."