Biography
Inocência Mata has a PhD in Literature from the University of Lisbon and a post-doctorate in Postcolonial Studies (University of California, Berkeley). Mata is currently the deputy director of the Portuguese Department at the University of Macau. She is the Scientific Council president of the ATENA Foundation / Universidade Lusíada de São Tomé e Príncipe and a founding member of UNEAS, the National Union of Writers and Artists of São Tomé and Príncipe. She has published various articles and books with a focus on Portuguese literature and postcolonial studies, among them Literatura Angolana: Silêncios e Falas de Uma Voz Inquieta (2001), Laços de Memória & Outros Ensaios sobre Literatura Angolana (2007), Polifonias Insulares: Cultura e Literatura de São Tomé e Príncipe (2010), Ficção e História na Literatura Angolana (2011), A Rainha Nzinga Mbandi: História, Memória e Mito (2012) and A Literatura Africana e a Crítica Pós-colonial (2013). She has already been distinguished with several prizes, the latest being the PRÉMIO FEMINA 2015.