Beatriz Bissio holds a PhD in history and is currently deputy director of the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Uruguayan-naturalized Brazilian, she worked for more than two decades as a journalist in the international arena, interviewing Nelson Mandela, Agostinho Neto, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat, Samora Machel, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Xanana Gusmão, Julius
Nyerere, General Omar Torrijos, and General Juan Velasco Alvarado. She is the author of O mundo falava árabe (The world spoke Arabic, 2012).
