Niedja de Andrade e Silva Forte dos Santos is a jurist and interdisciplinary researcher whose work bridges international relations, law, public policy and management. She holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP) at the University of Lisbon and is pursuing a Ph.D. in law at the University of Coimbra. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law and an MBA, and is admitted to the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB).
Based in Portugal, she is a researcher at the University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR) and the Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies (CAPP) at the University of Lisbon. Her research examines public diplomacy, city diplomacy, corporate diplomacy, anticorruption, democracy and governance, with particular attention to the relationship between governance and international engagement. Her work also explores the diplomatic and normative dimensions of anticorruption, global governance, international cooperation and corporate governance.
She is the author of Anticorruption Public Diplomacy: A Comparative Perspective on Denmark, New Zealand, the United States and South Korea, published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of its Global Public Diplomacy series (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-28668-0). Her peer-reviewed articles and book chapters have appeared with academic publishers including Palgrave Macmillan, Edward Elgar, Routledge, Taylor & Francis and Mare & Martin. She has presented at international conferences, including those of the International Studies Association (ISA) and the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
Her academic work is informed by professional experience in Brazil’s private and public sectors. Before pursuing academia full time, she worked in management, corporate diplomacy and institutional relations. She also served as Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Director of Economic Innovation for the Municipality of Santos, Brazil, leading initiatives in innovation, economic development, the creative economy, city diplomacy and international cooperation. She served as a cluster coordinator within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and advised on city diplomacy initiatives in China. This combination of academic and professional experience gives her work an interdisciplinary, policy-relevant and practice-oriented perspective.
