Possui graduação em História, variante Arqueologia pela Universidade de Coimbra (1984) doutorado em Arqueologia pela Universidade de Coimbra (2000). Atualmente é professora auxiliar da Universidade de Coimbra. Coordenadora Científica do Centro de Estudos Arqueológicos das Universidades de Coimbra e Porto (desde 2002) Directora da Secção de Arqueologia do Departamento de História, Arqueologia e Artes da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra

Ibrahima Thiaw is Professor of Archeology at IFAN, a research institute based at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, where he directs the Archeology Laboratory. His research is focused on the archeology of global encounters, slavery, the slave trade.

Honorary Professor of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. Historian specializing in epigraphic sources for medieval West African history, as well as West African oral traditions and the Timbuktu Chronicles.

Full Professor at the University of São Paulo. Full Professor at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo. Visiting Professor at Harvard Universities (Senior Visiting Professor CAPES-Harvard). Specialist in Tropical Archeology.