Mara Clemente is a sociologist. She holds a PhD in Theory and Social Research from Sapienza University of Rome, with research on tourism and sex market in the Caribbean, which involved an empirical study in the Dominican Republic. Through taking an international research path, Mara deals with questions involving gender, sexuality and different forms of mobility - from movements with the aim of recreation to labour migration, including issues related to “refuge” and “human trafficking”. 

She is an integrated researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, and for the last few years Mara, has dedicated special attention to “human trafficking” and counter-trafficking, first with research on processes of assistance for trafficked people in Portugal and, subsequently, a project dedicated to the construction of counter-trafficking systems in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain and Italy). 

Mara is currently Vice-chair of the Cost Action “Globalization, Illicit Trade, Sustainability and Security”, Co-Coordinator of the Thematic Section of APS Globalization, Politics and Citizenship and member of the Coordination Committee of STS-MigTec Network. 

She is the author of publications in journals such as Social and Legal Studies, Dialectical Anthropology and International Review of Sociology. Among the recent publications is the book, The Immobility Turn: Mobility, Migration and the COVID-19 Pandemic, co-authored with David Cairns, published by Bristol University Press in 2023.