Irene Flunser Pimentel holds a degree in History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, a Master’s in Contemporary History (20th century), and a PhD in Contemporary Institutional and Political History from NOVA University Lisbon. She is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC, NOVA University Lisbon).
She has conducted extensive research on the Estado Novo, the Second World War period, as well as on the condition of women and the political police during the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar and Marcelo Caetano. She is the author and co-author of numerous articles in leading journals and more than twenty books, including From 25 April to 25 November: Lesser-Known Episodes (Temas & Debates, 2024), The Essentials on PIDE (Imprensa Nacional, 2024), PIDE Informers: A Portuguese Tragedy (Círculo de Leitores/Temas & Debates, 2022), and Holocaust (Círculo de Leitores/Temas & Debates, 2020).

Maria Cristina Rodrigues Justino da Silva was born on 10 June 1944 in Sobrena (Cadaval).
At the age of 18, she enrolled at Colégio de São Vicente de Paulo in Lisbon, where she completed her training as a nursing assistant. She began her career at Santa Maria Hospital, working in the departments of medical and surgical pathology.
In 1944, she joined the paratrooper troops, where she completed her training and was promoted to the rank of Paratrooper Nurse Sergeant.
For 10 years, she served at the Military Hospital of Terra Chã (Terceira Island, Azores), as well as in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea, providing care to war casualties in combat zones and accompanying medical evacuations to Lisbon.
In early 1973, on the eve of being placed on reserve, during her final evacuation mission between Nangololo and Mueda (Northern Mozambique), she was struck by a bullet to the head.
After completing her military service, she continued her nursing career at Hospital Particular de Lisboa, where she later headed the emergency department.
She retired at the end of 2008 with a strong sense of duty fulfilled.

Filipa Caetano (Ciência ID FA10-7968-C9D4) is an Integrated Researcher in History, Territories and Communities (HTC – NOVA FCSH / CEF – UC). She is currently a Research Fellow on the project Toy Story: Connecting Portugal’s Industrial Past Through Tinplate Toy Heritage (NOVA FCT, HTC – NOVA FCSH / CFE – UC).
Her Master’s dissertation, entitled Female Mobilisation during the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974): The Phenomenon of Paratrooper Nurses, focuses on analysing the emergence, organisation and participation of this female military corps during the conflict, taking into account the personal, social and gender-related impacts of that participation.
With a dynamic and eclectic research trajectory, her areas of interest include women’s history, the Colonial War, the impact of war on the bodies of combatants, and oral history.