Jean Liyongo Empengele is a teacher at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he obtained his doctorate in sociology, after basic training in "Sociology & Anthropology" at the University of Lubumbashi.

Affiliated with several learned societies including the International Association of French-speaking Sociologists (AISLF), and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), he is a member of Steering Commitee of INGSA-Afrca.

His main fields of research are: Media, information and public opinion; Popular culture; Political governance in postcolonial Africa; Security governance in the region of the great African lakes.