Aurora Santos and Duncan Simpson are the next Visiting Professors to join Brown University in the 2023/24 academic year, and will teach courses on contemporary Portugal for one semester in Brown’s Departments of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies.

Professors Aurora Santos and Duncan Simpson* were chosen by the jury to teach a course in the renowned Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at this institution, considered one of the best higher education institutions in the United States. The choice of these two teachers took into account the quality of curricula, the experience of teaching in English and the relevance of the programs of the subjects proposed by the candidates.

The jury was composed of António Costa Pinto, coordinating researcher at Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, full professor and researcher at Brown Universityand Cristiana Bastos, anthropologist and researcher at Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa. Elsa Henriques, FLAD administrator, chaired the jury.

Aurora Almada e Santos is a researcher at Instituto de História Contemporânea da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, where she has devoted herself to the study of the international dimension of Portuguese decolonization. She is the author of several publications, including book chapters and articles in scientific journals and participates, with presentation of papers, in national and international scientific meetings. She also performs other activities such as editing publications, organizing conferences, reviewing articles, and executing research projects.

In the Fall Semester 2023, Aurora Santos will be teaching the course International Solidarity and the Struggle for Independence of Portuguese Colonies which will be based on the role played by international solidarity in combating anti-colonial and anti-racist discourses and in attracting material and non-material resources to liberation movements.

Duncan Simpson has a PhD from King’s College London. Between 2019 and 2021, he was a Marie Curie Fellow at Instituto de Ciências Sociais (ICS), where he worked on the history of the Salazar political police as seen from “below”. As an assistant researcher at the ICS, he is currently developing his research project “Public letter-writing in Salazar’s Portugal (1933-1974)”, funded by the FCT. His latest book is entitled “Tenho o prazer de informar o Senhor Director…”: Cartas de Portugueses à PIDE (1958-1968) (Lisbon: Bookbuilders, 2022). He has taught several contemporary history courses in France and Portugal.

In the Spring Semester 2024, Duncan Simpson will be teaching Themes in the History of Salazar’s Estado Novo, from the Fascist Era to Decolonization (1932-1974), which will focus on the history of the Salazar dictatorship. The course will cover the entire period of the regime and its main dimensions – nationalism, colonialism, corporatism, the repressive apparatus, church/state relations and the system of political organization.

Congratulations and good work!

 

*Note: Vasco Martins was initially announced as a Visiting Professor for the Spring Semester 2024. For personal reasons, Vasco Martins will not be able to go to Brown University, so another candidate has been selected.