Saab-Pedroso Center for Portuguese Culture and Research

Prof. Ana Valdez, the inaugural Luso-American Foundation Visiting Professor in Portuguese Studies in the UMass Lowell History Department, is offering four free lectures on the history of the Portuguese “Age of Discovery,” in March and April, beginning on Thursday, March 12, 2015, 5:30-7:00 p.m. in Dugan Hall 211.

The sessions, including wonderful visual material, will consider the first encounters between Christians and Muslims, Europeans and Africans, Asians, and Americans; from the slave entrepôts of West Africa, to the spice markets of India, to the bustling cities of China. By the early decades of the seventeenth century, European merchants, missionaries, conquerors, and adventurers would establish colonies and trading outposts from the Pacific coast of the Americas to the farthest shores of Asia. In some regions, these Europeans would seek to replace the civilizations they encountered with new ones made in their image; elsewhere they would seek to be recognized within existing networks of trade, politics, and culture.The four lectures are open to the general public and to the UMass Lowell community. No previous knowledge of Portuguese history or Portuguese language is required.