event

Public Lecture: Historiographical Limits and the Challenges of Studying Christian Missions in Imperial Times

29

Mar

Public Lecture: Historiographical Limits and the Challenges of Studying Christian Missions in Imperial Times by Library on 29th March 2017



WEB-Poster

 

About the Talk

 The intention of Hugo Dores’ presentation is to question the limits posed by traditional and widely popular perceptions on historical events, usually determined by simplistic or biased explanations of multi-layered and multi-directional historical processes, as was the case of the missionary presence in colonial contexts. Beyond these limits lay many of the challenges of studying this subject. Based in a research centered in the dynamic relations between imperial powers and missionary activities and goals in the so-called third Portuguese colonial empire, during the Scramble for Africa, this communication will focus three main aspects. Firstly, the research paths traced throughout an academic project, highlighting casual difficulties and ongoing discussions; secondly, the historiographical perspectives approached in the research, such as imperialism, transnationalism and internationalism; and finally, the centrality of archival sources in any historical study and its importance to tackle misconceptions in History.

 

About the Speaker

Hugo Gonçalves Dores (Lisbon, 1983). PhD in History (University of Lisbon), with the thesis “Uma Missão para o Império: política missionária e “novo imperialismo” (1885-1926)” (2014). A significant part of his PhD research was carried out in archives such as the Vatican Secret Archives (including the archives of the Secretariat of State and the Propaganda Fide), the Portuguese Arquivo Histórico-Diplomático and Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, the Belgian Archives Diplomatiques and Archives Africaines, the National Archives (Kew, London) or the archive of the World Council of Churches (Geneva).

He was a visiting scholar at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and Brown University (United States). He is currently a researcher in the Centre of Religious History Studies – Catholic University of Portugal (2011)

He has been working on missions and empires (19th and 20th centuries), namely imperial policies towards missionary activities (both Catholic and Protestant) related to education and development, having published articles and book chapters on those topics. In 2015, he published his first book, A Missão da República. Política, Religião e o Império Colonial Português (1910-1926).

He is now developing his post-doctoral project – «‘Educating Empires’: International organizations, inter-imperial cooperation, and educational policies in late colonialism» – at the Center for Social Studies (CES-UC, Portugal).