Saab Center for Portuguese Studies

Engaging In Portuguese Culture

Founded in 2013, with generous gift from the Saab Family Fund, the Saab Center for Portuguese Studies promotes the multidisciplinary study of the language, literature and culture of the vast and varied Portuguese speaking world comprised of over 250 million people in eight countries on four continents and its diaspora.

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An Evening of Fado with Maria Emilia and Helder Moutinho

Friday, June 2, 2023

5 p.m. VIP Reception ($150)
Smith Ballroom, Coburn Hall (includes hors d’oeuvres, hosted bar, chance to meet the performers and a ticket to the concert)

7:30 p.m. Concert ($40)
Durgin Concert Hall

Helder Moutinho is a fadista of startling depth and invention with a long family lineage devoted to fado. Helder is a poet whose albums are multi-faceted creations.

Perhaps no other singer of her generation, Maria Emília combines raw magnetism, complete freedom,and total commitment to traditional fado to such devastating effect.

North of Boston: The Portuguese American Experience Beyond the Hub

UMass Lowell, Saab Center for Portuguese Studies Spring Colloquium, 2023

Saturday June 3, 2023 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Coburn Hall Ballroom, 850 Broadway St., Lowell, MA

Parking in the Wilder Lot behind Coburn Hall.

Presenters and Topics:

Procession at the Feast of St. Anthony: a group of people, many wearing red garments over their clothes, walk down a Lowell street in 1980 carrying a display with a statue of St. Anthony holding a child with cars and buildings in the background. — Procession at the Feast of St. Anthony’s, Lowell, MA, ca 1980, photographer unknown.

Welcome and Overview by Frank Sousa, Director, Saab Center for Portuguese Studies, UMass Lowell
Keynote: The Portuguese Diaspora in Context: Labor, Capital, and Immigration in New England, Toronto, and Hawaii by Cristiana Bastos, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Ethnic Resilience in a Gentrified Place: Rethinking the Portuguese-Azorean American Landscape in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts by Graça Índias Cordeiro, Department of Social Research Methods, University Institute of Lisbon and Giuseppe Formato, World Language Department, Somerville High School
The Portuguese in Lowell and Immigrant Neighborhood Formation by Gray Fitzsimons, Saab Center for Portuguese Studies, UMass Lowell

Black and white photo of a group of Portuguese people posting in front of a house in Lowell’s Back Central neighborhood around 1915. — Portuguese in Lowell’s Back Central neighborhood, ca. 1915, photographer unknown.

Architecture, Art, and Culture in Back Central, Lowell’s Premier Portuguese Neighborhood by Marie Frank, Department of Art and Design, UMass Lowell
Listen and Learn, Show and Tell, Voices and Pictures from Lowell’s Portuguese-American Community by Pedro Letria, Escola Superior de Arte e Design, Caldas da Rainha, Lisboa and Cláudia Lobo, Journalist, Lisbon, Portugal
Exploring the Portuguese Experience in a Community Archives: UMass Lowell’s Portuguese American Digital Archive by Nicole Tantum, UMass Lowell Libraries
Geographic and Historical Information Online: A Prototype for Mapping Portuguese Back Central by Richard P. Howe, Jr., Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds

For questions or to learn more please contact us.