03/19/2026
By Kimberly Moreau

Join the Saab Center for Portuguese Studies for a colloquium on "Authoritarianism and Political Violence in 20th Century Portugal, Spain and Brazil" on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 from 3:30 to 6:15 p.m. at Allen House, 1 Solomont Way, and via Zoom

The colloquium will examine the modalities of political violence under twentieth-century dictatorial regimes in Portugal, Spain and Brazil.

Colloquium presentations: 3:30-5:30 p.m.

  • "Questioning Political Violence as an Analytical Category in the Historiography of Salazar’s Political Police (PIDE)” by Duncan Simpson, FLAD/Saab Visiting Professor and Research Associate at ICS-University of Lisbon
  • “From Ontological to Ethical Memory: Franco’s Mass Graves in Contemporary Spanish Narrative,” by Daniel Arroyo-Rodríguez, Associate Professor of Spanish and Associate Dean at FAHSS
  • “Red Cross Reports on the Estado Novo’s Political Prisons in Colonial Mozambique, 1963-1974,” by Rita de Almeida Carvalho, Research Fellow at ICS-University of Lisbon
  • "Political Violence in Brazil's dictatorship of 1964-1985: Legal and Societal Responses in the Post-Dictatorial Period,” by Anthony W. Pereira, Executive Director and Thomas F. and Carol M. Reese Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies at Tulane University.

Roundtable: 5:30-6:15 p.m. with members of the local Portuguese community who will speak of first-hand accounts of emigration in part related to political oppression

Reception: 6:15 p.m.

A display of photographic material on New England’s Portuguese American community, organized by Rita Almeida de Carvalho, in collaboration with the Portuguese American Digital Archive.

For more information, please email Prof. Duncan_Simpson@uml.edu, FLAD/Saab Visiting Professor in Portuguese Studies.