Revisit the traditional notion of Portugal’s projection into the world from a geographically and culturally decentered perspective. Aiming to reassess and recontextualize the figure of the monarch, early modern Portugal, and the domains and peoples that shaped the Portuguese empire, this conference will build on historiographical developments of recent decades, grappling as much with questions and tendencies heeded by researchers as the methodologies and analytic categories that they employ.

With the objective to challenge the idea of Portuguese exceptionality, we intend to bring together scholars using different modes of comparative analysis, connected history, and engagements with the histories of the world beyond Portugal.

Seeking open-ended and non-teleological approaches can help to better elucidate the role of non-Portuguese actors and contexts, in addition to the improvisations, adaptations, false starts, mutual influences and local experiences that contributed to the trajectories of empires in the Manueline era.

At heart, we seek a better grasp of how histories traditionally deemed “Portuguese” were interlaced with a broader world marked by swift and unexpected transformations.