My research focuses on the history of the Iberian world and its Atlantic expansion between the sixteenth and eightenth centuries. I have a special interest in the period when Portugal was part of the Spanish Monarchy (1580-1640), and in the political and administrative reforms implemented in the second half of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century. One of the recent outcomes of this research is the volume I co-edited with Nuno Monteiro titled “Political Thought in Portugal and its Empire (1500-1800),” published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.
I pay special attention to representative assemblies and forms of political participation in early modern Iberia and its world. My most recent work in this area focuses on the years 1579-80 and analyzes the attempts by some representatives of the commoners to establish a political regime centered around the Cortes, the Portuguese representative assembly: “Elites, representation, and political participation of the ‘peuple.’ The Cortes and the debate on the election of the king in the Portuguese succession crisis of 1578-1581,” in Y. Junot & J.J. Ruiz Ibáñez (eds.), ‘When the People Elect the King,’ Villeneuve d’Ascq, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion (forthcoming).
I also study how the Portuguese conquered and colonized parts of South America, especially the categories they imposed on Indigenous populations and how these populations resisted this imposition. I have just completed a study on how the Portuguese dealt with the Indigenous populations that were incorporated into colonial society: “‘La forma y casos en que los indios pueden ser cautivados en nuestras conquistas.’ Colonial domination, jurisdictional culture, and resistance (c. 1550-1655)” in J. M. Santos Pérez (ed.), ‘Cultural Exchanges, Transculturation, and ‘Castellanization’ in Brazil during the Union of the Crowns, 1580-1640,’ Salamanca, Editorial Universidad de Salamanca (forthcoming).
Lastly, I am interested in the memory of the Portuguese empire and the colonial domination on which it was based. This interest is reflected in the study “Reassessing the Portuguese Imperial Past: Scholarly Perspectives and Civic Engagement,” to be published in the ‘Journal of Lusophone Studies’ (forthcoming).