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John Russell-Wood  Herbert Baxter Adams Professor of HistoryPre-Columbian and colonial Latin America with emphasis on Brazil, an interest in the Portuguese seaborne empire and comparative colonialism The Johns Hopkins University Telephone: 410-516-7584 Office Hours: Open door policy My interest in history was not a case of "love at first sight" but derived from the gradual realization that many of the sources I was reading on medieval Portugal or the chronicles of the Portuguese in Asia, from the perspective of a student of literature or because of their philological content, possessed a strong historical component which I found irresistible. Projects for a linguistic atlas of northern Portugal, a study of mirandês, or of the works of Antero de Quental were replaced by a desire to learn about the history of Brazil. This move was encouraged by Charles R. Boxer and Hugh Trevor-Roper, and took a more practical form in extensive research in Brazilian archives. My career as a historian has had a trajectory which is only apparent with hindsight. Initially, the focus was on colonial Brazil, predominantly on social, economic, and institutional history. The stimulating intellectual environment of The Seminar, which takes place on Monday afternoons in the Hopkins Department of History, prompted a broader perspective which led beyond Brazil to investigate how Brazil fitted into the Portuguese seaborne empire. This required extensive reading on the Portuguese in Africa and east of the Cape of Good Hope-- a fascinating, exhilarating and very rewarding experience-- and which led to a general survey of the Portuguese empire through the prism of movement. The interaction and rivalries between Europeans in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and beyond, led to increasing interest in comparative colonialism, one aspect of which was reflected in publications on governance at the local and imperial levels. Now I am returning to the Portuguese- influenced world, seeking points in common and points of divergence between different spheres and at different periods. Questions suggested by readings on Asia and Africa are being tested in the Brazilian context, and questions derived from readings in Brazilian history are prompting new lines of enquiry into the Portuguese in Asia and Africa. My publications are somewhat eclectic, including studies in administrative history, history of institutions, history of art, history of technology, history of medicine and of public health, history of the family, urban history, and on historiography, women, race, and slavery. I am a firm believer in how the study and writing and teaching of history is highly enjoyable and can be fun. These lines of enquiry are incorporated into graduate seminars, nominally on Brazil and on Colonial Latin America but often honed to the needs of graduates. These graduates come from the Departments of History and Romance Languages for the most part, with the occasional representative from the Department of the History of Science, Medicine and Technology and from Anthropology. At the undergraduate levels I offer courses on Brazil, Colonial Latin America, the Age of exploration, the African diaspora, and the Portuguese Opening of the World. Currently, I have 6 students with the following dissertation topics:"Benedictine Estates in São Paulo"; "Performance, Ritual, the Visual Arts and Music in the Proselytization of Native Americans in Colonial Brazil"; "Comparative Study of the Court of D. Manuel 1 of Portugal and Henry Vll of England"; on society, economics and agriculture in Southwest Florida; on Rui Barbosa; and (with Professor Greene) on a comparative study of Baltimore and Sabará in the eighteenth century. My 12 previous graduates are all employed in universities or educational institutions. |