The Center for Portuguese Studies at UC Berkeley convened its annual Ana Hatherly Lecture on November 6, 2025, featuring Yale University professor Kenneth David Jackson, a leading scholar of Luso-Brazilian literatures and cultures. Moderated by Professor Jeroen DeWulf, director of the Center for Portuguese Studies, the event gathered 17 attendees, including students, faculty, and community members, for an afternoon of intellectual engagement followed by a reception.
In his lecture, “Luís de Camões between Europe and Asia (1553–1570),” Professor Jackson explored the formative years the Portuguese poet spent in India and Southeast Asia, a period marked by shipwrecks, captivity, and the broader turmoil of early modern imperial expansion. Drawing on close literary analysis, travel accounts, and historical records, Jackson traced how these experiences shaped Camões’s poetic voice, enriched his imagery, and ultimately influenced Os Lusíadas, the national epic of Portugal.
Jackson highlighted Camões’s time in Goa, Macau, and the Malabar Coast, underscoring how the poet’s contact with Asian cultures and landscapes deepened his reflections on exile, identity, and the moral ambiguities of empire. Through engaging examples from Camões’s lyrical poetry and epic verse, Jackson illustrated the tension between admiration for exploration and criticism of the violence and injustices embedded in Portugal’s presence in Asia.
Following the lecture, a lively Q&A session allowed attendees to probe the complexities of Camões’s biography, the global dimensions of early modern literature, and the poet’s ongoing relevance in conversations about cultural contact and colonial legacies. Professor DeWulf closed the program by thanking Professor Jackson for his illuminating contributions and inviting participants to a reception in Philosophy Hall.
The event reaffirmed the Center for Portuguese Studies’ commitment to deepening understanding of the Lusophone world and to fostering dialogue on the literary and historical forces that continue to shape it today.