On 2 April 2026, the Center for Portuguese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley welcomed Thais França, Assistant Researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology at the University Institute of Lisbon and Visiting Professor in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University, for a guest lecture in Spanish 165: Spanish in the United States and Spanish in Contact with Other Languages. The event was organized by continuing lecturer Johnny Carr. The lecture drew 30 students and faculty interested in language contact, migration, and colonial legacies. Drawing on her research at the intersection of gender, migration, and decolonial studies, França examined the relationship between language, colonialism, and the experiences of Portuguese-speaking international students in Portuguese higher education.
França began by situating herself within her own educational and transnational trajectory as a Brazilian scholar who pursued doctoral studies in Portugal. Reflecting on her experience, she described how she arrived in Portugal believing that she shared a common language with Portuguese nationals, only to discover that Brazilian Portuguese was often treated as inferior within academic settings. This personal experience led her to investigate the broader challenges faced by international students from Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly how language functions as a marker of hierarchy and exclusion. She argued that language differences are not simply linguistic distinctions but are deeply embedded within colonial systems of power that continue to shape social and educational institutions today.
The lecture then turned to the historical relationship between colonialism and language. França explained that colonial domination extended beyond economic and political control to include cultural and linguistic domination. European colonizers frequently dismissed Indigenous and African languages as inferior or incapable of expressing complex thought, while simultaneously imposing European languages as symbols of civilization and authority. She emphasized that this process was not only a means of communication but also a mechanism for undermining local identities, knowledge systems, and cultural memory. Language, she argued, became a central tool through which colonial hierarchies were established and maintained.
Building on this historical framework, França discussed the persistence of colonial language hierarchies in the present. Drawing on theories of racialized linguistic ideologies, she argued that assumptions about intelligence, competence, and social status continue to be attached to particular ways of speaking. Rather than viewing racialized speakers as deficient communicators, she suggested that attention should be directed toward the social frameworks through which listeners interpret and evaluate language. These “listening frameworks” often privilege linguistic forms associated with whiteness and European norms while marginalizing other varieties.
França then examined the concept of Lusophony, the idea of a global Portuguese-speaking community that emerged following the decolonization of the Portuguese Empire. While Lusophony is often presented as a shared cultural and linguistic space that unites Portugal, Brazil, and several African countries, she argued that this narrative obscures the violence through which Portuguese was historically imposed in colonial territories. Furthermore, the concept places Portugal at the center of the Portuguese-speaking world and reinforces hierarchies in which European Portuguese is treated as the legitimate and prestigious standard. Other varieties, including Brazilian and African Portuguese, are frequently viewed as less correct or less sophisticated.
The lecture concluded with an analysis of how these hierarchies operate within Portuguese universities. França described what she called a “privilege paradox,” in which students from Portuguese-speaking countries are actively recruited by higher education institutions yet often encounter discrimination upon arrival. Although they are welcomed as international students and valued for their contribution to university rankings and tuition revenue, their language use is frequently scrutinized and corrected. In some cases, students from African Portuguese-speaking countries are required to take Portuguese language examinations or enroll in academic Portuguese courses despite already being native speakers. França argued that these practices reveal the gap between the rhetoric of a unified Lusophone community and the realities experienced by students within educational institutions.
The lecture ended with a discussion of the continuing influence of colonial legacies on language, migration, and higher education. França encouraged students to critically examine assumptions about linguistic correctness and to recognize how historical structures of power continue to shape contemporary experiences of inclusion and exclusion.