(Professor Bethencourt's contribution to the 10th episode of "The Value of Liberty", a TV program by the cultural fundation FFMS.)
Professor Francisco Bethencourt is a leading authority in the history of the Portuguese-speaking world.
He is the author of several publications, among them a comprehensive history of the early modern Inquisition, and numerous essays and articles for academic journals. As an expert in the study of race, inequality, religion and identity in the Iberian world, Bethencourt has been involved in thirty different journals and in seven countries. Among these, he has worked not only as a member of the advisory councils of historical institutes in London, Paris and Lisbon but also in several universities, often as a Visiting Professor or supervisor for postdoctoral research (Lisbon, Coimbra, Bologna, São Paulo, Leider, etc.).
As well as being a current member of the Academic Staff Committee at King's College London, Bethencourt is also a Professor in the Department of History and has received much academic recognition for his work and public engagement. Apart from being a Fellow of the Academia Europeaea, he was also elected a member of the Portuguese Academia da Marinha, is a member of the Institut d’Histoire des Civilisations de l’Occident Moderne (Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne), a Comendador of the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique by the President of the Republic of Portugal and received the Salvador Madariaga Prize for his PhD at the European University Institute.
Furthermore, he was engaged in cultural management as Director of the National Library of Portugal (1996-98) and the Gulbenkian Cultural Centre in Paris (1999-2004), and is frequently invited to participate in international conferences and events, such as the Smithsonian and the Biennale di Venezia.
We are honoured to be welcoming Professor Francisco Bethencourt as a keynote speaker in 17th International Conference of the Utopia Studies Society/Europe, which will take place in July 2016 at Lisbon.
Important monographs:
Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century, Princeton University Press, 2013.
The Inquisition. A Global History, 1478-1834, Cambridge University Press, 2009.