2023 2023: Hélio and Amélia Pedroso/Luso-American Foundation Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies for spring 2023 semester announced

UMass Dartmouth and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture welcome Professor Maria do Carmo Piçarra Ramos

The Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, in collaboration with the Department of Portuguese of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, is proud to announce the appointment of Professor Maria do Carmo Piçarra Ramos as Hélio and Amélia Pedroso/Luso-American Foundation Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies for the Spring 2023 semester.

During her residency at UMass Dartmouth, Maria do Carmo Piçarra Ramos will teach a graduate seminar (MA/PhD POR 650) titled "Portuguese Cinema Under Salazar." This course seeks to examine the ways through which the Estado Novo sought to constrain contemporary Portuguese cinematography. Concurrently, it will study the strategies by which film authors sought to free themselves from the state's ideological constraints. Additionally, the course will address other topics in Portuguese cinematography, such as the impact of decolonization and the rise of women filmmakers and their approaches to film and filmmaking. Maria do Carmo Piçarra will also provide a public off-campus talk, host a public on-campus film series with "the sea" as its theme, and collaborate with Tagus Press.

Maria do Carmo Piçarra Ramos is a Professor at ICNOVA in Portugal. Her main area of study is Communication Sciences, Cinematography. She is a recognized leader in the field of Portuguese Cinematography and has published multiple works on the subject of Portuguese cinematography during the Estado Novo. Her most recent monographs include Olhar de Maldoror, Singularidades de um Cinema Político (2022), Projectar a Ordem, Cinema do Povo e Propaganda do Estado Novo (2020), Azuis Ultramarinos, and Propaganda e Censura no Cinema do Estado Novo (2015). She also has edited works focusing on colonial and post-colonial cinematography, most recently, A Colecção Colonial da Cinematica, Campo, Contracampo, Fora-de-campo (2018). Additionally, Prof. Piçarra Ramos has received numerous grants for her research from prestigious Portuguese institutions such as Fundação Oriente and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.