top of page

SYMPOSIUM

Commemoration of the
190   Anniversary of the Arrival of the Portuguese
From Madeira to Guyana 
1835-2025

th
International Symposium
May 25, 2025
​

Join us on Sunday May 25, 2025 to commemorate the190th arrival of the Portuguese - from Madeira to Guyana. Speakers on Portuguese Migration to Guyana, the Contributions of the Portuguese to Music in Guyana, Political Participation of the Portuguese in 19th Century British Guiana, Fernandes Family History, and the Portuguese in Business in Guyana.

 

Distinguished Speakers

Professor Cristiana Bastos, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Professor Vibert Cambridge, Professor Emeritus, Ohio University, USA

Professor Valerie Lopes, Seneca College, Canada
Professor Kimani Nehusi, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Dr. Joanne Collins-Gonsalves, Managing Director, Historical Research International Inc., Canada
​​

​Date: Sunday May 25, 2025

Time: 9am: Edmonton, Canada 
       11am: Toronto, Canada                              Georgetown, Guyana                        Philadelphia, PA, USA

                    New York, USA 
         4pm:  Lisbon, Portugal                                London, England, UK

Location: Online Via Zoom

Register Today!

Speakers

Professor Cristiana Bastos
University of Lisbon, Portugal

Professor Cristiana Bastos (PhD CUNY 1996) is an anthropologist whose interests combine the disciplines of anthropology, history, and the social study of science, technology and medicine. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of LisbonShe taught at the University of Lisbon, Coimbra, ISCTE, Brown, UMass, UNICAMP, UERJ, and guest lectured at Museu Nacional-UFRJ, FIOCRUZ,  UFSC, UnB, Yale, Chicago, Oxford, JNU, U Eduardo Mondlane, among others. In her previous research projects, she addressed population dynamics, transnational mobility, colonial biopolitics, medicine and empire, and the social history of health and well-being, with field and archival research in Portugal, Brazil, the US, Mozambique and India.


She is currently the PI of the ERC project The Colour of Labour (AdG 695573) where she is directly involved with the fields of Guyana, Hawai‘i, New England, Angola and Mobilities. She has published extensively on her research topics, with articles in the journals Medical Anthropology, Anthropology & Medicine, History and Anthropology, Social Analysis, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, International Migration, Journal of Southern African Studies, Identities, Journal of Lusophone Studies, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, Análise Social, Etnográfica, Horizontes Antropológicos, and a variety of edited volumes and monographs. See more here.

Professor Vibert Cambridge
Professor Emeritus
Ohio University, USA

Professor Vibert Cambridge (M.A., Communication and Development Studies, Ohio University, 1988; Ph.D., Mass Communication, Ohio University, 1989) is Professor Emeritus in the School of Media Arts and Studies, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University. He was awarded Guyana’s Golden Arrow of Achievement (A.A.) for his contributions to the study of Guyana’s social and cultural history. In 2013, he received the Award for Excellence in Global Engagement from Ohio University. Professor Cambridge has dedicated his work and academic research to the study of Guyanese cultural expressions that emerged from the encounters, interactions, and exchanges among its root cultures over the past 15,000 years, especially the period since Europe’s 15th century encounter with the Caribbean and South America. This orientation stemmed from his participation in the field research conducted by Jarai Productions (Peter Kempadoo and Marc Matthews) on Guyanese folk culture for the radio series Our Kind of Folk in the months leading up to Carifesta ’72.

​

​Professor Cambridge’s teaching, research, and scholarship have focused on the intersection of culture, mass communication, and social change in the post-colonial Caribbean and the Global South. His Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of Control, the first in-depth study of Guyanese musical life, was published by the University Press of Mississippi in June 2015 as part of its Caribbean Studies Series. Immigration, Diversity, and Broadcasting in the United States, 1990–2001 was published by the Ohio University Press in January 2005. Professor Cambridge’s current research and practice focus on decolonization in the post-independence Caribbean, the social and cultural history of “sweet drinks” in Guyana, cultural preservation through diaspora engagement, and citizen engagement in the emerging 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in the context of Guyana’s emerging oil- and gas-fueled economy. See more here.

​

Professor Valerie Lopes
Seneca College, Canada

Professor Valerie Lopes is an internationally recognized educator, consultant, and researcher with extensive experience designing, developing, and evaluating learning experiences that support informed and engaged citizenship in a digital world. Her work spans six continents and focuses on faculty development, digital learning, competency-based curriculum design, assessment, program development, and quality assurance. She held faculty and leadership positions at Seneca College, where she led digital learning strategies, developed innovative faculty development programs, chaired the provincial Educational Technology Committee, and contributed to the development of over 25 degree programs. Currently, she is the Senior Consultant for the University of Central Asia’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

​

Dr. Lopes holds a PhD in Leadership in Higher Education (University of Toronto), an MA in Education (Central Michigan), and a BSc (University of Toronto).  She is a member of the Council of 3M National Teaching Fellows, serves on the Curriculum Review Committee for OISE’s Continuing and Professional Learning Programs, and is a peer reviewer for the International Journal of Education and Development using ICT. See more here.

Professor Kimani Nehusi
Temple University
Philadelphia, USA

Professor Kimani Nehusi holds a PhD in History from the University of London as well as  a BA and MA from the University of Guyana. A distinguished academic, Professor Nehusi is a multi-disciplinary scholar with strong interests in language and linguistics, history, culture and research methodology. Professor Nehusi’s research interests include Afrika and its diasporas from ancient to modern times, the Caribbean and Guyana. He has received many honors from different parts of the world for his scholarship. 

​

He has lectured at the University of East London and Birbeck College, University of London in the UK. He has served as the Founding Director, African and Caribbean Studies at Parkwood College, Sheffield, UK; and as the Walter Rodney Professor of History, University of Guyana among other distinguished posts. He is currently an Associate Professor, Department of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University, USA, and Country Expert (Guyana), Varieties of Democracy Project at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden among other posts. 

 

​Professor Kimani Nehusi's selected publications include:

  • A People’s Political History of Guyana, 1838-1964. 2018. Hansib Publishing, London, UK. 722pp.

  • Libation: An Afrikan Ritual of Heritage in the Circle of Life. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland, USA. 210pp. 2015.

  • The System of Education in Kemet (Ancient Egypt): An Overview. Occasional Monograph No. 14. Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC). Lagos, Nigeria. 2010. 47pp.

  • Kimani S. K. Nehusi and Ian Isidore Smart (eds.) Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Original World Press: Washington, D.C. and Port of Spain, 2000. 240pp.

See more here.​

Dr. Joanne Collins-Gonsalves
Managing Director

HRI Inc.

Dr. Joanne Collins-Gonsalves holds a PhD in history. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, United Kingdom and the author of the following books: Iris de Freitas Brazao, Legal Luminary and Trailblazer: Caribbean, Canada, Wales, England, 1896-1989 (2023); Portuguese in Business in Guyana 1835-1935: A History of Entrepreneurship, Expansion and Diversification (forthcoming); and From Ashes to Ferro-Concrete: A History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Guyana) 1914-2014.  She is also the author of over thirty (30) research projects, book chapters, academic articles, research papers, conference papers, and biographical profiles in total. Dr. Collins-Gonsalves has also served as a Contributing Author with the Oxford University Press, for the Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography.

   Dr. Collins-Gonsalves is the Managing Director and Founder of the Historical Research International Inc. (Canada); Executive Director of The Iris de Freitas Brazao Project; and the Canadian Representative, Research Fellow and Advisor for History for the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs. She currently serves on the Board of the Edmonton Heritage Council, the Rotary Club of Edmonton, the Advisory Board of the Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, and the Education Committee of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia. She is also a member of the Canadian Business History Association, the Black Canadian Studies Association, and the Association of Caribbean Historians, among others. See more here.

Symposium 190th Portuguese Arrival to GY May 2025.jpeg

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Old Funchal Madeira 3.jpg

Madeira Photos ©J. Collins-Gonsalves

Georgetown, Guyana

Brickdam-Cathedral National Trust circa 2025.jpg

Guyana Photos ©National Trust of Guyana

Sponsors

Logo - HRI.jpg
Logo_edited.jpg

Start Your Research Journey With HRI Today!

Thanks for submitting!

© 2025 Historical Research International Inc. (Canada)

bottom of page