禁漫天堂

Gloria de S谩, associate professor of sociology, uses the food traditions of the Portuguese-American communities of New Bedford and Fall River to explore the mobility of culture and the construction of Portuguese identity.

Her project, titled Pa虄o e Vinho Sobre a Mesa: Portuguese Food Cultures, Migration and Mobility, received a $15,000 grant from Funda莽茫o Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. De S谩, who is faculty director of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, used the funds to collect oral histories and record food practices. She also organized a conference, 鈥淔ood Cultures, Migration and Mobility,鈥� held at the Star Store in September.

P茫o e Vinho Sobre a Mesa was done in collaboration with Dr. Rhian Atkin, of Cardiff University, and Sonia Pacheco, archivist of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, where the work of transcribing and archiving the interviews is ongoing.

De S谩 also is developing a course syllabus on the conference鈥檚 theme and organized a guided tour for the UMassD students and faculty to explore the Portuguese food, history, and culture of New Bedford. The tour was sponsored by a Provost鈥檚 Seminar Series grant awarded to the Urban Studies Program, as well as by the Arnold Dubin Labor Education Center and the Portuguese-American Archives.

Promoting inclusion and understanding

鈥淪ince the Portuguese are the largest ethnic group in our local area and thousands of members of the 禁漫天堂 community share this ancestry, the project also served as a means of recording and valorizing their history and culture, and promoting values of inclusion and mutual understanding,鈥� de S谩 said.

鈥淭he project also engaged several UMassD students in paid research and provided members of our community the opportunity to engage in pertinent discussions regarding the relationships between food (including food security), migration, and culture.鈥�

De S谩鈥檚 research interests intersect the fields of immigration, race, and ethnicity as they relate to Portuguese-speaking groups in the U.S., with a particular focus on the integration of Portuguese-Americans into American society.

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