India-Portugal: Confluence of Cultures

A new initiative this year on Iberia, collaborating with the South Asian Studies Council, focuses on Portuguese maritime expansion and its cultural and linguistic legacy in India. On November 15-16 we hosted the conference Goa Perspectives on History and Culture that included Yale faculty in History of Art Mimi Yiengpruksawan and Edward S. Cooke, Jr. and Dr. John de Figueiredo, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. I am recently back from a trip to Goa, India where the Council cohosted the India-Portugal: Confluence of Cultures conference with Goa University’s Shenoi Goembab School of Languages and Literature; the School of Sanskrit, Philosophy and Indic Studies; and the Camões I.P. Visiting Research Professor program. The three-day symposium included Yale’s Edward S. Cooke, Jr., philosopher Jonardon Ganeri (Toronto), anthropologist Rosa Maria Perez (Lisbon), linguist Hugo C. Cardoso (Lisbon), Yale graduate student Inês Forjaz de Lacerda, along with 19 Goan professors and writers. The third day was dedicated to six seminars for students. Participants were treated to the film “Saxtticho Koddo” by Vince Costa and performance of a play “No Flowers no Wreaths” by Goan playwright Orlando da Costa in translation.