HISTORY HOUR
Portuguese New Christians
as Agents of Empire in India and Beyond
Claude B. Stuczynski
Professor of History, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan
Moderated by
Frederick Noronha
Independent Researcher, Goa
Friday, 20 February 2026 | 6 pm
Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim, Goa
Please join us for a History Hour lecture on ‘Portuguese New Christians as Agents of Empire in India and Beyond’ by Claude B. Stuczynski and moderated by Frederick Noronha on Friday, 20 February 2026 at 6 pm at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim.
Please join us for tea at 5:30 pm.
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Portuguese New Christians
as Agents of Empire in India and Beyond
Departing from Jonathan Israel’s definition of New Christians and ex-Converso Sephardic Jews as both “agents and victims” of empire, this lecture examines how Portuguese New Christians and their supporters elaborated the idea that Christians of Jewish origin played a fundamental theological and economic role as significant agents of the Portuguese Empire in India, Brazil and other colonial domains. Focusing on the crystallization of a specific Portuguese identity as Christian members of the “Hebrew nation,” and led by skilled “men of commerce,” the lecture will focus on New Christian and pro-Converso writers from the seventeenth century, such as Duarte Gomes Solis, Martín de Cellorigo and Father António Vieira.
Check our upcoming programme
Claude B. Stuczynski
Claude B. Stuczynski is the Head of the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University. His main research is focused on the Iberian Converso or New Christian phenomenon and the Modern Inquisitions, mostly from a theological-political perspective. Having published, edited and taught in several languages and in different universities and research institutes in Israel, Europe and in the U.S.A., he recently co-edited in Hispania Judaica Bulletin, a special issue on: “Converso Paulinisms,” and authored several articles in which he claimed the need to study Converso exclusion from a specific theological standpoint (e.g. in the recent collection of articles: “The Hermeneutical Jew: Studies in Honour of Jeremy Cohen” edited by Ram Ben Shalom and Yisraeli). Among his research projects is the study and edition of two unknown anti-Converso writings imbued with conspiracy obsessions, by the seventeenth century Spanish Inquisitor, Juan Adam de la Parra; a reassessment of the views of the Jesuit Father António Vieira on Jews and New Christians; Conversos as agents and victims of Iberian Empires, and study and edition of a pro-Converso apology, written in 1624 by a Portuguese New Christian.
Frederick Noronha
Frederick Noronha is a Goa-based columnist, researcher and independent publisher. Active in journalism since 1983, he has written extensively on technology, media, the environment and development, contributing to both Indian and international publications. In 2007, he founded Goa 1556, an independent publishing house devoted to the history, culture and society of Goa. Noronha has been an advocate of free and open knowledge initiatives and free/open-source software, while also engaging in sustained academic research on publishing in twentieth-century Goa. He completed a PhD examining literary production in the region, titled, “From Text to Print: Case Study of Goa. Understanding Literary Production of Fiction and Non-Fiction Works in Twentieth-Century Goa,” which analyses the development of fiction and non-fiction publishing in Goa within its broader social and cultural context.
Xavier Centre of Historical Research
B B Borkar Road, Porvorim, Goa 403521, India
xchr.in | in...@xchr.in
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