Anthropologies in Portugal: Prejudices, Potentialities and Challenges
Portugal, Coimbra
On 20 February 2025, the Portuguese Anthropological Association (APA) and the University of Coimbra celebrate the double international event World Anthropology Day & European Anthropology Days. The ceremony's programme includes a Keynote address by Fernando Florêncio on “Anthropologies in Portugal: Prejudices, Potentialities and Challenges”, which aims to critically reflect on the pathways of the discipline in peripheral and cosmopolitan Portugal.
Anchored in direct participation in various teaching and research contexts from the “Carnation Revolution” of 1974 onwards, Florêncio’s personal reading questions the idea of a trans-epistemic training between Biological Anthropology and Social and Cultural Anthropology. If, on the one hand, the horizon seems clouded by the enticing access to AI tools in writing and research, on the other hand the need to reinvent academic pedagogies and creative practices promises open futures for anthropology in Portugal and beyond.
Hosted by historical University of Coimbra - the oldest in Portugal, established in 1290 (UNESCO's world heritage since 2013) -, the ceremony also marks the 140th anniversary of the creation of the first Chair of Anthropology in Portugal (1885-2025). The celebration also includes the annual APA awards ceremony and culminates in a party - the Festa da Antropologia - featuring Coimbra's version of fado.