Mariana Boscariol

I am a postdoctoral Research Associate in Early Modern Global History for the INTRECCI project, with expertise in the history of Portugal’s trade and empire. In this role, my primary goal is to help uncover the Portuguese participation and contribution to the institutional creation, continuity and change within and between the three case studies of the project: the Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Khambhat and the Straits of Malacca. Considering the Portuguese empire’s characteristics and structure, I am particularly interested in exploring how intertwined informal and formal activities in these regions were from the 15th to the 18th century, including the central role of religious agents and institutions in Asia. 

Having studied and worked in Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain, I try to bring my professional and personal international experience to my work. My previous research has mainly focused on the Jesuits' presence and interaction with local societies in Brazil and Japan, including their direct involvement with Portuguese trade and commercial interests. Over the past few years, my affiliation with different international research projects also allowed me to expand my research experience while exploring other aspects of the Portuguese environmental, cross-cultural and economic interactions and relations with West Africa, Brazil, Macao, the Philippines and Japan.

It is this international and global approach to the Early Modern experiences of contact and exchange that I aim to explore in my current role at the University of Manchester. Apart from a co-edited collective volume on the historical experiences of border crossing in different regions of the world, I am currently working on a book proposal based on my dissertation to analyse the Jesuit presence in Brazil and Japan during the 16th century.