Nathalia Henrich, director of the Oliveira Lima Library, will travel to Portugal this fall to learn more about the people, ideas, and institutions that played a role in the formation of the Brazilian diplomat, historian, and journalist Manoel de Oliveira Lima. Henrich’s research will be funded by a research grant through the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) and the National Library of Portugal.
Aimed at researchers affiliated with higher education institutions and research centers in the United States, the FLAD grant program “aims to stimulate knowledge of Portuguese culture in the U.S., as well as to increase scientific and cultural cooperation and exchange between the two countries.” Each grant supports a two-month research project related to Portuguese history, culture, and language, based on the collections of the National Library of Portugal.
For Henrich, this recent grant will provide further insights into a topic she has already spent years researching: Lima’s life and works. Her book, O antiamericano que nao foi: os Estados Unidos na obra de Oliveira Lima (translation: The Anti-American That Never Was: The United States in the Works of Oliveira Lima), is expected to be published soon.
“The time in Portugal will help to fill in the gaps in the untold story of Lima’s early years and intellectual formation, which will be part of a biography of Oliveira Lima I have been working on for some time now,” Henrich said. “This opportunity to consult the fantastic holdings in the National Library in Lisboa will also shed light on his later years, when he reconnected with his Portuguese roots, and help to understand his views on politics later in life.”
Henrich said she also hopes that her experience in Portugal will help to foster more awareness of the Oliveira Lima Library, leading to new cross-cultural partnerships.
“I am hoping to use this period to make the Oliveira Lima Library more widely known in Europe, attracting scholars and researchers to our campus,” she said.