Pedro Pereira is a professor of Portuguese Studies at SPPO.  Hailing from Porto, Portugal's second largest city, he has spent many years in the United States researching and teaching at prestigious institutions, but has lived in Columbus for six years.

 

His current book project examines discourses of exceptionalism in Portuguese cultures, specifically in the lusotropicalist discourses.  Dr. Pereira describes this as being the "the belief that the multi-ethnic background of the Portuguese better enabled them to create successful and more humane civilizations in the tropics."  His research leads him to investigate how certain tropes of these discourses are appropriated by both Portuguese-speaking and foreign intellectuals across various historical and sociopolitical contexts.

 

When Pedro is not working on intellectual pursuits, he cultivates his interests in architecture and design, African music and dance, as well as cooking.  He also travels, and when asked to recall a particularly memorable trip, he replies with some rather good advice for any traveler, "All the trips I have taken so far have been memorable."