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Teotónio de Souza | |
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 De Souza in 2009 | |
| Born | Teotónio Rosário de Souza (1947-02-18)18 February 1947 |
| Died | 20 February 2019(2019-02-20) (aged 72) Lisbon, Portugal |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Spouse | Elvira Correia de Souza |
Teotónio Rosário de Souza (18 February 1947 – 20 February 2019) was aPortuguese historian and, as aJesuit, a cofounder and first director of theXavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR), atAlto Porvorim,Goa.[1] Based in Portugal since 1995, de Souza was Head and chair, Department of History in theUniversidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias from 1999 to 2014. He was also a fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History since 1983, and of theSociedade de Geografia de Lisboa since 2000.
OfGoan Catholic origin, de Souza was born in the village ofMoirá in theBardesconcelho ofPortuguese Goa. He belonged to the fifth vangodd (clan) of the village and is the 12th generation descendant of Shantappa Kamat, aGoud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) who became Diogo de Souza after his conversion to Christianity in 1618.[2]
De Souza was educated mostly in Goa during Portuguese colonial rule. He belonged to theGoanJesuits for twenty-six years. He left thepriesthood in 1995, withdispensation forlaicisation from theHoly See so that he could marry a Portuguese woman named Elvira Correia de Souza.[3] He was awarded Portuguese nationality in 1995 and was grantedOverseas Citizenship of India (OCI) by theGovernment of India in 2007. On 20 February 2019, de Souza died inLisbon.[4][5]
In 1979, de Souza wrote hisPhD thesis,Medieval Goa: A Socio-Economic History.[6] It challenged the view that Portuguese rule in South Asia resulted in overall prosperity in Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His work claimed that "Golden Goa" was an expression popularised by art historians, with reference to thebaroque church architecture of the early centuries of the Portuguese rule.
De Souza was the author and editor of many books and research papers, in bothPortuguese andEnglish. His partial memoirs are penned in a book, titledGoa To Me.[7] His favourite area of research includes colonial and post-colonial themes, with particular reference to Portuguese in Asia. His authority in this field has at times been hijacked by people stealing his identity on the Internet. An article entitled "The Goa Inquisition", attributes its authorship to him, on a US-based website calledChristianaggression, in 2005. It has since been cited by other communal sites.[8][better source needed]
On his 60th birthday, de Souza was felicitated with afestschrift titled,Metahistory: History questioning History, containing personal tributes and 43 research papers contributed by historians and social scientists from the world over.[3] The Lusophone University of Lisbon awarded him its Gold Medal of Merit on the same occasion, in recognition of his research, teaching, and critical appreciation and promotion ofLusophony.[9]
A firm believer in the power of web since the early 70s, and a defender of digitalization of historical sources, he founded, in partnership with the Goa-based journalistFrederick Noronha, theGoa-Research-Net in 1997,[10] initially hosted in theGoanet server, and since 2005 onYahoo! Groups. It also has branches onFacebook and onMendeley, since May 2017.
Since November 2008, de Souza had continually been a columnist to the Goan dailyHerald, in a section which sought to link Goa and Portugal, in the past. Since 2012, he had writtenOp-ed columns forThe Goan Everyday.[11] He also wrote for theGoan Observer[12] and, since April 2018, ran a column for a Portuguese digital newspaper, Pátria.[13] Many of his writings are consulted online atAcademia.edu,[14]Scribd,[15]ResearchGate,[16] and the ReCil Lusófona[17] – the online scientific repository of theUniversidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias,Lisboa.
His bookGoa: Outgrowing Postcolonialism – Historical Explorations (1961-2014), is a cultural-historical analysis of the evolution of Goa since itsannexation.[18]
De Souza retired from October 2014 as Cathedratic professor of theUniversidade Lusófona, after representing, since 1996, the interests of History teaching and research on the Scientific and Pedagogic Councils, of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Education and Administration of the Universidade Lusófona, as an ex-officio member. While acting as coordinator / Director of the MA and M.Phil. courses in History,[19] he guided M.Phil. and PhD researchers in Political Science and Diplomatic Relations and directed a line of research related to "Colonial and Post-Colonial Societies", and Memories of CPES (Centro de Pesquisa e Estudos Sociais) of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Lusófona, Lisboa.
He was Director-Editor of the Journal of ACSEL (Associação dos Cientistas Sociais do Espaço Lusófono)[20] and continued to help as Chief-Editor of the Journal FLUXOS E RISCOS – Revista de Estudos Sociais, that published the research findings of CPES (Centre for Social Research and Studies). He was also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.
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