Biography
José Moura Ferreira is a historian working at the intersection of environmental history, the history of science and the history of colonialism, with a focus on the Portuguese Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Before joining the EUI, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History, NOVA University Lisbon.
He earned his PhD from the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon with a dissertation on colonial schemes of agricultural improvement and forestry administration in Portuguese India. His first monograph, based on his PhD, is currently in press with the Portuguese academic publisher Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. He has participated in several national and international research projects on the history of the Portuguese colonialism and, more recently, on the environmental history of forests and fire. Alongside his research, he is currently one of the chief editors of Práticas da História. Journal on Theory, Historiography and Uses of the Past.
As a Max Weber Fellow, José will be developing his research project ‘An Empire of Wood: Forest management and enlightened reform in the Portuguese Empire (1751-1825)’. The project will explore the political and ecological dimensions of forestry administration in the Portuguese Empire by focusing on the circulation of experts, knowledge, seeds and wood samples between Portugal, Goa and Brazil.