Join the Centre for Early Modern Studies for the launch of Ana Paula Lloyd’s (KCL) first book, Cross-Cultural Politics and the Suspension of the Portuguese Inquisition, 1674–1681 (Routledge).

The book tells the story of Portugal’s New Christians — descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity — and the campaign that led to the unprecedented eight-year suspension of the Portuguese Inquisition. Moving between Portugal and Rome, it follows the New Christians’ political mobilisation and the case they brought before the Roman Inquisition, asking how a population marked out through ancestry and inherited stigma came to act collectively, build political influence across borders and challenge the institution that defined them as suspect.

The conversation will use the book as a starting point to explore wider questions about ancestry, identity and political agency: how do people resist, negotiate or make political use of categories imposed upon them?

Ana Paula Lloyd will be joined by broadcaster and geneticist Adam Rutherford (UCL) and Francisco Bethencourt (KCL), bringing together perspectives from the history of New Christians, racism and empire, and the genetics and politics of ancestry and human difference.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

To attend, please sign up here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/centreforearlymodernstudies/2469842