Miguel Lourenço

Miguel Lourenço serves as a Researcher at the Centre of Religious History Studies (CEHR) within the Faculty of Human Sciences at Catholic University of Portugal, specializing in colonial religious institutions of the Portuguese Empire.

His research centers on Inquisition dynamics across Portuguese colonies, particularly examining Goa's religious courts through the lens of colonial administration, Christian conversion practices, and cross-imperial comparisons with Spanish territories. Recent work investigates how local Christians navigated religious offenses under the Goa Inquisition and analyzes institutional connections between Asian and American inquisitorial systems.

Lourenço's publication trends reveal deep engagement with primary sources from the 16th-17th centuries, focusing on textual representations of Southeast Asia and the interplay between ecclesiastical authority and colonial governance in Portuguese territories.

• UCP-CEHR Pluriannual Project (2020-2025)
• History of the Inquisitions (2018-2024)
• Portuguese Franciscans in Asia (2018-2021)
• A História na Era da (Des)Informação (2021-2023)

As an active organizer of academic events including the 2021 Seminário de História Religiosa Contemporânea, Lourenço contributes to CEHR's collaborative research environment examining religious history across temporal and geographical contexts.