“The Azores Islands as a Strategic Crossroads in the Colonial Atlantic World” with Dr. Timothy Walker
Join Dr. Timothy Walker, as he highlights his scholarship that focuses on the Azores Islands and their connection to the broader Portuguese-speaking world in the Atlantic and beyond. Dr. Walker demonstrates how the Azores archipelago was a key maritime crossroads in the Atlantic Ocean for ships returning to Portugal from all over the world during the “Age of Discoveries” and the colonial era. This maritime crossroads created implications for botany and experimental medicine. During his presentation, he will highlight globalized medical culture practiced during the Age of Sail – with medicinal substances drawn from Brazil, India, China, and Africa. We will also explore how the whaling industry created cultural links between New England and the Azores.
Dr. Timothy Walker (Hiram College, 1986; MA/Ph.D. Boston University 2001), Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, is a scholar of maritime history, colonial overseas expansion, and the history of medicine in the early modern era. Walker was a research fellow of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine (London), is a guest investigator of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, an affiliated researcher of the Instituto Dom Luíz (University of Lisbon, Portugal), a contributing faculty member of the Munson Institute of Maritime Studies, and Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities “Landmarks in American History” workshops series titled “Sailing to Freedom: New Bedford and the Underground Railroad” (2011–2027). He has taught maritime history aboard numerous traditionally-rigged sailing vessels, including the schooner Ernestina/Morrissey, and the ships “H.M.S.” Rose and Oliver Hazard Perry. In 2020, Walker was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to serve on the Schooner Ernestina/Morrissey Advisory Board, where he is the chair of the Educational Programming Committee.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Reception followed by Lecture
6:00 pm Reception
6:30 pm Lecture
7:15 Q&A
7:30 pm Event Concludes
Free
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Generously supported by the John Quinlan Murphy Lecture Fund
