Dr Selina Patel Nascimento
Lecturer in the History of the Global SouthResearch Interests
My research is deeply embedded in the intersectional experiences of enslaved and marginalised women, particularly in their positions in global systems of concubinage as concubines. Structures of concubinage have a long history stretching back many millennia, and although they have differed over time and space, their continuity into the present day provides a fascinating and under-researched lens into the intricate relationship between sex, slavery, and empire in global perspective. I am an expert in relationships of concubinage in the Atlantic world and am currently preparing a monograph entitled Colonial Concubines: Sex, Slavery, and Transitioning Empires in Brazil's Northeast, 1750-1831. This book analyses the ways in which concubines as a social group maintained a tense and contradictory relationship with imperial rule as Brazil declared independence from Portugal and transitioned into its own empire.
My current research project seeks to define concubinage as a discrete Atlantic world phenomenon that can be conceptually useful in comparative analyses of concubinary systems across the Americas. Clear definitions of Atlantic world concubinage and a degree of conceptual resolution provides a vital platform to build on future global comparisons that can draw together African, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and American concubinary systems in meaningful and insightful ways.
Career Details
I have an interdisciplinary background with teaching and managerial experience in the private sector. I received a BA (Joint Honours) in German and Beginners' Portuguese from the University of Nottingham in 2009, and went on to complete an MA (by Research) in Portuguese and Lusophone Studies in 2010 at the same institution. I then spent time in the private and third sectors as Director of Savi Foundation and as Area Manager for Young Enterprise UK, through which I developed community impact projects and taught children aged 4-18 across schools and colleges in North and West London.
I was successful in receiving AHRC funding to pursue a doctorate in History at Newcastle University and received my PhD in 2016. My doctoral research was additionally supported by grants from the Royal Historical Society and the Society for Latin American Studies.
I took a career break for maternity and early-years childcare and returned to academic work in 2021. I have previously taught across History, Applied Humanities, and Modern Languages at Newcastle University and Newman University, Birmingham before taking up a post at Lancaster.
Current Teaching
- HIST105: Histories of Violence: How Imperialism Made the Modern World
- HIST283: A World Full of Concubines: Sex, Slavery, and Empire in Global Perspective
- HIST438: The Past is Never Dead: Colonial Legacies of the Atlantic and the Global South
Professional Role
I am the Schools Liasion contact for the Department of History at Lancaster University.
PhD Supervision Interests
I welcome expressions of interest for supervision of doctoral projects on histories of gender, slavery, sexuality, and race relations in Brazil, the wider Atlantic World, or across the Portuguese Empire.
Defining Concubinage in the Luso-Atlantic World: Gender, Slavery, and Networks of Power in Brazil and Angola (1800-1860)
01/02/2024 → 31/01/2027
Research
Catarina Mina: Gender, Slavery, and Social Mobility in the Life of an African Freedwoman in Nineteenth-century Maranhão, Brazil.
09/01/2023 → …
Research
Countervoyage: Unearthing a Counter-History of the Making of the African Diaspora
01/09/2022 → 31/08/2023
Research