Recently I was asked for my reflections after returning from a Spring semester in Portugal. I was there thanks to a Fulbright Scholar award, hosted by the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon (IPL), in their Marketing, Communications and Media Studies department.
As I shared with the Fulbright Portugal team and also with my new friends at IPL, the semester seemed to fly by.
I enjoyed sharing my experience as a freelance writer with students in the journalism department. And I gushed my curiosity about Portugal’s oak forests, and their stories about cork and environmental security. My previous time in Portugal eight years before, I was researching the World War II episode of environmental security that grew into my book, Cork Wars.
This time I got to revisit the forests of Alentéju, and more in the mountains, and hear people’s stories.
But among the most vivid moments that stayed with me most from those months was the national celebration of Freedom Day, April 25th, marking the date when the Estado Novo dictatorship was overthrown in 1974, known as the Carnation Revolution. This time the date also marked the 50th anniversary of Portugal’s first free election in 1975.
That day I joined the crowds along Avenida de Liberdade, wearing and bearing red blooms in many ways. I was struck by the value that so many citizens, young and old, placed on democracy, on civic engagement, and on their freedom of expression. Fifty years on, that vitality was heartening for me.
Read my reflections piece for Fulbright Portugal here.
