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Nome: Maria Ana Travassos Valdez
E-mail: ana.valdez@netcabo.pt
Year of Birth: 1976
Place of birth: Lisboa, Portugal
City of residence: New Haven, CT
Years in the US: 3
Undergraduate Degree: History
Postgraduate Degree: MA in History, PhD candidate in History at the University of Lisboa
Current professional status: Visiting Assistant in Research at Yale University
Research interests: Ancient & Modern History, Cultural and Literary History (ancient apocalyptic, for example…), among many other.
Best career achievement : Receiving the FCT’s fellowship and moving to the US to study at Yale. Sometimes dreams come true.
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To be or not to be an immigrant in the US
What brought you to the USA?
The amazing resources of this country’s libraries and the fact that the person I wanted to work with for my PhD is in Yale.
Name the three most valuable lessons you have learned in this country (at work or not).
1. Never feel too small… we had a diversified and good education back in Portugal. Why should we think we are not as good as the other ones? 2. Work, work and work, and you we will be rewarded. 3. There is no library that equals Yale’s library. I am still amazed with it and with how many Portuguese books I can get here before they reach the Portuguese bookstores’ shelves.
Are you planning to go back to Portugal? Why/Why not?
Though I am feeling nostalgic right now, I do know that I almost have no chance to go back in the next years. Therefore, I will stay, do a post-doc and move forward. Maybe one day I will be able to return.
What conditions (other than salary) do you have here that you do not have in Portugal?
Because I work in the Humanities, I am a historian, I need libraries… but real ones where I can find the books that have been published in 2008, not 1978. I also need to be able to live in this world and not closed within the Portuguese world. Here, I also have the possibility of having breakfast with a renowned scholar, going to the library and read the most recent books, take a lunch break to attend a conference of another renowned scholar (even some I thought were already dead), go back to work and, later choose between going to the gym, which is open until 10 pm, or attend a concert or a play. More… professors are just an email away from us… In Lisboa, my faculty’s email rarely contains anything related with conferences, workshops, special guests…
What do you think Portugal is still better at?
At living… I miss so much my ocean, my coffee, my friends, Lisboa and the Alentejo, and obviously, my dogs...
What would you like to see changed in the Portuguese educational system?
First, I would say that we need to demand more from students, as well as from teachers/professors, in order to later reward their effort. Secondly, there is an urgent need of investment in fields such as the humanities and the social sciences: we need books, younger professors and better conditions to do our work (such as funding to organize international conferences and publish our results). We are not going to solve anything by sending younger scholars abroad with scholarships. I could keep going on about this issue, but I am sure that everyone is aware of what is happening right now. It is urgent to change the education policies: it is not only the labs that need material; our libraries need newer books as well as extended working hours (it is impossible to do research in Lisboa when the libraries and the archives close at 5 or 6 p.m. and have no weekend schedule). Our archives, some of it are part of the best of its kind in the world, should also be used as labs, places of research and training of young scholars. There are pearls out there waiting to be found among the many kilometers of unread and non-catalogued documents.
The daily life in the US
| Favourite news from Portugal: |
Expresso, Público |
| Ideal weekend program in your US city: |
Taking a day-off from the library, sleep later that 7 a.m., having a good lunch with some friends and then, who knows, drive to the sea coast (I know… it is not yet the Atlantic down here in CT!) Maybe later, go to one of the hundreds of concerts or theatre plays always going on campus. There are always milliards of different things going on: the major difficulty is to choose one!
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| Portuguese neighbourhood: |
There is none. The city is Yale and vice-versa. But, going to NY is easy and fast and recharges our souls with culture and crowds. Quite good for people like us, who now live, as I say, in the “country-side.”
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