Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program
Field of Specialization:	Anthropology
Name:	Mr. Brian Wilson
Official Address:	Dept. of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Indian Host Institution:	Archaeological Survey of India, Goa
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 9 months January 2012

Brief Bio:

Mr. Brian Wilson received his B.A. from the University of Colorado; M.A. from the University of Chicago where he is currently working on his Ph.D. in Anthropological Archaeology. He has participated in numerous archeological projects in the United States and has worked on several international excavations including work in Oman and India. He has one article under review for the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient and has presented a number of academic papers at professional conferences including the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archeology. His current interests involve historical and archaeological research of Portuguese colonial expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries C.E. with a focus on Goa, India. He is particularly interested in understanding how the changing urban landscape of Velha Goa helped to construct, maintain, and change social boundaries under the new socio-economic and political circumstances created by the Portuguese colonial regime. Velha Goa or Old Goa was once the thriving capital of the vast Portuguese Asian Empire. This urban landscape both appears as testament to the former power and dominance of Portuguese colonialism and to enshrine their policies of exclusion based on race and religion - policies that helped to create new social identities and communities which persist to the current day. As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar Mr. Wilson's research will combine archaeology, historical research, survey, and surface collection of artifacts to understand how this new and changing urban space both structured these social groups and provided opportunities for resistance and change.