Prof. Dr. Alex Villas Boas
Alex Villas Boas is a Brazilian theologian and Professor at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) in Lisbon, working across systematic and public theology, literature, cultural studies, and religious studies. Through an archaeo-genealogical approach, he examines how theological knowledge is reconfigured within political messianism and political spiritualities through power, memory, ethics, literary languages, and artistic forms. He is a Principal Investigator and the Executive Coordinator of CITER – Research Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, where he coordinates the joint PhD program in Public Theology, developed in partnership with universities of the Transform4Europe (T4EU) alliance.
As a CEMES fellow, Villas Boas investigates political messianism through the emergence of Napoleon Bonaparte as a paradigmatic case for understanding the reappearance of strongman politics within consolidated democratic societies. The project examines mechanisms of reactivation through romantic narratives of restoration, whose nostalgic effects transform historical rupture into a desire for providential restoration. Special emphasis is placed on discursive formations, institutional and aesthetic materializations, and normative structures shaped by governmental technologies. His project directly advances the mission of CEMES by offering a historical framework for understanding how romantic narratives and political messianism continue to shape contemporary strongman politics.
