Onésimo Teotónio Almeida was born in S. Miguel, Azores, in 1946. He graduated from the Portuguese Catholic University, Lisbon, in 1972. He received his MA (1977) and Ph.D. (1980) in Philosophy at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where he has taught Portuguese Cultural and Intellectual History since 1975 and as a Full Professor since 1991. From 1992 to 2003, he was Chair of the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. He also teaches a course on Values and Worldviews for the Wayland Collegium and a course for the Center for Early Modern Studies, of which he is a member.
He doubles as a scholar and author, having also written short stories, plays, and crónicas. He is the author and editor of numerous books. The most recent scholarly works are O Século dos Prodígios. A Ciência no Portugal da Expansão, 2018 (Prize Gulbenkian, Portuguese Academy of History, and Prize D. Diniz, 2018, Casa Solar de Mateus, 2019; Mariano Gago Prize, Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores, 2019); and the John Dos passos Prze, 2019. A Obsessão da Portugalidade, 2017; Despenteando Parágrafos. Polémicas suaves, 2015; Pessoa, Portugal e o Futuro, 2014; Minima Azorica. O Meu Mundo É Deste Reino, 2014; O Peso do Hífen, Ensaios sobre a experiência luso-americana, 2010; De Marx a Darwin - A desconfiança das ideologias, 2009 (Prize Seeds of Science for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Ciência Hoje, 2010). João M. Brás published a book-length interview with him on his works under the title Utopias em Dói Menor. Conversas transatlânticas com Onésimo, 2012. His most recent books in creative writing are Correntes d'Escritas & Correntes descritas, 2019; Quando os Bobos Uivam, 2013; and Onésimo. Português sem Filtro - uma antologia, 2011. He edited Açores, Europa - uma antologia, 2010). A second, enlarged edition of his Açores, Açorianos, Açorianidade was published in 2011.
He is the author of more than two hundred essays published in various collective volumes and academic journals and hundreds of articles published in newspapers and other periodicals. For many years he was a regular columnist for the literary journal LER. He continues to write regularly for Jornal de Letras and frequently contributes to the Portuguese press in the US and Canada. He was the founder and continues to serve as director of Gávea-Brown Publications, which publishes English translations of Portuguese literary works and studies in Portuguese culture. He also founded and is the co-editor of Gávea-Brown, a journal specializing in recording the Portuguese experience in North America. He is co-editor of the e-Journal of Portuguese History, a joint venture by Brown University and the University of Porto, as well as of Pessoa-Plural, a journal on the works and life of Fernando Pessoa. He is a member of the editorial board of several professional journals, as well as a member of various professional organizations, and he is also a co-editor of a book series on Lusophone themes published by Liverpool University Press in the United Kingdom. He is co-editor of Bellis Azorica, a book series of Azorean books in translation by Tagus Press / U Massachusetts Press. He was elected member of the Academia Internacional de Cultura Portuguesa, Academia da Marinha, and Academia das Ciêcias, Lisbon.
He has given hundreds of lectures, mainly throughout the United States and Canada and all over Europe, as well as in Africa and Central and South America.
Since 1979 he has hosted a bi-monthly socio-cultural talk show (Daqui e da Gente) on the Portuguese Channel in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Between 2001-2003, he hosted a weekly talk show ("Onésimo à conversa com..." broadcast by RTP and RTP-International. He was a member of the Board of the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities from 1995 to 2001 and its Vice-President from 1998 to 2000. He is also a past President of the ACIA (Cultural Association of the Atlantic Islands) and has served as Vice-President of the AIL (Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas). Among many awards, Professor Almeida has received two decorations from two Presidents of Portugal - "Oficial" and "Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique." He received an Honorary Degree from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and another from Universidade Lusófona, in 2021. João M. Brás has just published a volume collecting 42 writings on his scholarly and creative works: Onésimo: Único e Multímodo, who also published a book on his works: Identidade, Valores, Modernidade. O pensamento de Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, 2015). In 2018 the President of Portugal appointed him President of the Honor Commission of the Day of Portugal. As such, he was the keynote speaker during the official ceremonies, a nationally televised event. In 2021 the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities gave him an Honorary Chairs' Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities. Brown University awarded him the Royce Family Professorship for Teaching Excellence in 2023.
