The Center for Portuguese Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara was founded with an endowment from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the purpose of promoting and developing studies about the Portuguese speaking world in California and in the United States of America.
The Center provides support for teaching and degree programs and promotes the study of the literatures, language and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Portuguese is spoken in Brazil (over 200 million speakers), Portugal (over 10 million speakers) and Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor and Macau (over 45 million speakers). Services and activities include awarding student scholarships and stipends; promoting Portuguese language classes; hosting colloquia; maintaining the Center library; and sponsoring publications.
The Center was created by a grant of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to sponsor students and activities related to the Portuguese speaking world. The Center has also received support from various institutions, among which the Instituto Camões, the Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento, the Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica, the Comissão Nacional para a Comemoração dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, the Fundação Oriente, The União Portuguesa do Estado da Califórnia, the Luso-American Education Foundation, and from individuals and alumni.