Research Project Ways of being, seeing and living: the Ibo world from the writing of Chinua Achebe (West Africa, 20th century)
Coordinated by Prof. Cláudia Mortari (Department of History).
The aim of the research is to unveil the ways of being, seeing and living in the Ibo world (Nigeria) in the context of colonialism and the independence process, by analyzing the literary works of the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (The World Breaks Apart, 1958; The Arrow of God, 1964; Peace Lasts Only a Short Time, 1960), understood here as historical evidence. Among the many questions that intrigue us, some seem central. How does the writer highlight the actions and worldviews of his different characters? How can we understand the social dynamics, the contacts between natives and Europeans in this context? How did the local native populations interpret and construct their vision of the European presence in the region? What does the author and his writing allow us to uncover about the historical process? Furthermore, we assume that Chinua Achebe’s works are deeply informed by his vision and meanings of history. He was a shrewd observer of the social transformations brought about by contact with Europeans. Who were his interlocutors? Which cultural traditions were instituted and reproduced in his work?
Research Project The revolt of the gaze: conceptions of history in the Guarani audiovisual narrative
Coordinated by Prof. Luisa Tombini Wittmann (History Department).
This research aims to analyze indigenous historical interpretations present in audiovisuals produced by the Guarani. It will seek to understand how and why indigenous people film and tell their own story. Indigenous audiovisual language contributes to the dissemination of other perspectives on Brazilian history, including its pedagogical use in accordance with Federal Law 11.645/08, which made the teaching of indigenous history and culture compulsory in Brazilian schools. In general, a decolonized Guarani viewpoint will be highlighted, starting from the perspective that indigenous peoples are subjects of history and producers of knowledge about it.
Research Project Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Present: reception and uses of the past.
Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Filipe Noé da Silva (Department of History).
This project investigates the instrumentalization (historical, literary, artistic, architectural and political) of Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the present time, based on the concepts of Reception and Uses of the Past. Since the 18th century, still as a direct result of the philological studies that would constitute modern Scientific History, the Histories of Antiquity and the Middle Ages have been used to identify and legitimize possible ethnic and cultural identities compatible with the nationalist projects of Modernity. Similarly, between the 19th and 20th centuries, Ancient History and Archaeology were mobilized by reactionary, exclusionary and totalitarian political regimes to serve colonialist and racial-ethnic supremacist projects. On the one hand, the use of the concept of “Uses of the Past” has allowed us to scrutinize the motivations behind this instrumentalization of Antiquity and the Middle Ages for anti-democratic purposes, but also, in recent times, its use associated with social proposals that defend coexistence, democracy and human rights.On the other hand, the so-called “Reception Studies” have broken with the idea of a cultural heritage transmitted unchanged from Antiquity and emphasized the need to find out how each era has read, interpreted and made use of textual and archaeological documentation, always in the present time. Investigating contemporary uses (social, identity, cultural and political) and receptions of the Ancient and Medieval past, at local, national and international level, based on historiographical, literary, architectural and artistic references, among others, is the main objective of this research project.
Research Project Between civic benefaction and Christian charity: a reading of late antique munificence from the textual tradition and Latin epigraphy from North Africa.
Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Filipe Noé da Silva (Department of History).
This research investigates the practices of civic munificence offered in the Roman cities of North Africa between the 4th and 6th centuries of the Common Era, with the aim of understanding how the Christian church, with its structures and hierarchies, impacted on the benefactions offered to the cities. In this endeavor, we are interested in highlighting the ruptures and continuities between the subsidies from the classical period and the charitable practices offered by Christian leaders in the late antique period. To this end, we will use the ancient textual tradition and Latin epigraphy produced in this period as our main sources of research.
AYA LABORATÓRIO 