Group 4 | Global History and Memory: Themes and Approaches

Coordination: José Eduardo Franco; Vice-coordination: José das Candeias Sales

Presentation

The current of “global history” as a historiographical ideology proposes that the construction of knowledge about the past be carried out in the light of a global reading key, seeking to overcome the tendentially closed circular or self-referential logic of national histories. It is a matter of situating the understanding of the themes and problems that are the object of historiographical research and interpretation in the porous framework of global dynamics, which confer greater complexity to the analysis of processes and results, and of taking into account the notion of network. In this sense, global history is not limited to the history of globalization, its processes and effects.
The development of research projects from this great outline, having as a critical observation point the historical movements in the long-term, articulated with the analysis of their effects in the medium and short-term in a given territory of expression, allows us to understand the historical study objects in their various genres, with hybrid and composite originalities, in which the local receives from the global and the global is also enriched with the local. History comes essentially to be understood in a “glocal” way, in which territories and historical times are studied in their intrinsic connection to the circulating “machine” of the world. Even in times of greater isolation, there were porous borders that ensured some circulation and a certain airiness, even if the result was the exercise of denying the global to defensively emphasize the self-referential, umbilical perspective of what happened locally.
The work of global history is built on an epistemological basis that is intrinsically interdisciplinary, interepochal, interspatial, and interrelational. The old arrangement by epochs, currents and genres can only be considered as an instrumental expedient for the purpose of facilitating the work, but these boundaries must then be broken down by the transversality of analyses, which can become, if the empirical data allow it, transepochal and transthematic.
It is important to note that, as Hervé Inglebert’s Manuel d’histoire globale stresses, “it is wrong, however, to limit global history to a ‘totalizing’ history. On the contrary, its richness and specificity lie mainly in its willingness to promote multi-level analyses, to change perspectives, to combine different scales, from the large to small ones.
Global history does not present itself with a totalizing scope, but an enabling one. In the light of this idea, the fundamental purpose of our Research Group is to open new paths to explore a multitude of analyses that will allow us to complexify the critically constructed historical knowledge.

Objectives

  • Rethinking historical knowledge in a global context.
  • Building knowledge about the past in the light of a global reading key.
  • To promote reflection on typical global history themes and problems.
  • To develop research and editing projects inscribed in the epistemological horizon of global history.
  • To streamline research teams in global history.
  • To organize scientific events on global history issues.
  • To establish exchanges with research networks in global history.

Projects and initiatives

Portuguese Global Stories” project (research and editing):

  • Global History of Portugal
  • Global history of Portuguese literature
  • Global history of food in Portugal • Global history of education in Portugal
  • Global history of political thought in Portugal
  • Global history of art in Portugal
  • Global history of spirituality and mysticism in Portugal
  • Global history of Portuguese missionary activity
  • Global history of philosophy in Portugal, etc.

Project “Portugal in mirror play – Global collection”:

  • Portugal according to Europe
  • Portugal according to Lusophone countries and nations
  • Portugal according to the world
  • Portugal according to Portugal
  • Europe according to Portugal

Project “Globalization in the ancient world”:

  • Dynamics and processes of globalization in the ancient world
  • History and global memory: reception and representations of antiquity
  • Egyptology vs. Egyptomania – the construction of global knowledge about ancient Egypt

“Vieira Global” project (complete works, selected works in 20 languages, dictionary).

“Pombal Global” project (complete work, study books, dictionary).

“Humanitas Selecta” project (complete works of Fernando Oliveira and Damião de Góis).

Global Studies Dictionary Project.

Global Heresies Dictionary Project.

Initiatives: congresses, colloquia and seminars.