COURSES 2021/22 Fall Term Courses
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NOVA COURSES 2021/22 Fall term courses • Western European Empires – from colonial past to postcolonial world Jorge Pedreira, Pedro Aires Oliveira, José Neves, Pedro Cardim, Alexandra Pelúcia • The History of Politics and the Politics of History José Neves • Filming the Past – the case of Portuguese Documentary Film Catarina Alves Costa • History in the Media: contesting, commemorating, resignificating Carla Baptista, Paulo J. Fernandes and Pedro A. Oliveira • Oral History: theories and methods Paula Godinho e Maria Alice Samara • Digital and Spatial Humanities for Historians Daniel Ribeiro Alves • The Essentials of Archival Research Maria de Lurdes Rosa and Maria João da Câmara 2021/22 Spring term courses • Museums as spaces of memory, identity and activism Alexandra Curvelo COURSE DESCRIPTIONS Western European Empires – from colonial past to postcolonial world Jorge Pedreira, Pedro Aires Oliveira, José Neves, Pedro Cardim, Alexandra Pelúcia Fall Term, AY 2021-2022 Mandatory Credit value: 8 ECTS Module: Histories of inclusion and exclusion; Entanglements between national, regional, and global frameworks of history Consultation: during office hours or by appointment at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected] BRIEF INTRODUCTION: This course is devoted to the history of the Western European colonial empires, with a particular focus in the case of Portugal and its empire, combining global and national perspectives. It covers the period between the early sixteenth century and the late twentieth century. The course will provide students with key insights on the historical development of the Western European colonial empires and will highlight the social construction of their memories. The uses of the colonial past in building and rebuilding collective (national) identities and for the legitimation and de-legitimation of modern polities will be explored. Particular emphasis will be placed on how that memory was contested and negotiated, and to what extent the legacies of empire are still present in the social, cultural and institutional fabric of both the former imperial powers and the post-colonial states. Part 1 provides an overview of the Western European empires, from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Part 2 focuses on the Portuguese case and surveys topics such as slavery and its place in the Portuguese empire, and resistance against the Portuguese colonial rule. Part 3 is devoted to the nineteenth and twentieth century imperialism, as well as to the end of the colonial regime. Part 4 is about the presence of the colonial past in late twentieth century Portugal. ASSESSMENT: The course emphasizes student participation and therefore a part of the final grade grows from student participation in class discussions (20%). Students will facilitate one seminar discussion of a PDF assigned article/book chapter reading by posing initial question(s) for discussion (20%). Students will hand in a 4,000-5,000 word-final essay focused on one or more of the main topics of the course contents (60%). The History of Politics and the Politics of History José Neves Fall Term, AY 2021-2022 Elective Credit value: 8 ECTS Module: History and the institutionalization of memory; Visual representations and medialization of history Consultation: during office hours or by appointment at [email protected] BRIEF INTRODUCTION: The course explores transnational interactions between Politics and History throughout the last two centuries. It analyses how historical research and the writing of History may have contributed to the formation of modern political cultures and ideologies, as well as investigates ways through which political events and political views may have fostered methodological and theoretical transformations within the discipline of History itself. Encompassing developments as diverse as the unification of Germany and the emergence of Postcolonial Theory, the course will specifically focus on the emergence of modern conceptions of space and time and on the making of historical and political subjects. How did economic nationalism participate in the consolidation and renewal of National History, from the unification of Germany to the rise of new nations in Asia and Africa? How the emergence of the labour movement and Marxist discussions on Russia and Latin America may resonate to today’s debates on Transnational History? How did the term totalitarianism gain a conceptual life of his own throughout the 20th century, progressing from Italian antifascist discourse to American Cold War sovietology? Or how the so-called “pensée 68” invests recent scholarship on Nazism, as well as ethical debates on the memory of the Holocaust? And, to give one final example: how the development of a Postcolonial critique of the discipline of History is linked to the spread of Maoism from China to India throughout the second half of the 20th century? And how this Postcolonial critique may lead historians to be less dismissive towards non-scientific ways of making sense of, and being sensitive to, history and time? ASSESSMENT: The course emphasizes student participation and therefore a part of the final grade grows from student participation in class discussions (10%). Students will facilitate one seminar discussion of a PDF assigned article/book chapter reading by posing initial question(s) for discussion (20%). Students will hand in a 4,000-5,000 word-final essay focused on one or more of the main topics of the course contents (70%). Filming the Past – the case of Portuguese Documentary Film Catarina Alves Costa Fall Term, AY 2021-2022 Credit value: 8 ECTS Elective Module: Visual representations and medialization of history Prerequisites: M.A. level course Credit value: 8 ECTS Consultation: during office hours or by appointment at [email protected] BRIEF INTRODUCTION: The course will focus on the way the past and memories in the present have been represented in documentary film. We will use the case of Portuguese contemporary history in its relation with both the colonial past and other international circulation of people, migrants or refugees. This course will profit from Portugal´s geographical, socio-political and historical positioning: as a historically connected and connecting country to other spaces, dialoguing with emerging epistemologies, such as those of Brazil, and articulating theoretical debates of both central and more recently developed anthropologies. Documentary film in its ideas of evidence, ethics and politics highlights historical discourses and uses of the past. We will deconstruct critically the rhetoric and forms of representation, as well as different levels of discourse about those historically constructed moments, focusing on the impact those representations have on individuals and communities. The films and the concomitant discussions focus on the cinematically constructed ambiguities of the world we live and lived in. Memory, the reconstruction of the past and the ideological rhetoric’s will relate with specific events, social groups and places. The sessions will be organized together with Cinemateca, The Portuguese Film Archives (ANIM). ASSESSMENT: Written reports from viewing films or visiting archives (3) 10% each One Final Essay Assignment: students will hand in a 4,500-5,000 word-final essay focused on one of the main topics of the course contents – 70% History in the Media: contesting, commemorating, resignificating Carla Baptista, Paulo J. Fernandes and Pedro A. Oliveira Fall Term, AY 2021-2022 M.A. level course Credit value: 8 ECTS Elective Module: Visual representations and medialization of history Prerequisites: Consultation: during office hours or by appointment at [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]. BRIEF INTRODUCTION: This course focus is to understand the key roles of media as interfaces between the history produced in academic circles and the general public, thus making the experience of the past inherently dynamic and prone to reconstructions or revisions. The course will explore the issue of how the modern media (print, digital/online or audiovisual) can function as space in which conflicting visions and claims about the past are advanced, either by institutions, organized groups or individuals. The course will allow students to situate the boom of “popular history” since the 1990s (with new protagonists disputing the ‘authoritative role’ previously held by historians) and identify some of the dominant themes in several European countries (from imperial nostalgia to forms of historical “negationism”, or the rise of post-colonial or “identity” agendas). Through a series of case-studies, students are expected to gain a better understanding of the peculiar dynamics of historical controversies, either in terms of the argumentation techniques or legitimation strategies employed, as well as acquire competencies in assessing the reliability of historical arguments. ASSESSMENT: • Seminar paper: 60%; • In class participation (discussion of articles or book chapters: 20%; • Examination of sources: 20% Museums as spaces of memory, identity and activism Alexandra Curvelo Spring Term, AY 2021-2022 M.A. level course Credit value: 8 ECTS Elective Module: Visual representations and medialization of history Prerequisites: Consultation: during office hours or by appointment at [email protected] BRIEF INTRODUCTION: The course will focus on the role of museums as knowledge-based institutions that create