If history is a response to the questions raised by contemporary citizens (L. Febvre), regimes like the Estado Novo have used and continue to use historiography to achieve their ends and safeguard their interests. Celebrations, events, rituals of nation exaltation, honoring heroes, and commemorating significant and symbolic events have served and continue to serve to construct the present grounded in the greatness of the past.

In the Portuguese context, the April 25th Revolution and the shift in political, cultural, and social paradigms also led to the natural opening of new paths that favored the transformation of thought and the sciences. The discipline of History underwent changes with the emergence of new themes and fields of study, innovative methodologies, and epistemological reflections.

With this seminar, we aim to provide moments of reflection, analysis, and debate on the role of History and Memory as means of instrumentalizing the past and the present, in the service of nationalisms or regionalisms. We will explore the significance of commemorations and other solemnities as support for certain ideologies and practices, as well as the means of resistance and change that have historiography as their backdrop.

Program available here.

Organising Committee

Susana Serpa Silva (CHAM Açores)

Pedro Martins (IHC / NOVA FCSH)

Organization

As Comemorações dos 50 anos do 25 de Abril

CHAM Açores