TERRITORIES AND BORDERS OF CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL HISTORY: SOURCES, OBJECTS AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES
This proposal for a thematic symposium is situated within the field of History, establishing a dialogue with other areas of knowledge. Its central aim is to bring together historians and researchers from the other human and social sciences whose research is centered on Political History.
However, this is not political history conceived from a traditional perspective, centered on the study of rulers, based exclusively on official documents, and grounded in a linear conception of time. On the contrary, we are interested in research that adopts an interdisciplinary approach, values the diversity of historical subjects, works with different types of documentary sources, and addresses multiple temporalities, with special emphasis on the twentieth century.
We expect to receive papers devoted to the study of the media, political parties, intellectuals and regional electoral processes. There is also interest in research on the political practices and actions of marginalized historical subjects, as well as those rendered invisible or stigmatized by state power.
However, it is necessary to specify the spatial scope privileged by this symposium. National history will not be the main organizing axis of the academic debates. We start from the premise that there are highly complex regional dynamics that escape hegemonic determinations — or that establish specific relationships with them — and that are frequently neglected in the narratives of “national history”.
In this sense, the symposium aims to receive studies focused on peripheral regions, located at the borders rather than at countries’ political-administrative centers. We expect, for example, the presentation of work that historically analyzes political actors, processes and outcomes, as well as the practices and strategies developed in territories such as the Brazilian Legal Amazon or Argentine Nordeste. Studies focused on other territories in different Latin American countries will also be welcome, as will research adopting a comparative perspective among multiple regional spaces.
Finally, this symposium seeks to promote debate on the theoretical and methodological aspects of political history, as well as to discuss the status of sources for this type of research and to reflect on the possibilities and obstacles posed by the organization of and access to documentary collections.
