The Graduate Program in History he Postgraduate Program in History offers both an Academic Master’s and a Doctorate, recognized and accredited by CAPES and Ministry of Education in 2004 and 2023, respectively. Its Area of Concentration, History and Historical Culture, reflects its commitment to exploring the intersections between historical processes, the production of knowledge, and its dissemination. The program is structured around two primary lines of research: “History and Regionalities” and “Teaching of History and Historical Knowledge.”
PhD
History and Historical Culture
The “History and Historical Culture” concentration is characterized by stimulating and encompassing investigations that address the multiple forms of production, appropriation and uses of historical knowledge and the past and its expression in contemporary times. Historical Culture is an area of History Theory dedicated to reflecting on the production of historical experience in society and how communities form and transmit their vision of the past, including not only academic historiography, but also different narratives in society about history, its knowledge, its languages and supports.
This concentration emphasizes theoretical and methodological training, analysis of historical experiences, and the dissemination of knowledge.It also seeks to follow the circuit of professional qualification necessary for the production of historical knowledge, its critical analysis and its teaching, through fundamental angles of historical culture. This approach understands that socio-political disputes, in different historical processes, engender conceptions of history that, in turn, contribute to assigning social meanings to practices and relations established in the present, that is, they constitute forms of historical culture, the systemic-symbolic construct that establishes relations between the present and the past of a society or social group in its efforts to understand, explain, conserve or transform certain social orders, practices and identities.
While historical culture is not exclusive to professional historians, academic research plays a crucial role in critically analyzing how historical knowledge is socially constructed and disseminated. Therefore, the historian must scrutinize the conditions under which historical narratives are produced and how they interact with academic historiography. To explore these themes in depth, the program is structured around two lines of research:
Research Lines:
1. Teaching of History and Historical Knowledge
This Line of Research is defined by the development of investigations around historical knowledge and historical culture in their articulations with the teaching of History and historiography. Historical knowledge is understood as a set of elaborations and appropriations of historical knowledge and temporalities in their meanings and practices in the circuit of historical culture. Historical culture refers to the existence of several ways of understanding the different temporalities, which go beyond the formal aspects elaborated by historians in their craft. In turn, the teaching of History and historiography are related to the formal conditions of production and circulation of knowledge within the scope of historiographic culture and school cultures. By recognizing that historical culture is not exclusive to the historian’s profession, it is admitted that it is his/her function to analyze the impact of this knowledge in the context of teaching and beyond it, seeking reflections from the perspective of local and regional histories, which can dialogue with broader contexts. The studies that this Line of Research has developed start from the premise of the specificities of historical knowledge, concerned with the narratives and historiographic studies produced by historians, but also with the ways in which historical knowledge is produced and transmitted, through cinema, literature, television, the press, the plastic arts, dramaturgy, popular culture, cordels, heritage and heritage education, photography, music, digital media, among other possibilities. This allows languages that were not part of the narrative instruments used by history professionals to be investigated, but which in recent decades have proved to be fertile fields for the discussion of historical knowledge, in addition to enabling research into the use of these languages in the school and academic spheres. In this process of researching the different forms of expression and transmission of historical knowledge and the teaching of History, we intend to identify concepts and subjects and, from there, understand the relations with the past undertaken through narratives, memories and silences, seeking theoretical reflection on the historiographic and teaching practice itself. This Line of Research welcomes the development of the following themes related to the teaching of History and historical knowledge: teacher training, undergraduate degrees and basic education; curriculum and school culture; memory and heritage education; educational legislation and policies; uses of contemporary media and technologies in history; historiographic languages; regionalities and local history; biopolitics and training institutions; hegemony practices; gender and intersectionalities; ecohistory; public history; political cultures; post-colonial, decolonial and decolonial theories; historiography.
2. History and Regionalities
This Line of Research is defined by the development of investigations on the historical construction of regionalities, symbolic-political elements that constitute the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of a region, understood as part in articulation with what is taken as local, national, transnational or global processes. The emphasis of this line of research is directly related to the concentration area “History and Historical Culture” insofar as it proposes to address, from a regional analysis perspective, contents of historical culture, trying to denaturalize the idea of regionality as a strictly geographical or cartographic spatial representation, but as historical and social constructions. Regionalities are, therefore, understood as historical constructs that are components of historical cultures produced, disseminated and appropriated by social agents in disputes shrouded in conceptions of historicity, and may take the form of integration, distinction or ruptures in relation to broader dimensions. This implies thinking, for example, about social and power disputes around memory, cultural practices, the formation of social identities, historical narratives, physical and symbolic territories and territorialities, and the constitution of future projects based on conceptions of history. The investigations of this line of research, dedicated to debating the historical construction of regionalities, seek to contribute to deconstruct sometimes crystallized conceptions about the attributed centers and peripheries, and the relations and worldviews between hegemonic and subalternized social groups. This Line of Research allows us to encompass investigations under different theoretical-methodological approaches and scopes on issues characteristic of regionalities: ethnic-racial relations; gender relations and intersectionality; economic relations; political relations, understood both by daily political practices, political cultures or institutional policies; work, movements and social classes and their relations with the State; circulation of ideas, representations, constitution of knowledge and places of power; educational practices and conceptions; religious practices and imaginary.
Master’s Degree
History and Historical Culture
The Master’s program shares the same Area of Concentration as the PhD program, fostering investigations into the production, appropriation, and uses of historical knowledge. The program emphasizes theoretical and methodological training, historiographical analysis, and the role of historians in critically assessing historical culture. The research focuses on how historical narratives are shaped by various social actors and how these narratives, in turn, influence contemporary understandings of history.
Researchlines:
1. History and Regionalities
This Line of Research is defined by the development of investigations on the historical construction of regionalities, symbolic-political elements that constitute the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of a region, understood as part in articulation with what is taken as local, national, transnational or global processes. The emphasis of this line of research is directly related to the concentration area “History and Historical Culture” insofar as it proposes to address, from a regional analysis perspective, contents of historical culture, trying to denaturalize the idea of regionality as a strictly geographical or cartographic spatial representation, but as historical and social constructions. Regionalities are, therefore, understood as historical constructs that are components of historical cultures produced, disseminated and appropriated by social agents in disputes shrouded in conceptions of historicity, and may take the form of integration, distinction or ruptures in relation to broader dimensions. This implies thinking, for example, about social and power disputes around memory, cultural practices, the formation of social identities, historical narratives, physical and symbolic territories and territorialities, and the constitution of future projects based on conceptions of history. The investigations of this line of research, dedicated to debating the historical construction of regionalities, seek to contribute to deconstruct sometimes crystallized conceptions about the attributed centers and peripheries, and the relations and worldviews between hegemonic and subalternized social groups. This Line of Research allows us to encompass investigations under different theoretical-methodological approaches and scopes on issues characteristic of regionalities: ethnic-racial relations; gender relations and intersectionality; economic relations; political relations, understood both by daily political practices, political cultures or institutional policies; work, movements and social classes and their relations with the State; circulation of ideas, representations, constitution of knowledge and places of power; educational practices and conceptions; religious practices and imaginary.
2. Teaching of History and Historical Knowledge
This Line of Research is defined by the development of investigations around historical knowledge and historical culture in their articulations with the teaching of History and historiography. Historical knowledge is understood as a set of elaborations and appropriations of historical knowledge and temporalities in their meanings and practices in the circuit of historical culture. Historical culture refers to the existence of several ways of understanding the different temporalities, which go beyond the formal aspects elaborated by historians in their craft. In turn, the teaching of History and historiography are related to the formal conditions of production and circulation of knowledge within the scope of historiographic culture and school cultures. By recognizing that historical culture is not exclusive to the historian’s profession, it is admitted that it is his/her function to analyze the impact of this knowledge in the context of teaching and beyond it, seeking reflections from the perspective of local and regional histories, which can dialogue with broader contexts. The studies that this Line of Research has developed start from the premise of the specificities of historical knowledge, concerned with the narratives and historiographic studies produced by historians, but also with the ways in which historical knowledge is produced and transmitted, through cinema, literature, television, the press, the plastic arts, dramaturgy, popular culture, cordels, heritage and heritage education, photography, music, digital media, among other possibilities. This allows languages that were not part of the narrative instruments used by history professionals to be investigated, but which in recent decades have proved to be fertile fields for the discussion of historical knowledge, in addition to enabling research into the use of these languages in the school and academic spheres. In this process of researching the different forms of expression and transmission of historical knowledge and the teaching of History, we intend to identify concepts and subjects and, from there, understand the relations with the past undertaken through narratives, memories and silences, seeking theoretical reflection on the historiographic and teaching practice itself. This Line of Research welcomes the development of the following themes related to the teaching of History and historical knowledge: teacher training, undergraduate degrees and basic education; curriculum and school culture; memory and heritage education; educational legislation and policies; uses of contemporary media and technologies in history; historiographic languages; regionalities and local history; biopolitics and training institutions; hegemony practices; gender and intersectionalities; ecohistory; public history; political cultures; post-colonial, decolonial and decolonial theories; historiography.
More information at: https://sigaa.ufpb.br/sigaa/public/programa/apresentacao.jsf?lc=en_US&id=1908
Translation: Projeto InELC-Plantão de Tradução
Última atualização: quarta-feira, 28 de maio de 2025
