Presentation

The Graduate Program in History at the Federal University of Paraíba (PPGH-UFPB), approved in 2003 by the deliberative bodies of UFPB, recognized and accredited by CAPES in November 2004, constitutes an Academic Master's Degree, with a concentration area called "History and Historical Culture", which expresses the articulation among the historical process, the production of knowledge and its transmission, unfolding in two lines of research: "History and Regionalities" and "Teaching History and Historical Knowledge".

 

Concentration Area 

History and Historical Culture

The area of concentration "History and Historical Culture" is characterized by stimulating and embracing investigations that address the multiple forms of production, appropriation and uses of historical knowledge and the past and their expression in contemporaneity. Historical Culture is understood as an area of Theory of History 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. Among these areas, the theoretical and methodological training, the analysis of different historical experiences and the socialization of the produced knowledge stand out. In this sense, this area of concentration also seeks to accompany the circuit of professional qualification necessary for the production of historical knowledge, its critical analysis and teaching, through fundamental angles of historical culture. This approach understands that socio-political disputes, in the different historical processes, engender conceptions of history that, in turn, contribute to assign social meanings to practices and relationships established in the present, that is, they constitute forms of historical culture, the systemic-symbolic construct that establishes relationships between the present and the past of a society or social group in its efforts to understand, explain, preserve or transform certain orders, practices and social identities. In this way, historical culture can be produced by various means and agents, such as the arts, media, memory institutions, political discourses, religious texts and interpretations, oral tradition, among others. Thus, if, on the one hand, the understanding of the existence of historical culture leads to the recognition that the elaboration of ways of understanding the past is not a monopoly of the history professional, on the other, academic research, based on theoretical-methodological training that supports the critical analysis of empirical sources, must necessarily reflect on the processes of constitution of these concepts and knowledge socially disseminated about the past. It is, therefore, essential for the historian to critically analyze the social conditions of the production and diffusion of a given historical culture and its relations with the academic production of historical knowledge itself. In order for these perspectives on historical culture to be developed with greater density, two lines of research were developed: "History and Regionalities" and "Teaching History and Historical Knowledge".

 

Lines of Reaserch 

History and Regionalities

The “History and Regionalities” 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 conjunction with what taken as local, national, transnational or global processes. The emphasis of this line of research is directly related to the area of concentration “History and Historical Culture” insofar as it proposes to approach, from a regional analysis perspective, historical culture contents, trying to denaturalize the idea of regionality as a spatial representation strictly geographical or cartographic, 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 involved in conceptions of historicity, which 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 concepts of history. The investigations of this line of research, dedicated to debating the historical construction of regionalities, seek to contribute to deconstructing sometimes crystallized conceptions about the attributed centers and peripheries, and of the relations and worldviews between hegemonic and subordinated social groups. This Line of Research makes it possible to encompass investigations under distinct theoretical-methodological approaches and scopes concerning 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 concepts; religious practices and imaginary.

 

Teaching History and Historical Knowledge

The “Teaching History and Historical Knowledge” Line of Research is defined by the development of investigations around historical knowledge and historical culture in its links with the Teaching 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 different ways of understanding the different temporalities, which go beyond the formal aspects elaborated by historians in their profession. In turn, the Teaching History and historiography are related to the formal conditions of production and circulation of knowledge within the scope of historiographic culture and school cultures. When recognizing that historical culture is not exclusive to the historian's profession, it is admitted that it is his/her role to analyze the impact of this knowledge in the context of teaching and beyond, seeking reflections from the perspective of local histories and regional, which can dialogue with wider contexts. The studies that this Line of Research has developed are based on the premise of the specificities of historical knowledge, being concerned with the narratives and historiographic studies produced by historians, but also with the ways in which historical knowledge is produced and transmitted, by medium of cinema, literature, television, press, plastic arts, dramaturgy, popular culture, twines, heritage and heritage education, photography, music, digital media, among other possibilities. This allows the investigation of languages that were not part of the narrative instruments used by history professionals, but that in recent decades have been shown to be fertile fields for the discussion of historical knowledge, in addition to making it possible to research the use of these languages in the school and academic environment. In this process of researching the different forms of expression and transmission of historical knowledge and the Teaching History, it is intended to identify concepts and subjects and, from there, understand the relationships with the past undertaken through narratives, memories and silences, seeking the theoretical reflection on the historiographic and teaching practice itself. This Line of Research welcomes the development of the following themes related to the Teaching History and historical knowledge: professor training, undergraduate and basic education; school curriculum and culture; heritage memory and education; educational laws and policies; uses of contemporary media and technologies in history; historiographic languages; regionalities and local history; biopolitics and training institutions; hegemony practices; gender and intersectionality; eco-history; public history; political cultures; postcolonial, decolonial theories; historiography.

____________________________________________

Sæculum – History Journal

Sæculum – History Journal has been published by the UFPB History Department since 1995 and, since 2004, it has also become the journal of the Graduate Program in History at the same university. Since then, its frequency has been semiannual, and it is a journal focused on the dissemination and debate of research in the field of History and Historical Culture and its various interfaces, opening space for dialogue between researchers from Brazil and abroad. It is assessed as Qualis B1 in the History area by CAPES (2013-2016 Assessment) and is indexed in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Google Scholar and Latindex.

____________________________________________

Curriculum Framework

The student of the Master's degree in History of PPGH-UFPB must fulfill 24 credits, distributed in 12 credits in 3 mandatory courses, 12 credits in elective courses. More 2 credits in Teaching Internship for fellowships.

Mandatory courses:

- HISTORY METHODOLOGY (60 hours, 4 credits) – Scientific revolution and scientific method. Historical scholarship and heuristic formulations. The philological method and documentary criticism. The historical method and historical science. Methods and techniques of historical research. Methodological currents of the 20th century. The documentary revolution and the status of testimony. Criticism of the document/monument and use of historical sources. Method and production of historical knowledge.

- THEORY OF HISTORY - EHSH (Teaching History and Historical Knowledge) (60 hours, 4 credits) – Study of Theories of History with regard to explanations of the historical process and systematic knowledge, considering their methodological and ideological implications on the practice of historians. The reflection on the theoretical references guiding the various Historical Schools, privileging the notions of object of study, writing models, scientific criteria and procedure of systematization of historical knowledge. The theoretical discussion on the forms of elaboration and popularization of historical knowledge from fundamental links between History and Memory, in view of the relationships between historians and society. History and Historical Culture, Teaching History and Historical Knowledge. 

or 

- THEORY OF HISTORY - EHSH (History and Regionalities) (60 hours, 4 credits) – Study of Theories of History with regard to explanations of the historical process and systematic knowledge, considering their methodological and ideological implications on the practice of historians. The reflection on the theoretical references guiding the various Historical Schools, privileging the notions of object of study, writing models, scientific criteria and procedure of systematization of historical knowledge. The theoretical discussion on the forms of elaboration and popularization of historical knowledge from fundamental links between History and Memory, in view of the relationships between historians and society. History and Historical Culture, History and Regionalities. Scales of analysis. Scales of analysis and regional, national and global processes.

- THESIS SEMINAR (60 hours, 4 credits) – Integrating Seminar: area of concentration (History and Historical Culture) and lines of research (Teaching History and Historical Knowledge; History and Regionalities).  Historiographies, sources and methodologies. Defense of the theme and formulation of the research based on an elaborated text, with subsequent argument from a reader professor.

 

Elective courses:

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORICAL CULTURE I (60 hours, 4 credits) – Memory, historical consciousness  and historical culture. Historical culture and historiography. Politics, social practices, knowledge and historical culture. Uses of the past. Symbolic power and hegemony. Historical culture and representations. Historical Culture and social identities. Historical culture and regionalities.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORICAL CULTURE II (60 hours, 4 credits) – Historical culture, imaginary, myth and religious phenomena. Religious identity. Atheism. Power and religion.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN CULTURAL HISTORY I (60 hours, 4 credits) – The main approaches to the Cultural History. Theoretical and methodological perspectives for research in Cultural History with a perspective on the history of reading, books, periodicals and reading practices. Representations, culture, imaginary. History and Narrative.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN CULTURAL HISTORY II (60 hours, 4 credits) - History and Historical Culture. Cultural heritage. Material and Intangible Heritage. Patrimonial Diversity. Heritage, document and monument. Cultural Heritage in Brazil. Heritage and historical research. Teaching History and Heritage. Patrimonial Education.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN POLITICAL HISTORY I (60 hours, 4 credits)    – The new approaches to political history. Forms of political participation. Political culture and representations of power. Power, politics and society. Modes of domination, society and the state. Power relations, political elites and elections. Political myths and imagery. Politics and Regionalities. Power relations and history teaching.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN POLITICAL HISTORY II (60 hours, 4 credits) – The Formation of the Nation-State in Brazil. Study of Brazilian society in the 19th Century. Historical experiences and political cultures. Family networks, strategies and trajectories in the political scenario. The history of health, diseases and relations of knowledge and power. Print, press, power and politics. History of education in the 1800’s and political culture.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN SOCIAL HISTORY I (60 hours, 4 credits) – Social history, power and politics. The historian and the history of the present time; theoretical conceptions about the relations between social classes, politics and the State; Class cultures; the centrality of the sphere of work, social classes and intersectionality; capitalism and spatial scale: contemporary history between the regional, the national and the global. Modes of domination, society and the state. Marxism and politics.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN SOCIAL HISTORY II (60 hours, 4 credits) – African Diaspora Intellectual Thought. Pan-Africanism. Negritude. Quilombismo. Black Feminism. Black Atlantic and Diasporas. Literature and Race Relations. Decoloniality. Intersectionality: race, gender, class. Native American  Intellectuality.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY I (60 hours, 4 credits) –  The active relationship between theory, methodology and historiography. Intersections between political and social history in Brazilian historiography. Historical subjects: historiographic perceptions about subjects and resistances in history. State, historical culture and historiography. Political implications of the historian's trade. 

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY II (60 hours, 4 credits) –  Issues and debates on the production of historical knowledge in the contemporary world and the revisiting of the historiography classics. Intersections between academic production and historical culture. 

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC LANGUAGES I (60 hours, 4 credits) – History, historiography, narratives, and digital and audiovisual languages. Historiographic languages ​​and historical sources. Visual history, Visual culture. Visual narratives. Audiovisual production. Photography. Comics. Movie theater. TV. Theater. Performance. Song. Visual arts. Literature.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC LANGUAGES II (60 hours, 4 credits) – Historiographic languages ​​and historical sources. Oral history, theoretical and methodological approaches: relationship with memory, narrative and historiography. Oral history and contemporary challenges. Written history and oral history. Historical knowledge, images and orality. 

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY AND TEACHING HISTORY I (60 hours, 4 credits) – The specificity of History Teaching as a research field; historiographic languages ​​in research on History Teaching and its discursive production; the processes of circulation and teaching of History in school and non-school spaces; school historical culture in its materiality from the perspective of history teaching research.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY AND TEACHING HISTORY II (60 hours, 4 credits) – Approaches to practices and knowledge related to the teaching of history in relation to the various school subjects; school knowledge, social process and cultural experiences; teaching history and historical culture; intentionalities, sensitivities, world of work and history teaching; memory, cultural heritage, social experience and history teaching; languages, culture and history teaching; history and history teaching of subordinated subjects.