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| Institute of Contemporary History (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Institute of Contemporary History |
| Native name | Instituto de História Contemporânea |
| Established | 1974 |
| Type | Research institute |
| Parent | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Location | Lisbon, Portugal |
Institute of Contemporary History (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) is a Portuguese research institute dedicated to the study of twentieth and twenty-first century events, personalities, institutions and movements. It is affiliated with Universidade Nova de Lisboa and operates as a hub for historians, political scientists, sociologists and archivists studying topics ranging from the Estado Novo to decolonisation, Cold War diplomacy and European integration. The institute coordinates research, teaching, archival acquisition and public dissemination through collaborations with national and international bodies.
Founded in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo, the institute emerged amid reforms at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a broader Portuguese opening to comparative history. Early work engaged with the legacies of the Portuguese Colonial War and the transitions surrounding the 1974 Portuguese legislative election and the Almada Negreiros-era cultural debates. During the 1980s and 1990s the institute expanded collaborations with the Comissão de História das Relações Exteriores and scholars linked to the European History Faculty and the International Congress of Historical Sciences. Its researchers contributed to projects on the Carnation Revolution memory, analyses of the NATO periodisation of the Cold War, and comparative studies involving the Spanish Transition to Democracy and the Greek Junta. In the 2000s partnerships with the European University Institute and the American Historical Association amplified transatlantic comparative programmes, while work on decolonisation intersected with archives from former territories such as Angola and Mozambique.
The institute functions within the administrative framework of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and reports to university governance bodies including the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). A scientific board comprising elected professors and external advisers from institutions such as the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Universidade de São Paulo and the Universidade do Porto sets research priorities. Executive direction rotates among senior scholars previously affiliated with centres like the Centre for Contemporary Portuguese History and the Instituto de Estudos Políticos; appointments are subject to university statutes and oversight by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (Portugal). Administrative units liaise with collections managers, project coordinators and international liaison officers who maintain links with bodies such as the European Research Council and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
The institute’s research spans political, social, cultural and diplomatic histories. Major themes include the Estado Novo regime studies, the Portuguese Colonial War, the politics of decolonisation in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique, and post-imperial migration involving France and Brazil. Comparative Cold War projects situate Portugal within networks involving the Soviet Union, United States, NATO and Non-Aligned Movement actors. Cultural history initiatives examine interactions between figures like Fernando Pessoa, Almada Negreiros and contemporary movements linked to the 1974 Carnation Revolution anniversaries. Ongoing funded projects have included collaborative grants with the European Commission on memory politics, a digital humanities mapping project with King's College London on diplomatic archives, and photo-ethnography work with the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea. Postdoctoral clusters investigate legal-political episodes such as the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty legacies and European integration processes culminating in the Treaty of Maastricht.
The institute issues monographs, edited volumes and conference proceedings and supports peer-reviewed journals that attract contributions from scholars at Princeton University, Universität Heidelberg, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Università di Bologna. It publishes thematic series on dictatorship, decolonisation and migration, and contributes to edited collections with publishers like Cambridge University Press and Routledge. Institute staff edit or serve on editorial boards for journals comparable to Journal of Contemporary History, Hispania Nova, Portuguese Studies, and regionally focused outlets tied to the Iberian Studies network. Publication strategies include open access partnerships with repositories such as the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association and collaboration with university presses at Universidade de Lisboa and Universidade do Minho.
Embedded in teaching at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the institute supervises doctoral dissertations and offers postgraduate seminars linked to the Doctoral Programme in History and master's programmes in contemporary history and heritage studies. Faculty coordinate modules on comparative dictatorship studies, decolonisation, diplomatic history and archival methods; visiting professorships have included scholars from Yale University, Columbia University, Universidade de Coimbra and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa network. The institute runs summer schools with partners such as the Instituto Camões, intensive seminars on oral history with the Oral History Association, and curriculum exchanges with the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
The institute curates archival holdings comprising private papers, diplomatic correspondence and audiovisual materials connected to personalities like former ministers, diplomats and activists. Collections include materials transferred from municipal archives in Lisbon and regional deposits from Algarve and Azores repositories, as well as digitised items from colonial administrations in Luanda and Maputo. Special collections intersect with photographic archives relating to the Carnation Revolution and ephemera from political movements linked to the Portuguese Communist Party, MFA (Movimento das Forças Armadas), and trade union archives linked to CGTP-IN. Cataloguing efforts follow international standards and collaborative digitisation projects with the National Archives of Portugal and the European Digital Library increase accessibility.
Public engagement includes exhibitions, conferences and public lectures co-organised with the Museu do Aljube, the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo, and municipal cultural services in Lisbon. Partnerships extend to international consortia such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database initiatives and the European Memory Network, while policy briefings engage cultural ministries and heritage bodies like the Direção-Geral do Património Cultural. The institute fosters media outreach through commentary in outlets such as Público, Diário de Notícias, Expresso and international platforms, and runs collaborative workshops with NGOs focused on memory, migration and transitional justice.
Category:Research institutes in Portugal