The Thematic Sector of Contemporary and Modern History, which initially organized the Program, originated four specific thematic sectors. The Sector of Ancient and Medieval History, created in 1988, later subdivided into two specific sectors.
The Thematic Sectors are dynamic structures with laboratories and research groups. These structures are reassessed every trimester, and they have the following academic arrangement in the triennium initiated in 2007:
Thematic Sector of Ancient History
The thematic sector of Ancient History was created in 1988, along with the sector of Medieval History, and it is organized in three lines of research: economy and society; power and society; culture and society. The lines refer to three civilizations: Ancient Greece, Palatial Mycenaean societies from the Bronze Age, the polei from the VIII to the IV century b. C.; Ancient Rome, Republican Rome from the V b. C. century to 30 b. C., Imperial Rome from 30 b. C. to the end of the II a. C. century; Celtic Societies, from the first Iron Age to the IV a.C. century.
Thematic sector of Medieval History
The sector of Medieval History is organized in three chronological sub-themes related to the Medieval West: Early Middle Ages (V/X centuries); High Middle Ages (XI/XIII centuries); Late Middle Ages (XIV/XV centuries). We refer to the Medieval West as Great Britain, Germania, Iberian Peninsula, Italian Peninsula and Gaul. The researchers of the sector, in two centers of research, develop studies on the lines of research in the Program.
Thematic Sector of Modern and Colonial History
This thematic sector is organized through a historiographical debate on economy, power mechanisms, social structures and mental frameworks of the Old Regime, focused on the characteristics of the Portuguese Empire. The following themes are approached: governmental, legal and corporate institutions in the Iberian and colonial world; tensions and continuity in metropolises and colonies; everyday life and religion in Iberian and colonial societies; relations between the Crown and settlers / vassals / subjects; indigenous cultures in colonial circumstances; Africa and African diasporas; colonial slavery; structure and dynamics of colonial economies; conceptions of nature, wealth, power, political action, knowledge and religion in tradition and modernity.
Thematic Sector in Contemporary History I: Tradition and Modernity
This sector reflects upon the problem of the passing of modernity from the middle of the XVIII century to the first decades of the XX century, focusing on issues of slavery and post-abolition, fighting for land, commerce and business, nation, citizenship, rights, culture and identities.
Thematic Sector of Contemporary History II: Culture and Politics
This sector reflects upon the themes and tendencies of contemporary historical bibliography, historiographical schools and new methodologies of Political History, Cultural History and Social History. It incorporates dimensions and categories such as culture, political culture, historical culture, material culture, memory, identity, ethnicity, gender, generation related to the concepts of class and ideology, in the approach of social movements and conflicts from the middle of the XIX century to the Present Time. It proposes approaches associated with different fields of History, highlighting oral history, image history, history and narrative, historical bibliography history, public history and history teaching.
Thematic Sector of Contemporary History III: Critical Theory and History Knowledge
This sector is organized through a totalizing perspective of History, with a critical view, which gives relevance to the scientific and social dimensions of historical knowledge. This study focuses on contemporaneity and its formation process. It is oriented by theoretical and methodological concerns related to: themes and tendencies of contemporary historical bibliography; social project and history; Marxisms of XX century and history; history and science; impacts of post-modernism on historians.