PRR Project

Summary

Rationale NOVA FCSH seeks to expand its academic staff by appointing an Assistant Researcher in History in the era of the Anthropocene. In this research position, the selected candidate is expected to develop groundbreaking research on the impact of debates on the Anthropocene in historiography. In particular, the researcher should be able to address the methodological and theoretical limits of historiography within the research problems raised by such debates. She/he should promote transdisciplinary crossings between history and the social and human sciences, as well as between history and the natural and life sciences. Given the technical development of science in studies on human and non-human life, this scientific profile will contribute to the development of the transdisciplinary potential of the Associated Laboratory IN2PAST, which brings together chemists and architects, social anthropologists and forensic anthropologists, archaeologists and historians. It will also benefit from the fact that the “History of Science, Technology and Environment” research group of the IHC already congregates researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds, from biology and agronomy to history. Furthermore, the selected candidate will contribute to the research strategy of NOVA FCSH, namely to the “Territories and Sustainable Environments” research axis. Still in the context of NOVA FCSH, she/he will contribute to intensify the relations between the disciplines of geography and history, allowing the latter to reconsider the role of space in historical knowledge; and between history and archaeology, through the engagement in debates on deep history which question the limits of forms of periodization such as the contemporary, the modern, the medieval or the ancient. Finally, within the framework of the University itself, the researcher will contribute to the articulation of NOVA-FCSH with the research developed in NOVA-FCT (namely in CIUHCT) on the relationship between history and the Anthropocene. All these contributions should also translate into innovative topics renewing teaching programs in different disciplinary fields. Scientific profile The question posed by the Anthropocene has challenged historians at least in two ways. On the one hand, by fostering the development and renewal of environmental history, giving it a new impetus and relevance within the thematic agenda of historians and social scientists. On the other hand, a growing number of historians and social scientists have been arguing that the challenges posed by the Anthropocene involve more than just the rise of histories “of” the Anthropocene, as they also demand a critical debate on the anthropocentric limits of the discipline of History and the need to engage with post-humanist perspectives. Therefore, the researcher’s contribution can thus be defined at two levels. She/he should contribute to the growth of histories “of” the Anthropocene, working on territories that necessarily transcend national and continental limits, even if the starting point consists of territories and archives located in Iberian, African or Brazilian contexts. The researcher should also be able to develop research on several topics as diverse as forests and forestry policies; fires and their natural and social surroundings; plagues, famines and viruses; the landscape and its historicity; the history of colonial production; to name some of the research projects underway at the Associated Laboratory IN2PAST, particularly in its history unit, the IHC (and in IHC’s research group “History of Science, Technology and Environment”). Simultaneously, he/she will promote and take part on theoretical, methodological and ethical debates involving History, Anthropology, Archaeology and Political Ecology, including the crisis of humanism, the nature/culture divide and the status of indigenous epistemologies. Key responsibilities In short, the researcher is expected to conduct several of the following research and academic tasks: •    To develop research on the impact on historiography of the concept of Anthropocene; •    To contribute to the research life of NOVA FCSH, of the Associated Laboratory IN2PAST, and of IHC; •    To explore innovative research topics already underway at IN2PAST and IHC; •    To promote transdisciplinary crossings between history and the social and human sciences, as well as between history and the natural and life sciences, both in research and teaching; •    To promote debates on deep history in Portuguese historiography, and to question given chronological categories, such as the contemporary, the modern, the medieval and the ancient; •    To develop forms of collaboration between NOVA FCSH and NOVA-FCT on the relations between history and the Anthropocene; •    To actively seek and apply for opportunities of national and international funding, and to guide research towards forms of dissemination in line with public policies of inclusive citizenship.