The IHC is one of the participating institutions of the Transatlantic Crossroads Lab (TransatlanticLab) project, based at the Institute of History of the CSIC — Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, in Madrid.

TransatlanticLab aims to use the Atlantic as a historical laboratory to explore colonial domination and racist ideologies, focusing on ‘how these dynamics, emerging from the plantation economy in the greater Caribbean, were maximised on both sides of the ocean’. Its aim is ‘to surpass current decolonial theories and simplistic understandings of racism as merely a system of prejudiced morality that can be corrected through education’. Based on a multidisciplinary analysis of contemporary social contexts, taking into account history, geography and the environment, TransatlanticLab will help to understand racial ideologies and colonial practices, as well as their impact.

The project was funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Staff Exchanges programme and involves ten institutions from five different countries. It also has 13 partner institutions from 12 countries on the Atlantic coast. It is coordinated by Consuelo Naranjo Orovio, from the Institute of History (CSIC). The coordinator at NOVA University Lisbon is historian Víctor Barros (IHC), with the participation of researchers Marta Macedo (IHC) and Maria Cardeira da Silva (CRIA). The project has total funding of €1,803,600, with €85,170 allocated to NOVA University Lisbon.