International seminar, which aims to stimulate the theoretical and methodological debate on the State and its history, integrated in the IHC Advanced Studies Platform.

The State of History

This one-day seminar, held annually, aims to stimulate theoretical and methodological debate on the State and its history. It is promoted by the University of Cambridge, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Institute of Contemporary History (NOVA University Lisbon and University of Évora).

It is open to the participation of historians and social scientists, including PhD students.

Programme (📎 download PDF)

09h45 | Opening, Victor Pereira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST & Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour)

10h00-12h30 | Old and new perspectives on the State

Based on the previous reading of the 🔗three texts listed below, workshop participants will discuss different historiographical perspectives on the State. The discussion will be led by Pedro Ramos Pinto (University of Cambridge).

— Patrick Joyce & Chandra Mukerji, «The state of things: state history and theory reconfigured». Theory and Society 46, pp. 1–19 (2017).
— Timothy Mitchell, «‘Society, Economy, and the State Effect»,’ in G. Steinmetz (ed.), State/Culture: State-Formation after the Cultural Turn (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press), 1999, pp. 76-97.
— Béatrice Hibou, «From privatising the economy to privatising the state: an analysis of the continual formation of the state», em Béatrice Hibou (ed.), Privatizing the state (New York: Columbia University Press), 2004, pp. 1-44.

12h30 | Lunch

14h00-17h00 | Ongoing research projects

Three individual ongoing research projects will be presented, followed by a period of debate.

— Diogo Duarte (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST), O anarquismo, o Estado e a arte de governar: Portugal, última década do século XIX e primeiras décadas do Século XX

— Diego Palacios Cerezales (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Policemen and the making of democracy in Spain. A state-in-society approach

— Elisa Lopes da Silva (CRIA — Iscte-IUL), Rural Utopias: State, Modernity and Agricultural Colonies in Estado Novo

Picture: State Electricity Commission of Victoria linesmen’s school, Oakleigh, Melbourne, 11 November 1946 (Monash Public Library Service)