Isabel Baltazar was admitted as a Corresponding Academician to the Portuguese Academy of History, a scientific institution of public utility that brings together specialists ‘who are dedicated to the documentary and critical reconstruction of the past, materialised in the organisation of events and publications’. In 2020, Isabel Baltazar had already been recognised by the Academy with the History of Europe – Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Prize for her book ‘Repensar Portugal e a Ideia de Europa. Pensamento Contemporâneo’ [Rethinking Portugal and the Idea of Europe. Contemporary Thought].

The reception session for the new academics took place on 8 January at the Academy’s headquarters in Lisbon. After the imposition, Isabel Baltazar made remarks about her career, where she has crossed history, philosophy and European studies, focusing on the study of the foundations of European construction. She emphasised her recent works, such as the ‘Dicionário das Grandes Figuras Europeias’ [Dictionary of Great European Figures] (which she coordinated with Alice Cunha) and the ‘Dicionário As Mulheres e a Unidade Europeia’ [Dictionary of Women and European Unity] (which she coordinated with Alice Cunha and Isabel Lousada), both published by the Portuguese Parliament.

Currently coordinating the UNESCO International Network ‘The City that Educates and Transforms’ (based at ISEC, where she is a professor) and the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme in Portugal, the IHC researcher also spoke about the work she has been doing with young people, saying that her mission is, through education, ‘to transform young people into promising lovers of history and builders of this new city, of a better world’, leaving them the message that ’history has a future and the new generations will be the pebble we leave on the path, that seed that germinates with research and also with action.’

The Portuguese Academy of History is made up of four categories of academics: Academicians of Merit, Honorary Academicians, Corresponding Academicians and Academicians of Number. The Academicians of Number are 30 personalities recruited from among the Corresponding Academicians. Academicians of Merit and Honorary Academicians are invited for their particular relevance to the Academy’s mission.

Picture: ISEC