Second annual scientific progress report. Memories, cultures and identities: how the past weighs on the present-day intercultural relations in Mozambique and Portugal?

Abstract

[Excerpt] Executive summary: The project’s main objective is to enrich the intercultural understanding, and to promote knowledge as well as analysing plural narratives and social representations of about the past and present in Mozambique and Portugal. Collection of these narratives includes recovery of historical materials, (re)interpretation of the colonial past and identity representations within the fields of cinema, school textbooks, museums and exhibitions and listening to the voices of secondary school students. The project also aims to promote scientific literature in the Portuguese language, highlighting works developed by Portuguese-speaking scientists. During the past year, priority was given to the collection and analysis of material in various regions of Mozambique and in Portugal. Bibliographic, filmographic, exhibition catalogues and history textbooks have been reviewed in both countries. This task was particularly challenging in Mozambique due to the absence of archives and the need to establish direct contact with the people involved in the preparation of school textbooks and educational policies, as well as the major geographical dispersion. The recovery of heritage items is a key element in the recovery of history, memory and the identities and representations of the “self” and the “other”. The material has been used to develop two databases – for films and school textbooks respectively - which will be published on a free access basis in the University of Minho’s Data Repository1, constituting an important instrument for scientific dissemination. The studies have resulted in nine articles published in journals, five book chapters, two books and a thematic edition of the journal, Vista. In addition, six book chapters and one issue of the Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais (Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies) are in press. Since the start of the project, 34 articles and seven book chapters have been published. This already exceeds the initially planned outputs, in terms of publications. It is noteworthy that14 articles have been published in journals indexed in Scopus and another five articles in journals indexed in ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences). [...]