Nova University of Lisbon, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Centre for the Humanities

The CHAM — Centre for the Humanities is an inter-University research unit of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and of the Universidade dos Açores, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and graded “Excellent” on the last evaluation process of R&D Units (2013-2014).

In September 2013, CHAM welcomed researchers from the former Centro de História de Além-Mar, Centro de História da Cultura, Centro de Estudos Históricos, and the Instituto Oriental, becoming one of the main centres of historical research in Portugal.

From 2015 to 2020, CHAM’s strategic project will focus on “frontiers”. With a solid core on historical studies, this multi-disciplinary project will consider frontiers as lines that separated, throughout history, a plurality of societies and cultures, but also as social and cultural constructs that promoted communication and interaction. This theme is organised around three structuring topics: the frontier as a spatial divide; the frontier as an intellectual boundary; and the frontier and the constructions of identities.

Due to its heterogeneous concept, a frontier is a topic that inevitably demands cross-cultural, comparative surveys, as well as multi-disciplinary approaches. CHAM is particularly suited for such a challenge, since it brings together researchers from a wide range of periods, from Antiquity to the early-modern and modern periods. CHAM’s team also includes experts from various disciplinary fields (Archaeology, Art History, Heritage, Literature, Philosophy and History of ideas), different domains of History (Economic, Cultural, Political, Social, Religious, History of Science and History of books and reading practices) and also History specialists from various geographic spaces.