Historical

 Historical

To tell the history of the Graduate Program in Social Memory (PPGMS), we need to remember the creation of the institution that hosts it, the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), given that the particularities of the PPGMS’s historical trajectory are closely related to the courses that gave rise to UNIRIO.

Established as a public-law foundation and part of the Federal System of Higher Education, UNIRIO originated from the Federation of the Isolated Federal Schools of the State of Guanabara (FEFIEG), created by Decree-Law No. 773, on August 20, 1969. This decree brought together isolated Higher Education institutions that were previously linked to the Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Education and Culture, Health, and Labor. In this merger process, traditional institutions were integrated, such as the National Conservatory of Theater (now the School of Theater), the Villa-Lobos Institute, the Central School of Nutrition, the Alfredo Pinto School of Nursing, the School of Medicine and Surgery of Rio de Janeiro, and the Library Science Course of the National Library. FEFIEG retained its organizational structure until 1975, when the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro merged. At that time, its name was changed to the Federation of the Isolated Federal Schools of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FEFIERJ). The Permanent Archive Course (of the National Archives) and the Museum Course (of the National Historical Museum) were incorporated into FEFIERJ two years later. It was Act 6.555, date June 5, 1979, that gave the name University of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) to what was then FEFIERJ, and Act 10.750, dated October 24, 2003, changed its name to the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, while keeping the same acronym (UNIRIO).

The historical trajectory of the Graduate Program in Social Memory (PPGMS), which comprises Master’s and PhD programs, mirrors that of the University that hosts it, especially regarding its creation. It began with the Master’s in Cultural Centers Administration, implemented in 1987 to attend the internal demand for graduate training for professors in UNIRIO’s undergraduate programs in Museology, Archival Science, and Library Science. These programs consider memory as a cross-cutting theme in their fields of study, given that museums, archives, and libraries are spaces where different memories are presented for learning, information, entertainment, and other facets of human activity. It is no coincidence that discussions that took place in the former Master’s in Cultural Centers Administration were transferred in 1995 to the Master’s in Social Memory and Document, after a curricular reform that sought to address not only the administration of cultural centers, but also to reflect on memory in its social dimension.

The years between 1995 and 2000 were crucial in developing conceptual tools and advancing reflections on Social Memory at a time when the academic field was still in its early stages. We explored the role of Social Memory in various areas of knowledge, whether as a source or as a way to access knowledge in different societies. During this process, starting in the year 2000, the Program adopted a new structure that paved the way for designing a PhD program, which was implemented in 2005. As part of this reform, the name of the Master’s program was changed and the term “Document” removed, thereby aligning its name with that of the PhD program.

In parallel, we developed this field of study to the point that our program served as a model for others in Brazil, such as the Master’s in Social Memory and Heritage created in 2006 at the Federal University of Pelotas, for which we initially contributed and with which we continue to maintain frequent exchanges. Early in our trajectory, we also offered an expanded training experience with a special cohort of students from the State University of Vitória da Conquista in Bahia. Several courses were taught specifically for these students, as their university did not yet have any graduate programs. After two years, these students defended their theses in Rio de Janeiro. This experience constituted an original proposal, preceding CAPES’s establishment of their interinstitutional master’s and PhD Programs initiative (Minter/Dinter).

It is important to note that by then we were already interacting internally with other areas of knowledge, beyond Library Science, Museology, History, and Archival Science. One such area was Language Studies, whose initially modest interaction with us developed significantly and contributed to reflections on Social Memory, especially through linguistics and discourse analysis. Another area was the studies related to subjectivity, facilitated by the inclusion of faculty from Psychology and Social Work. These two areas brought new momentum to the Program, which then came to encompass four research lines, reflecting four specific and central themes of Social Memory: Language, Subjectivity, Heritage, and Space. The theoretical and practical contribution of the Social Memory studies based on the pioneering and groundbreaking experience of the program created by UNIRIO has been recognized in various contexts, including international settings, such as our collaboration with the University of Avignon in France. This fruitful partnership produced bilingual publications (under CAPES’s Saint Hilaire Program) and a cotutelle agreement for PhD candidates, conferring degrees recognized by both institutions. At UNIRIO, we have also begun collaborating with other undergraduate and graduate programs, since Social Memory intersects multiple fields of knowledge.

The Graduate Program in Social Memory is a pioneer in offering the first PhD course in Social Memory in Brazil and South America. This pioneering role is also distinct in that it was the first program in Brazil to center on social memory as its theme, serving as an inspiration for at least three other programs focused on this topic, as well as others that have Social Memory as a research line. In this context, it is worth highlighting that the PPGMS and the reflections developed here demonstrate our potential to foster the expansion of the National System of Graduate Studies.

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PPGMS | Graduate Program in Social Memory

2023 © PPGMS Developed with Plone by Renato Mauro

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