América Latina em teses: a historiografia latino-americanista nas teses dos cursos de doutorado em história no Rio Grande do Sul (1986-2016)

Abstract

The work “Latin America in theses: the latin americanist historiography in the theses of the doctoral courses in History in Rio Grande do Sul” adopts as its object the analysis of the seventy-two theses about Latin America developed in the Postgraduate Programs in History – Doctoral level – in Rio Grande do Sul, from 1986 to 2016. Chronologically goes back to the creation of the Doctorate Course in History at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (1986) – the oldest of the three programs – and extends to the year 2016, passing the development of doctoral courses in the same area at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1995) and at the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (1999). The spatial cut is justified by the geographical and border conditions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the temporal, in the course of the Postgraduate Programs in Brazil, and the thematic, in the opportunity for reflection on the production of regional historical knowledge. To this end, the priority is to examine the structure of the theses on Latin America produced in the period, based on the five guiding points indicated by the works of Jörn Rüsen and his proposal for the matrix of historical thought. The question, “to what extent does a movement of epistemological transformation occur during the development of theses?” should be answered from the hypothesis of the existence of structuring hierarchies within the academic work, between Needs of Orientation, Conceptions, Methods, Forms and Functions of Orientation, to be confirmed through the matrix of historical thought in its relation to the set of theses. The methodology is based on the comparison, in the first instance, within each thesis, and then the comparison between theses, in the same variables, in order to perceive global ruptures and continuities, as well as the identification of their possible endogenous and exogenous causes.