RESEARCH NETWORK
HISTORICITY OF BODIES IN AMERICAN SOCIETIES

The first activities involving PPGH and the researchers that make up this network began in 2017 when Prof. Dr. Enrique Normando Cruz initiated his post-doctoral internship under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marcia Amantino at PPGH/UNIVERSO. This marked the beginning of a significant academic journey, with the professor lecturing on "Themes of Cultural History: The European Occidente and the Indian Occidente (16th-18th centuries)" as an inherent part of the internship in April of the following year.

 

In 2018, professor Dr. Marcia Amantino held the closing conference of the II Conference of Indigenous and Colonial Studies: Gender Studies in America, organized by the National University of Jujuy and the Centro de Estudios Indígenas y Coloniales (CEIC), from November 28- 30, at the city of Jujuy, Argentina, presenting the topic "Black slaves in colonial Brazil."

 

Between August 5 and 7, 2019, during the IV Congress of Economic History of APHE, held at the University of Piura (Peru), the panel entitled "Between the colonial moral economy, agents, and social practices in the conflictive eighteenth century" was coordinated by Dr. Enrique Normando Cruz (CONICET-UNJu), Dr. Marcia Amantino (UNIVERSO), and Dr. Luisa Consuelo Soler Lizarazo (UACh).

 

That same year, the papers presented at the panel were published in TEMPUS Revista em Historia General de Medellín, Colombia / julio-diciembre 2019, number 10, Special Issue entitled "Moral economy, agents and social practices, siglo XVIII."

 

In 2020, the historical interests between the two researchers and professor Dr. Luisa Consuelo Soler Lizarazo, from the Universidad Autónoma de Chile, created the collection entitled "Societies in Movements: the Iberian Empires and illustrated Reforms, 18th-19th centuries." The following year, the same work was published in digital format. The collection includes research works by Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean, Peruvian, Mexican, and Venezuelan authors. The work was endorsed by the CONICET Plurianual Research Project "Constructions of sovereignty in the frontiers of the Colony and Independence (Jujuy in Salta del Tucumán, 1780-1821)" (PIP-112-201301-00074-CO); Research Project of the Autonomous University of Chile "Relations of power and monopolies of violence" (Project No. DIU156-2019); and the Project "The Society of Jesus in the troubled 18th century" at the Salgado de Oliveira University and was published by the National University of Jujuy.

 

The 2nd "International Meeting of the Slave Societies in the Americas Laboratory: Bodies" was held remotely in December 2020 in partnership with the National University of Jujuy and UE-CISOR-CONICET. American and North American researchers from the fields of history, anthropology, dance, and medicine participated.

 

Gradually, ideas regarding this discussion about American bodies began to take shape. So, in the year 2023, Prof. Dr. Grit Kirstin Koeltzsch, from the National University of Jujuy, began her post-doctoral internship at PPGH under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jayme Ribeiro developing the research project "Brasiliana on the world stages. The construction and representation of an Afro-Brazilian identity through dance performances during four world tours (1950-1973)". One of its activities was to offer the extension course "Historical Studies of the Body. Transdisciplinary Concepts". The course took place in person, on the premises of PGH, between June 6 and 9, 2023.

 

In the second semester of this same year,  Prof. Dr. Grit Kirstin Koeltzsch and Prof. Dr. Enrique Normando Cruz taught a postgrad course at PPGH for master's and doctorate students whose research covered, in some way, the issue of bodies, performances, and corporeality. The course was entitled "Historizing performances, performing history. Transdisciplinarity in modern studies"; it lasted 60 hours and admitted four credits.

 

As a result of the discussions within the network, the book collection entitled "Amefrican Bodies. Studies on the Bodies in their Historic Dynamics (17th-20th centuries)" was prepared and edited by Grit Kirstin Koeltzsch, Fernando Olvera Charles, and Enrique Normando Cruz. The proposal was presented to the publisher at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas (Mexico) and is still in the editing process.