Contemporary History and Citizenship

Scholar Year: 2022/2023 - 2S

Courses

Head Teacher Responsability Ana Maria Pires Pessoa Head

Weekly workload Hours/week T TP P PL L TC E OT OT/PL TPL O S Type of classes Lectures Type Teacher Classes Hours Contact hours Totals 1 2,00

Teaching language

English

Intended learning outcomes (Knowledges, skills and competencies to be developed by the students)

The main purpose for this curricular unit is to support international students to build a more open minded perspective towards the other (Kapuscinski, 2009), to understand other cultures and to develop interpersonal skills.
Contemporary history and citizenship is a privileged area for the understanding and the interpretation of the world. In this unit it will be given special emphasis to lifelong and complex themes such as colonialism, patriotism, nationalism, feminism, human rights …. In an inquiring way students will look for the contemporary national and international actuality, problems and challenges.
The most important goal is to contribute to the comprehension, to the understanding and the justified evaluation of history in the building of critical citizens, empowering them to recognize and to use their civic rights and to support them to be more intervenient in the society.
As different authors have been demonstrating ((Eric Hobsbawm,1994; Portelli, 2013; Traverso, 2012; Loff, 2015), the contemporary history and citizenship, as far as the 19th to 21st centuries are concerned, is difficult to analyze because nobody studies it as one does when regarding other past periods. The (re)construction of the (inter)national past, the media and school history teaching about it and the life living echo each one has from it may be seen more as difficulties than as facilities for the approach to the contemporary and present day history. Finally other two perspectives are foreseen: to be aware of the student’s countries origin and to promote the construction of interdisciplinary projects for their final evaluation in the unit.
Learning outcomes of the curricular unit:
The most important outcomes are:
- To understand the complexity of contemporary world
- To identify the most important moments of contemporary Portuguese and student’s countries history;
- To relate the different dimensions (space and time) of the contemporary period and to understand them in a double synchronic and diachronic dimension;
- To understand the national and international present in a huge relation with chronological, geographical and cultural evolution.
- to identify the most important actors/periods/systems of national contemporary and student’s countries history
- To use the history knowledge in a critical perspective and the understanding of how the past options influences both present and future;
- To understand, to interpret and to question, from a critical point of view, the sources and different information elements regarding historic investigation rules and methods
- To use and to organize different literacy skills in the study oh historic subjects and phenomena of the contemporary world in order that students may reveal basic understanding in different knowledge areas such as social, scientific, artistic and technical subjects.
- To discuss contemporary issues such as identity and nationalist questions, racism, fundamentalism, xenophobia, colonialism an engaged citizenship.
- To understand the difference between common sense and historical interpretation based thinking.
- To think about contemporary history and citizenship challenges in current world.

Syllabus

Liberal revolutions in Europe.
The new republican regime 1910-1926.
Non confessional state and the religious question.
The Republic and the social movements.
The fisrt world war and the end of the modern world.
Estado Novo: The crisis of the republican regime and the international context.
New post World War I - regimes and geography.
The ideological bases of the Estado Novo and international context.
The European and Portuguese structures of the 30 -50 years.
Europe and World War II – new challenges and today’s realities
Colonial and postcolonial issues from 1945 to 21th century.
From authority to democracy – (inter)national contemporary defies
Europe and the constructing of a globalized world

Demonstration of the syllabus coherence with the UC intended learning outcomes

The understanding, the appreciation and the critical evaluation of contemporary Portuguese history, its regional and world while integration, its values and its possible future must be some of the most important aspects of the construction and straitening of identity, to what history as an academic subject may and has to be used. The construction of critical citizens, able to identify and to use their civic rights of intervention, is reinforced by the way that the importance of history is used in this curricular unit. Working from this contents on, students must be aware of “fundamental references” that allow them a strong reading, both in a synchronic and diachronic dimension, of the most important moments of Portugal’s and their own countries contemporary history.

Teaching methodologies

In order to accomplish the curricular unit's objectives we foresee sessions of theory using different methodologies, mostly in presence of the whole group; Focused discussion about some themes, based on bibliography and original documents analysis, in different supports and English language; Collective interpretation and analysis of information, both theory and data gathering materials; Production of written essays (a comment of a document; an article, a short monographic work) ; Oral presentation of the results of those papers; Individual or group project from primary sources of information. Tutorial support is mostly in presence but it may also use email and Moodle Platform.
The evaluation includes classes’ research work and prepared participation in class discussions. Each student will write a paper (presented to the teacher) about one of the subjects of the syllabus and has to defend it, as an oral presentation, for the whole group. Tutorial sessions with the teacher and supporting discussions have a huge importance in the preparation and the guidance of those briefly investigation projects.

Assessment methodologies and evidences

Students are to be continuously assessed. The final mark takes into account the following parameters: class attendance and effectiveness of class participation – 15%; Participating in classroom activities – 35%; Research work – 30%: initiation to research; acquired knowledge; research habilites, critical analysis + 20% oral presentation in working session.

Attendance system

All sessions must be attended by students.

Bibliography

Gombrich, E. H. (1935/2005). A little history of the world.
https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id...assetKey...

Hobsbawm, Eric (1994) The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991. https://libcom.org/files/Eric%20Hobsbawm%20-%20Age%20Of%20Extremes%20-%201914-1991.pdf
Hobsbawm, Eric (2002). Interesting Times: A Twentieth-century Life. N York: Pantheon Books.
Hobsbawm, E. & Ranger, T. ed. (1983). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Judt, T. (2008). Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. New York: Penguin Books.
Loomba, A. (1998/2005) – Colonialism/postcolonialism.
http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781134267866_sample_497169.pdf
Maalouf, A. (2000). In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong. New York: Penguin Books.

Ramos R.; Sousa, B. V.; Monteiro, N. (2011). História de Portugal. Lisboa: A Esfera dos Livros.

Santos, B. (2002) O Mundo na Era da Globalização. Lx: Presença.

Sardica, José Manuel (2011). O Século XX português. Lisboa: Texto.

Sen, A. (2006). Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. https://books.google.pt/books?id=zSqBAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-PT&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Zweig, S. Stefan (1942/1964). The world of yesterday. Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press.

Observations

The main references in the bibliography are in English and Portuguese but each session will have other sources of information.
If it will be accepted by students and other teachers the final written essay (30% of assessment) may be interdisciplinary work.