CHAM – Humanities Center is an inter-university research unit linked to the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon and the University of the Azores, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology. In September 2013, CHAM joined researchers from the following research units: from the former Beyond-the-Sea History Center, the Center for The History of Culture (CHC), the Center for Historical Studies (CEH) and the Oriental Institute (IO), becoming one of the largest Portuguese research centers in the humanities area. “Borders” are the central theme of the CHAM strategic project for the period 2015-2023. Based on a solid historiographical basis, this multidisciplinary project will study the frontier as a line that has separated, throughout history, a plurality of societies and cultures, but also as a social and cultural construction that promoted communication and interaction. This central theme is organized around three structuring problems: the border as a spatial division; the border as an intellectual demarcation; and the border and the construction of identities.
Due to its multiform character, the frontier is a theme that inevitably requires a cross-cultural approach, as well as comparative and multidisciplinary approaches. CHAM is particularly well trained to deal with this challenge, as it brings together researchers trained in various eras (from antiquity to the modern and contemporary period), various disciplinary fields (Archaeology, Art History, Heritage, Literature, Philosophy and History of Ideas) and areas of History (Economic, Social, Cultural, Religious, Politics, Science, Books and Reading Practices) and specialists in history.
