1000

In this course, there is an emphasis in the history of history. The objective is to present and discuss the topics that comprise the basic culture of an historian today and in this country. The program is divided into three alternating blocs. The first is a panoramic view of the most remarkable moments of the writing of Western History. The second, with a similar approach, is related to writing of history in the American continent and Colombia. The third is a workshop of history writing lasting five weeks, along with the elaboration of a final essay. Thus, this is not a program focused on the facts of history but on its writing, and its emphasis is on history understood more as a contemporary writing genre of philosophy and literature, than as a social science. Its tradition dates back thousands of years, and many of the fundamentals that are part of the culture of a historian are the legacy inherited from many centuries ago. We will study notions such as chronicles, historical narration, historical critiques, sources, historicism, and New History, all of them encompassed in a historical vision of the writing of history.

Both during learning and research in history, it is necessary to be familiarized with a series of concepts and knowledge on the relations interconnecting them. Nonetheless, many of these concepts have been formulated by other disciplines and even terms have ended up changing their meaning in different times. These circumstances show as well that concepts are historically determined and susceptible to change in time, therefore becoming an ideal field for history scholars. The program intends to analyze some of the fundamental concepts of 20th century historiography.

This course will analyze the political use of identity and patrimony during the 20th Century in Latin America. This objective intends to be reached by studying cultural legislations and some case studies that signal the local and regional community empowerment conducted from the community to face public policies of the multicultural and biodiverse Latin American states.

The aim of this course is to familiarize the students with African-American thought. The course revolves around three main thematic axes: the first is a critical look at the Yorubian tendency that has set Cuba, Haiti and Brazil up as paradigms of Afro-Americanism and African-American studies. This condition has excluded or subordinated the reconstruction of historical and cultural processes of other African populations deported to Central and South America. The second thematic axis revolves around formulating arguments for a debate on the Afro-Caribbean and the Afro-Andean historical specificities. The third thematic axis is an analysis of the relationship between history, memory and cultural heritage regarding the Afro-Latin-American legacies.

Scientific knowledge and technological development have played a key role in the creation of the modern world and any attempt to study and understand history, culture, economy and the society in general, must incorporate in its analysis the social processes triggering scientific and technologic change. Similarly, for a true assessment of scientific development, it is necessary to offer a historical perspective that permits the understanding of social and cultural contexts rendering possible the development of technology and scientific savoir faîre. This program intends to provide the students, both from social and natural sciences, with a general introduction to some of the most important inquiries and debates of social surveys conducted in the fields of science and technology.