The main objectives of the Building and Connecting Empires Research Group are: to promote in-depth knowledge and understanding of the nature of interaction and transfer between different political models and practices and social and cultural contexts, with a focus on global, transnational and comparative history; to document and discuss the complexities of empire-building and its enduring patterns, as well as the dynamics of domination, cooperation, resistance, conflict, and integration.
The activities to be promoted by the Group will be integrated into the following thematic strands:
- Spaces of encounter, integration and conflict: based on social, cultural, religious and political approaches in Africa, Asia and America;
- Representations of empires: focusing on their forms of interpretation (in letters, maps, travel narratives, for example) in their multiple dimensions;
- Interconnections on a global scale: resulting from the dynamics of contact between different cultural and geographical realities, affecting the circulation of knowledge, ideas, products, goods and people;
- Ocean voyages: in their different components (nautical, shipbuilding, routes, shipwrecks, battles, privateering and piracy).
In addition to conferences and national and international congresses, the IG has created a “Laboratory of Ideas” whose main objective is to promote debate on historical research issues within the Group’s thematic areas, to encourage the development of research projects that are in their infancy and to publicize the research taking place at the University of Lisbon History Center.