The central theme of this project is the study of African, Maghrebi, Caribbean and Latin communities settled in Spain between 1808 and 1975, with the general objective of documenting and promoting the contemporary history of black Spain. For this, a triangulation between three continents is proposed -Europe, Africa and America- from the Spanish case, in a period that begins in a contemporary age marked by the American independences and ends with the African decolonizations. This temporary framework will allow us to trace the black presence in the peninsula for labor, religious, exile or artistic reasons, offering new casuistries that allow us to build a history of African, Latino, Caribbean and North African memories and legacies that puts into circulation a past of black-Hispanic traces still very unknown. The final objective is to document the different experiences of African and Latino groups in the peninsula to promote a history of Spain of black centrality that can, on the one hand, contribute to map out Hispanic-based transcontinental exchange genealogies and, on the other, promote greater democratic cohesion based on common memories and shared citizenships.

The link between representatives and constituencies is a vital part of the political life in every democracy. In most countries citizens’ votes are clustered in electoral districts, and political representatives are to varying degrees accountable to the districts (constituencies) that elected them. So, How do MPs behave in their home constituency?; How do MPs use the parliamentary floor to cater to districts’ interests?; How are recruitment and post-assignment in parliament used to connect with constituencies? Which factors explain differences in constituency-focus? These are some of the questions that animate the project HOME. The analysis unfolds in the context of a Small-N comparative study including Ghana and South Africa. These are two of the most established democracies in Africa, with remarkable records of free and fair elections and highly institutionalized party systems. However, they have important institutional and contextual differences that make the empirical analysis of constituency service relevant. The project applies an ambitious mixed methods research strategy that combines different types of quantitative (surveys, MPs’ biographies, parliamentary activity) and qualitative (documental research, interviews) data to answer the research questions and test different set of hypotheses. 

The aim of this project is the study of Africans and Maghrebiswho resided in the Iberian Peninsula between 1850 and 1975. This period marksthe beginning of the effective colonization of most of the African territories ofSpain and Portugal, and the end of its colonization with the granting ofindependence to the last possessions. It is based on the premise that thepresence of Africans and Maghrebins in Spain and Portugal at this time wasframed in Iberian colonialism and its rhetoric, which conditioned theirsettlement, activities, integration and visibility, also in terms of gender. Theinterest is to offer an Afro-Iberian history and to complete the shortage ofexisting studies that has practically reduced the African and Maghrebi presenceto its exhibition in human zoos and universal exhibitions, or to theirparticipation in war or sports activities.

Muitos países africanos vivem um contexto em que a sociedade se defronta constantemente contra o Estado ou corporações privadas. Nessa situação, as organizações da sociedade civil tornam-se peça fundamental no xadrez político do continente. Atuando em campos diversos e quase sempre buscando formas não tradicionais de organização, colocam novos desafios à sua análise e interpretação. Para responder a tais desafios, analisar os novos perfis do ativismo social no continente africano e as perspectivas de mudança trazidas pelos mesmos, o Centro de Estudos Internacionais do Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL) desenvolve este projecto de investigação, que integra, entre outros, o o ciclo de cinema documental Activisms in Docs, no Largo Residências e a Conferência Internacional Ativismos em África.

Marruecos y Guinea Ecuatorial fueron los dos territorios principales de la colonización española en África. Con diferencias substanciales en ambos países, ciertas prácticas socioculturales, lingüísticas o evangelizadoras del colonialismo español dejaron su huella, aunque los trabajos disponibles tienen lagunas y limitaciones al no ofrecer respuestas concluyentes sobre cuestiones clave, dificultando también su comparación. Primero, las políticas socioculturales establecieron marcos jurídicos diferentes para la población colona y autóctona, pero no está claro cómo se resolvieron muchos de los conflictos cotidianos y las tensiones entre ambos grupos, ni tampoco cómo las prácticas pudieron filtrar, o no, una segregación racial, étnica, laboral y de género, poco estudiada en Marruecos donde además se combinaba la histórica imagen devaluada de los “moros” con una política de respeto legal a lo arabo-musulmán y amazigh en el Protectorado, en una contradicción que no tuvo lugar en Guinea Ecuatorial. Segundo, otras prácticas enmarcadas en las políticas lingüísticas de españolización, residuales en Marruecos y sólidas en Guinea, acabaron por establecer una gestión desigual en ambos territorios que permitió el desarrollo de las lenguas amazigh y árabe en el primero, pero un enorme rechazo de las lenguas vernáculas en el segundo, con consecuencias en su españolización identitaria. Tercero, hubo prácticas coloniales marcadas por políticas evangelizadoras que en Guinea Ecuatorial buscaron debilitar la cohesión social étnica a través, por ejemplo, de la transformación de sus estructuras familiares. Creemos que estos tres aspectos deberían clarificarse para profundizar en los entresijos y contradicciones de la convivencia colonial intercultural, y también porque tuvieron consecuencias en las poblaciones marroquíes y guineoecuatorianas en el período postcolonial.El presente proyecto analiza estas prácticas socioculturales, lingüísticas y evangelizadoras del colonialismo español en M...

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between seven high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, majoritarian and consensual, and collects data to measure these principles.  It is a collaboration among more than 50 scholars worldwide which is co-hosted by the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; and the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame, USA. With four Principal Investigators (PIs), fifteen Project Managers (PMs) with special responsibility for issue areas, more than thirty Regional Managers (RMs), 170 Country Coordinators (CCs), Research Assistants, and 2,500 Country Experts (CEs), the V-Dem project is one of the largest social science data collection projects focusing on research.