PROPOSAL FOR CREATION OF A

RESEARCH NETWORK
OFFICIAL NOTICIE 01/2020 -
RESEARCH NETWORK

The proposal about to be submitted must support the creation of a Research

Network, with the purpose of sharing goals, procedures, responsibilities, labs and equipment
among the many research groups participating in the proposal.

1. RESEARCH NETWORK NAME

SILB Network – Land Grants in the Portuguese-Brazilian Empire on the SILB Network: a
platform for agrarian studies as a project in Digital Humanities

2. PROPOSAL FIELD OF EXPERTISE

The field of expertise it’s History, adhering to the Digital Humanities.

3. RESEARCH GROUPS INVOLVED
Research Group Name Head Institutio
n

Rural History Core Márcia Maria Menendes UFF

Motta
Iberian Empires on the Old Monica da Silva Ribeiro UFRRJ
Regime: politics, society and
culture
History of Colonial Ceará: Almir Leal de Oliveira UFC
economy, memory and
society
Laboratory for Carmen Margarida UFRN
Experimentation in Social Oliveira Alveal
History
4. SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE ON THE FIELD OF
EXPERTISE

The Director for SILB Network and also head of the Laboratory for Experimentation in
Social History (LEHS) research group, professor Carmen Margarida Oliveira Alveal it’s an
specialist on Agrarian History and Law History with emphasis on agrarian matters on the modern
period, as her publications shows. Furthermore it’s co editor of the Spain’s Agrarian History
Magazine, connected to the Spanish Society of Agrarian History (SEHA), considered one of the
most important international periodicals on the field and in the Western World. Besides that,
provides guidance for dissertations connected to the land conflict matters. Also as part of LEHS,
are the professors Thiago Alves Dias (UPE/UFRN), Leonardo Cândido Rolim (UERN), Hélida
Santos Conceição (UNEB) and Vanda da Silva (SAP). The Professor Thiago Dias it’s attending
his postdoctoral studies ​on PPGH-UFRN under the supervision of the Professor Carmen Alveal,
on the land grants topic and cotton cultivation on the current northeastern region. The Professor
Leonardo Rolim, has defended his dissertation at USP last year, analyzing the settlement
through the land grants on the south border of Ceará with the Captaincy of Piauí. The Professor
Hélida Conceição, after her doctoral thesis defense on UFRJ, also last year on the occupation on
part of Bahia, already have another new project on the Environmental History field on the Bahia
land grants. Therefore, for further expansion of her insights and promote a debate, she has
joined the group for continue to discuss land grants. Finally, the researcher of the Public Archive
of Mato Grosso, Doctor Vanda da Silva, has made researches on land grants in Mato Grosso
Capitancy, and because of her work on the archive itself, has these land grants accounted for.
Therefore, being a important contribution.

The Professor of the graduate program in History of UFF and head of the Rural
History Core of UFF, Márcia Maria Menendes Motta its a reference in agrarian studies in the
1800’s as one can see in this researcher curriculum, publishing numerous authorial books on
land grants, Law of Lands and organized collections about it. Has formed a whole generation of
doctors in Agrarian History. She directs multiple national projects and it’s Director in the National
Institute of Sciences and Technologies Proprietas, on which SILB Network intend to be a part of
in the future. Of her research group, also will be part the professors Marina Monteiro Machado e
Nívia da Conceição Pombo, both from UERJ.

The first one researches Agrarian History in Rio de Janeiro since as an

undergraduate, has published her doctoral thesis on the Indigenous lands on the Vassouras
region and lectures on the Economy department of the Economic Sciences School of UERJ. The
latter has researched more recently the Governors action through the many states about the new
measures implemented on the land grant legislation on the turning of the XIX century.

The research group History of Colonial Ceará: economy, memory and society its
headed by the Professors Almir Leal de Oliveira (UFC) and Francisco José Pinheiro (UFC). Both
are significant connoisseurs on the land grants documentation of Ceará, including the Professor
Francisco Pinheiro who performed on his doctorate degree a analysis of the land grants of this
State. Both Professors are already developing with their team a project about the land grants with
a approach towards Environmental History. Both have showed their appreciation at joining the
SILB Network, to improve service and therefore avoid the overlap of efforts, the objective behind
the creation of a network.
Finally, the research group Iberian Empires on the Old Regime: politics, society and
culture, headed by Prof. Monica da Silva Ribeiro (UFRRJ), despite her not direct involvement on
Agrarian History, inside her group there is a line of research named Spacial Dynamics and
territorial on the Iberian Empires, with the participation of the members Rafael Chamboleyron
(UFPA) and Nauk Jesus da Silva (UFGD), these with contributions to the field.
Therefore, its a solid team with expertise on the Agrarian History field and that
certainly the reunion of such researchers in a network will allow an intense intellectual exchange.

5. CURRENT RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

LEHS-UFRN has its own office at CCHLA (room 122), equipped with 10 desktop
computers, a printer, a round table for meetings. In addition, a SINFO server where
the SILB Platform database is saved for extra security, with constant backups being
performed. Furthermore the colleagues from other Universities, with some variation,
have their own spaces appropriate for the development on the efforts for SILB
Network..

6. POTENTIAL OF THE NETWORK FOR THE

ESTABLISHMENT OF SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS

At the national scientific scenario the network have at its disposal a larger insertion
among the PROPRIETAS Network (INCT) on the thematic field of ‘Land, wealth and property’
and the line of research Social History of Property. In accord with the premise of this line of
research, as much we dispose of historical documents and information about public and private
property in Brazil, more we can contribute to illuminate the theoretical and practical issues on the
creation of the agrarian legislation in Brazil and its relation with the social conflict and national
social movements. Given the land importance, both as a limited property, as a inaugural axis of a
historical discussion about the concept of property, the Network has potential to contribute with
the historical dimension of the debate between individual and collective interests.

The Institute of Comparative Studies on Institutional Conflict Administration

(INCT-InEAC), hosted at the Fluminense Federal University, it’s one of the possibilities of
scientific collaboration. The Institute have as objective to collaborate with the innovation on the
social technologies towards the institutional administration of conflicts on the Brazilian society,
both through a theoretical point of view, and the point of view of its application and
implementation, through adjustments able to perform on the multiple contexts where its required.
Therefore, the Network intends to present institutional paths for the mediation of land conflicts in
Brazil through the use of historical informations existent on the land grants.

The Network intends to establish scientific collaboration with civilian entities and
associations who promote the knowledge and the diffusion of Agrarian Law, for example, the
Brazilian Institute of Agribusiness Multidisciplinary Juridical Studies, the Brazilian Union of
Agrarian Academics and the Brazilian Union of Environmental Advocacy, for the purpose of
contributing with the debate and solution for existent conflicts on private and public property on
the use and interaction with the historical documents and land titles.

On the international scientific scenario we highlight the potentiality of scientific

collaborations with the Centre de Recherches sur le Brésil Colonial et Contemporain (CRBC) of
the École de Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in France. The Center is currently
directed by Jean Hébrad and a brazilian, Claudia Damasceno Fonseca. The researcher Claudia
Damasceno has excelled in her researches on the Urban and Rural History field, and in addition
to her objects of research being connected to the History of Brazil(XVI-XXI century), she has
achieved through many years the attendance in academic cooperation accords between
France/Brasil, promoting the CRBC as one of the most important research centers in rural
sociology and colonial Brazilian economics in Europe. Also its worth mentioning that Professor
Carmen Alveal had a travel scheduled to spend 4 weeks on the United States where she would
go on a academic tour on 5 American Universities, including: University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; Minot University; State University of New York at Buffalo; University of
Vanderbilt and RIce University, funded by each of these Universities on the internal transfers and
accommodation. The objective was the endeavor of building partnerships and raise funds.
Unfortunately, the current context of pandemic, the trip has been canceled. Howether, the same
trip is planned for October next year.
7. FORMATION PLAN OF HUMAN RESOURCES FOR
RESEARCH

In addition to the participation of the main doctoral researchers, the Network will be
composed of undergraduate students, but mainly graduate students and doctoral students with
the goal of instigating the research in the land grants field. They will be the basis of the team,
which also will feed the expansion of the database. All the researchers, with the exception of
Vanda da Silva, which is employed by the Mato Grosso Public Archive, are professors connected
to graduate programs and had formed students on the Agrarian History Field. As mentioned, the
Professor Márcia Motta has formed a generation of researchers, as Marina Monteiro Machado
which is a part of SILB Network. The Professors Nauk Maria de Jesus and Rafael Ivan
Chamboleyron also had formed and keep guiding students on this field. The major part of these
professors have undergraduate interns in scientific research with strong potential to follow
academic careers.

8. STRATEGY FOR EXTERNAL FUND RAISING

SILB Network intends to concentrate efforts on enabling the resources to optimize the
project performance through the division of tasks, intern programs of different operations to be
performed on the labs itself, cores, institutes and dependencies of research departments of their
own Universities. Therefore, part of the external resources for the performance of the project will
be concentrated on the counterpart that this institutions will demand when allocating intern
students or volunteers for the remote registry of land grants on SILB Platform. In the same
fashion, members of the Network commits to further expand the paid human resources allocated
to the project through possible scholarships of the PIBIC genre, both inside the partner
institutions, as in CNPq, raised through the participation of public examinations on each
institution.

SILB Network also commits to dispute for public examinations of CAPES, CNPq and
agencies of state incentives for the promotion of scientific events which integrate the theme and
the network researchers, for the means of enabling presencial training encounters, evaluation of
assignments, analysis of the operation productivity and development of the project, as well the
continuous formation of the involved staff.
9. EXPECTED RESULTS ON THE FORMATION OF THE
RESEARCH NETWORK

The main objective expected it’s the consolidation of the SILB Network itself through
two points

1) the expansion of SILB Platform; and 2) the joint production of scientific papers
based on comparative analysis.

The expansion of SILB Platform establish the idea of a project started a

decade ago in UFRN, when it largely increased the existent registered data. As there is
only information concerning the states of Pernambuco, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte,
it’s very important the addition of the states of Ceará, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso
and Piauí. It’s expected that the success of the Network is consolidated and we can, in a
brief future, depend on the financing of other states like Pará, Amazonas, Goiás, São
Paulo, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul.
A high quality scientific research will be possible through the precious data
obtained by SILB Platform which enables more refined analysis, making our studies excel
among others, which analyze the land grants and its context in a more subjective and
superficial fashion. In this manner, the members of SILB Network can count on this
informations and produce high level scientific papers to be published in leading specialized
magazines and if possible, international publications.

The creation of the SILB Networks results, in addition to highlight new studies
empirically well based, has social impact as the access to historical documentation can increase
the solicitations of land property revisions. The access to these documents can enable
marginalized groups to have their rights to land without being questioned, as it's the case of
riverside, quilombolas and indigenous communities. These documents, more than recover such a
important part of Brazilian History, can guarantee rights once it makes possible to prove the
presence of groups in the spaces they claim to occupy for long.