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The Program conducts interdisciplinary studies on Social Memory and Cultural Heritage through research projects that explore the different backgrounds of its faculty: Oral History, Urban Geography, Architecture, Restoration Materials, Urbanism, Archaeology, Anthropology, Art, Music, and Photography. Its basic scope is to consider the interfaces between material and immaterial culture and the inseparability of cultural and environmental heritage.

Memory and Identity
This line of research is dedicated to studying different conceptions of memory that range from the individual to the collective. It addresses the various interfaces between memory and culture and their expressions in different media (print and audiovisual) and institutions (museums, memorials, archives and documentation centers). Studies concerning claims of memory, contemporary processes of memory conflicts, political memories, obliterations and oblivions, uses of the past, transmission of traditional knowledge, labor memories as well as material and immaterial heritage are covered in this line of research.

Memory Institutions and Collections Management
This line of research discusses the role of memory institutions in the field of cultural heritage. It conducts research on policies concerning the representation and preservation of collections as well as the methodological procedures for the management and care of collections. Finally, it includes studies on legal and constitutional protection of cultural heritage.

Heritage and City
This line of investigation encompasses research on the city as a locus on the construction of memories and identities, associating issues of urbanization, social territories and symbolic construction of space through the processes of activation and representation of cultural heritage and their identity claims. Therefore, the city is studied as an index of construction of the cultural landscape, aligned with the representations of the different groups within it.

Memory and Cultural Heritage Policies in the Mercosur Region
Develops research on the history of cultural heritage policies in the Mercosur Region, discussing the contexts that establish cultural and political relations with contemporaneity. The research focuses on public policies that link memory and heritage in the Mercosur region. It also includes research on memory and collections policies within Mercosur, emphasizing the network of social meanings and practices established by different social groups. Finally, it approaches several themes found in the Southern Cone: political expressions and representations of social memories and cultural heritage linked to the social processes and conflicts related to Military Dictatorships, Human Rights and social minorities of Mercosur.

Total credits: 38 credits
Duration: 48 months
Degree: PhD in Social Memory and Cultural Heritage