Constellations of Memory: a multidirectional study of postcolonial migration and remembering

P.I. Elsa Peralta

Project Title: Constellations of Memory: a multidirectional study of postcolonial migration and remembering

Acronym: CONSTELLATIONS

Project Duration: From 01-01-2022 to 31-12-2024


Funding: 249.953,61€

Main Scientific Area: Sociology - Anthropology

Secondary Scientific Area: History

Funding: FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the Project PTDC/SOC-ANT/4292/2021.

PI: Elsa Peralta

Co-PI: Simone Frangella

Host Institution: Center for Comparative Studies (CEComp), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (FLUL) 

Participant Institution:Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS-UL)

Team

Being based on a multi-layered agenda, situated at the intersection of Anthropology, History, Memory Studies and Postcolonial Studies, Inter- and trans-disciplinarity is at the heart of this Project with the aim of developing new cross-cutting approaches from the Humanities and from the Social Sciences. Accordingly, CONSTELLATIONS gathers an international team of researchers and advisors, with backgrounds in anthropology, history, communication studies and cultural studies.
 

Description of the Project

CONSTELLATIONS is interested in the intersections between memory, migration and postcolonialism. The disintegration of European colonial empires caused a large movement of people (ex-colonizers as well as ex-colonized people) from the former colonial world to Europe. As a consequence, the politico-juridical classifications of citizenship, as well as the symbolic definitions of identity of European post-imperial nation-states changed. While national communities were re-imagined, most often on the basis of memorial representations that still placed empire at the centre of national identity definitions, the presence of black and Asian people became inseparable from what means to be European. This had several implications for the functioning and dynamics of a multicultural Europe and for the status of postcolonial subjects within its borders. 

In particular, this Project is concerned with the MEMORY CONSTELLATIONS created by the free or forced migrations that have accompanied European colonial empires’ demise and aftermath. The research is placed in a shared geography of memory – that of postcolonial Portugal – and is grounded in working-class neighborhoods inhabited by different sub-groups of postcolonial populations. It will consider two seemingly disparate post-colonial migrant groups in an effort to assess the connectedness of post(colonial) memories: 1) Former Portuguese colonial settlers (Retornados); 2) Immigrants from former Portuguese colonies. CONSTELLATIONS considers that both retornados and immigrants from Portuguese ex-colonies occupy a shared space, marked by an experience of unsettling created by colonial relations. 

In line with the concept of MULTIDIRECTIONAL MEMORY this research questions what new constellations of remembrance are produced through the uneven encounter between the two groups. It will focus on the connected (hi)stories of these postcolonial migrants and will consider their migrant trajectories, memories and identities, as well as their inter-relations and transnational networks against the backdrop of their particular socio-cultural surroundings, the larger regimes of memory that frame their experiences, and today’s scenario of global crisis. 

CONSTELLATIONS innovates in suggesting a systemic, empirically grounded and multi-layered approach to the study of memory and postcolonial migrations. It will contribute to overcome the theoretical shortcomings arising from the tendency to homogenize cultural and racial difference by stressing the multiple entanglements between different groups of postcolonial migrants. Also, it takes social class, together with race, ethnicity and culture, as a fundamental factor not only in structuring migrant’s stories, but also in the memory wars on colonial history taking place in contemporary Europe. 

Methodology

CONSTELLATIONS’ methodology combines:

• in-depth interviews;
• ethnographies of memory millieux;
• a digital ethnography of social media;
• a socio-cultural analysis of postcolonial memory narratives and debates.

Fieldwork is carried in the of south bank of Lisbon’s suburban area, in the Vale da Amoreira neighbourhood, populated after 1975 by both retornados and immigrants from Portuguese ex-colonies.

OUTPUTS

Workshops

• De L'Estoile, Benoît, "Colonial legacies", Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, 30/11/2023.
• Buettner, Elizabeth, "Postcolonial Europe", Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 02/05/2022.

Seminars

• Since 2022 - Seminar Cycle "Memory, Culture and Citizenship in Post-colonial Nations"

• 2022 - Peralta, Elsa, “Decolonial Iconoclasm: City, Memory, Participation”, TU Chemnitz, Institut für Europäische Studien, 7-9/09/2022 (with Dr. Ana Troncoso).

  

   

  Communications

   

  2023

• Guimarães, Murilo, “Do Sertão ao Vale: Reflexões sobre percursos etnográficos em contextos urbanos”, Seminários GI – Instituto de Ciências Sociais (ICS-UL), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, 09/11/2023.
• Ramos, Max Ruben (com Apolo de Carvalho e Marta Lança), "Discurso sobre o Colonialismo, seguido de Discurso sobre a Negritude" de Aimé Césaire. Apresentação do livro, Casa do Comum, Lisboa, Portugal, 05/11/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane, Coordination of Panel "Race, Citizenship, Labor and Memory in (Post-)Imperial Portugal", Chair: Leo Lucassen, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS Conference 2023 Belonging and Mobility, Amsterdam, Netherlands (online), 20/10/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane, "Decolonisation, migrations, and Portuguese citizenship", Panel "Race, Citizenship, Labor and Memory in (Post-)Imperial Portugal", Chair: Leo Lucassen, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS Conference 2023 Belonging and Mobility, Amsterdam, Netherlands (online), 20/10/2023.
• Góis, Bruno,"Immigrants, labor, and citizenship in post-colonial Portugal", Panel "Race, Citizenship, Labor and Memory in (Post-)Imperial Portugal", Chair: Leo Lucassen, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS Conference 2023 Belonging and Mobility, Amsterdam, Netherlands (online), 20/10/2023.
• Peralta, Elsa,"Labor and Citizenship in late Portuguese Colonialism in Africa", Panel "Race, Citizenship, Labor and Memory in (Post-)Imperial Portugal", Chair: Leo Lucassen, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS Conference 2023 Belonging and Mobility, Amsterdam, Netherlands (online), 20/10/2023.
• Prinzleve, Jonas,"Geographies of (un-)belonging: post-colonial culture and public memory in Lisbon", Panel "Race, Citizenship, Labor and Memory in (Post-)Imperial Portugal", Chair: Leo Lucassen, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS Conference 2023 Belonging and Mobility, Amsterdam, Netherlands (online), 20/10/2023.
• Guimarães, Murilo, “Um passo digital atrás do outro: o início de uma jornada etnográfica pelo mundo online do Vale da Amoreira”, Seminários CITCOM – Centro de Estudos Comparatistas (CEComp), Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, 12/10/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane,"Los impactos políticos de las repatriaciones de descolonización: el caso de los retornados portugueses de Angola y Mozambique", XVI Congreso de la Asociación de Historia Contemporánea, Universidad de la Rioja, Logroño, Spain, 07/09/2023.
• Vanspauwen, Bart (com Amanda Guerreiro), "Onde está o Brasil no 'jardim crioulo' de Lisboa? Emoções, memórias e afetos na cena musical lusófona da capital portuguesa", IV Conferência da ABRE - Associação de Brasilianistas na Europa, ISCTE, Lisboa, Portugal, 07/09/2023.
• Vanspauwen, Bart, "Da avenida ao jardim, da torre ao palacete: discursos pós-coloniais e afetos musicais em eventos festivos recentes na capital portuguesa", II Encontro luso-brasileiro de geografias emocionais. Em direção à uma justiça espacial afetiva, IGOT, U Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, 30/08/2023.
• Vanspauwen, Bart, "Dino D'Santiago's curatorship of the project Lisboa Criola: visual, sonic and discursive reappropriations of postcolonial cultural heritage", VI CHAM International Conference: Heritage for a Common Future, Panel P18: (Re)Creating Heritage: Artists as Heritage-makers, Colégio Almada Negreiros, U NOVA, Lisboa, Portugal, 12/07/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane,"The Return of Portuguese Settlers from Angola and Mozambique during the Decolonization Processes (1975-1977)", European Social Science History Conference, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, 12/04/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane,"Retornar desde os espaços coloniais", Descolonização e repatriamento na Península Ibérica - Descolonización y repatriación en la Península Ibérica, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal, 20/03/2023.
• Delaunay, Morgane, "Post-colonial migrants and national politics: the case of the Portuguese returnees from Angola and Mozambique", IMISCOE Spring Conference “Postcolonial migrations- heritages, specificities, mobilizations”, Nice, France, 17/03/2023.
• Góis, Bruno, "Portuguese women “retornadas” from Angola: social trajectory, colonial nostalgia and political participation", IMISCOE Spring Conference “Postcolonial migrations- heritages, specificities, mobilizations”, Nice, France, 17/03/2023.
• Peralta, Elsa, "The retornados from the Portuguese colonies in Africa and the contentious memory of colonialism and decolonization", IMISCOE Spring Conference “Postcolonial migrations- heritages, specificities, mobilizations”, Nice, France, 17/03/2023.

2022

• Delaunay, Morgane, "Decolonization and repatriation: The Portuguese case of the retornados from Angola and Mozambique.", 32nd Conference AEMI “Refuge and Hosting – Paths Towards Inclusion", AEMI - Association of European Migration Institutions, Fafe, Portugal, 30/09/2022.
• Peralta, Elsa, Guest at Symposium "Historical truth and accountability in the post-colonial state", Ghent University, Human Rights Centre, in Ghent, Belgium, 23/09/2022. 
• Delaunay, Morgane, "Os retornados e a memória da sua instalação no Portugal pós-colonial", Panel 93 "Constelações da memória pós-colonial”, VIII Congress Associação Portuguesa de Antropologia, Évora, Portugal, 6-9/09/2022. 
• Delaunay, Morgane,"Portugal and the repatriation of its settlers from Angola and Mozambique (1975-1981)", World History Association Annual Conference, Bilbao, Spain (online), 24/06/2022.
• Prinzleve, Jonas, “Postcolonial Cities in Digital Space: Introducing the Project ReMapping Memories Lisboa – Hamburg”. 3rd Seminar, CEComp-HD “Digital Methods in the Spatial Humanities”, Center for Comparative Studies (CEComp), School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, 16/05/2022. 
• Prinzleve, Jonas, “(Post-)Colonial Heritage in Hamburg and Lisbon. A Comparative Perspective”. Seminar course “Recent Research in Postcolonial and Global History”, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany, 19/01/2022. 

Publications

• Delaunay, Morgane (Forthcoming 2024), Les retornados. Accueil et intégration des rapatriés de la décolonisation portugaise. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
• Peralta, Elsa & Nuno Domingos (eds.) (2023), Legacies of the Portuguese Colonial Empire. Nationalism, Popular Culture and Citizenship, London: Bloomsbury.
• Peralta, Elsa (2023), "Memory of the empire and space of celebration: The case of the Belém District in Lisbon". In Legacies of the Portuguese Colonial Empire: Nationalism, Popular Culture and Citizenship, edited by Elsa Peralta & Nuno Domingos. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 27-44.
• Peralta, Elsa & Nuno Domingos (2023), "Portugal's colonial legacies and the (dis) continuities of the colonial past in the present". In Legacies of the Portuguese Colonial Empire: Nationalism, Popular Culture and Citizenship, edited by Elsa Peralta & Nuno Domingos. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 1-23.
• Peralta, Elsa & Nuno Domingos (2023),  "Afterword: Towards research agenda/program on colonial legacies". In Legacies of the Portuguese Colonial Empire: Nationalism, Popular Culture and Citizenship, edited by Elsa Peralta & Nuno Domingos. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 239-245.
• Vanspauwen, Bart & Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros (2023), "Embracing postcolonial diversity? Music selection and affective formation in TAP Air Portugal’s in-flight entertainment system". In Legacies of the Portuguese Colonial Empire: Nationalism, Popular Culture and Citizenship, edited by Elsa Peralta & Nuno Domingos. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 199-218.
• Peralta, Elsa & Nuno Domingos (2023), “Managing the Imperial Past. The Uses of Portuguese Colonial Exceptionalism”, Memoria e Ricerca, Rivista di storia contemporanea, 2/2023: 275-300.
• Peralta, Elsa (2023), "Review Article. Christoph Kalter, Postcolonial People. The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022", Práticas da História 15: 327-334. https://praticasdahistoria.pt/article/view/30066
• Rosas, Leonor (2023), De quem se esqueceu Lisboa? A luta pela inscrição da memória anticolonial e antirracista no espaço público, V. N. Famalicão: Edições Húmus.  

• Delaunay, Morgane (2022), "Portugal e o regresso dos colonos de Angola e Moçambique: Resposta governativa e memória", CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios , 44: 87-103. 
• Delaunay, Morgane (2022), "Discours, mémoire et fiction : les retornados d'hier à aujourd'hui (1975-2018)", in Dard, Olivier & Anne Dulphy (eds), Déracinés, exilés, rapatriés ? II. S’organiser, transmettre, mettre en récit, Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 73-88.
• Kalter, Christoph (2022), Postcolonial People. The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kalter, Christoph (2022), “Building Nations After Empire: Post-Imperial Migrations to Portugal in a Western European Context” Contemporary European History, 1-22.
• Kalter, Christoph, Claire Eldridge and Becky Taylor (2022), “Migrations of Decolonization, Welfare, and the Unevenness of Citizenship in the UK, France and Portugal” Past & Present, 259, 1: 155-193.
• Peralta, Elsa (2022), “The return from Africa: Illegitimacy, concealment, and the non-memory of Portugal’s imperial collapse”, Memory Studies, 15(1): 52-69.
• Peralta, Elsa (ed.) (2022), The Retornados From Portuguese Colonies in Africa: Narrative, Memory, and History, London & New York: Routledge Studies in Cultural History. 
• Peralta, Elsa (2022), "The history and memory of the Portuguese Return from Africa". In The Retornados from Portuguese Colonies in Africa: Narrative, Memory, and History, edited by Elsa Peralta. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1-32.
• Peralta, Elsa (2022), "Remembering the Return: Personal narratives of paradox and bewilderment". In The Retornados from Portuguese Colonies in Africa: Narrative, Memory, and History, edited by Elsa Peralta. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 78-100.
• Peralta, Elsa (2022), “Memórias e Contra-Memórias do Império e do Colonialismo no Espaço Público de Lisboa”, Revista Moara 61:113-130.
• Peralta, Elsa (2022), “The Memorialization of Empire in Postcolonial Portugal: Identity Politics and the Commodification of History”, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 36-37, Special Issue Heritages of Portuguese Influence: Histories, Spaces, Texts, and Objects, ed. Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, Anna M. Klobucka, & Walter Rossa: 156-179.
• Peralta, Elsa & Bruno Góis (2022), “Os Inseparáveis da Huíla: comemoração e nostalgia colonial nos encontros de portugueses retornados de Angola”, Lusotopie [Online], XXI(2).
• Peralta, Elsa, Morgane Delaunay & Bruno Góis (2022), “Portuguese (Post-)Imperial Migrations: Race, Citizenship, and Labour”, Journal of Migration History, 8: 404-431. 
• Prinzleve, Jonas (2022), “Silent memorylands: City branding and the coloniality of cultural memory in the Hamburg HafenCity”, Memory Studies Journal.

Doctoral dissertations

• Rosas, Leonor, (Un)doing the colonial city: A comparative analysis of
(post) colonial sites of memory in Lisbon and Brussels. Doctoral dissertation in Anthropology, DANT ULisboa - ICS, ISCSP, FLUL. Supervision: Elsa Peralta. Ongoing.
• Prinzleve, Jonas, A Postcolonial Turn in Public Memory? Lisbon and Hamburg Compared, Doctoral dissertation in Comparative Studies. PhDComp-FLUL. Supervision: Elsa Peralta. Presented on 08/09/2023.
• Góis, Bruno, Portugueses Retornados de Angola: trajetórias e memórias com classe, género e ‘raça’. Doctoral dissertation in Anthropology, DANT ULisboa - ICS, ISCSP, FLUL. Supervision: Elsa Peralta. Presented on 08/02/2023.

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Contact

E-mail: elsa.peralta@campus.ul.pt