INSTRUMENTAL HISTORIOGRAPHY: an analysis of research practices and knowledge production at the Center for Regional Historical Documentation and Information (NDIHR/UFPB), 1976–1980
Instrumental historiography; historical research; civil-military dictatorship; NDIHR; interdisciplinarity.
This work investigated the practices of production and dissemination of historical knowledge developed by the Regional Historical Documentation and Information Center (NDIHR) during its implementation, between 1976 and 1980, at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). The methodology adopted involved the internal and external analysis of historical sources, such as administrative documents, work reports, and interviews produced by NDIHR. Data collection was carried out by reading the sources in two formats: printed, in the physical archive, with annotations made by the researcher during selection and digitization, and digital, using the software, Atlas.Ti, which assisted in organizing the digitized sources. The study concluded that there are "other forms" of production and dissemination of historical knowledge in the university academic space, beyond the repressive and modernizing character that marked the period of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Instrumental historiography was used as a tool in academic research, integrating various areas of knowledge in a research center coordinated by the historical method. This approach shaped interdisciplinary production, research, and university teaching of history at the time, transcending the boundaries of the History undergraduate course and allowing us to understand that there were other possibilities of structuring academic research at the university at that time.