Faculty

Lise Sedrez

LISE SEDREZ, an environmental historian, teaches History of the Americas. She has a Ph.D. in Latin American History from Stanford University (2005) and is the co-editor of the book series Latin American Landscapes, University of Arizona Press. She was chief-editor of Topoi.Revista de História from 2011 to 2015 and Coordinator of the Graduate Program on Social History (PPGHIS/UFRJ) from 2018 to 2021. Lise is a founding member and currently vice-president of SOLCHA (Sociedade Latino-Americana y Caribeña de Historia Ambiental) and deputy director of the Institute of History. She collaborates with the feminist collective Inaiá and the ASEH’s Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and was a Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany, in 2015-2016. Since 2017, she is part of the interdisciplinary project Occupy Climate Change!, from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. Her research interests include urban environmental history, history of disasters and digital history.

William de Souza Martins

Dr. Martins holds a PhD in Social History from the University of São Paulo, and in 2010 he joined the faculty of PPGHIS and the Institute of History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He was the graduate program coordinater from 2021 to 2024. His doctoral thesis, “Members of the mystical body: third orders in Rio de Janeiro (c. 1700 – 1822)”, was published in 2009 by Edusp. His studies focus on the analysis of religious orders in the Modern Period, in particular the Franciscans and Carmelites. More recently, Dr. Martins has studied the religious experiences and daily experiences of women in the Old Regime from the perspective of gender relations.

Monica Lima e Souza

Monica Lima e Souza received her PhD in History from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (2007), and is an associate professor in the African history sector, at the History Institute of UFRJ. She is the vice-dean of the Center for Philosophy and Human Sciences at UFRJ. Her research develops within the scope of African history in the 19th century; of abolitionism, from an Atlantic perspective; of Brazil and Africa relations, in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Maria Paula Nascimento Araujo

Maria Paula Nascimento Araújo holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro, IUPERJ (1998). She is a full professor in the field of contemporary history at the Institute of History of UFRJ. She is the coordinator of the Brazilian research team “Frontiers of Memory: History and Memory of Military Dictatorships in Brazil and Argentina”. She was president of the Brazilian Association of Oral History (2010-2012). She is the author of Students’ memories: from UNE to our days (2007) and A Utopia Fragmentada: the new Brazilian lefts and in the world in the 1970’s (2000). Her research focuses on political history, mainly on the following themes: memory, politics, left, oral history and the press..

Felipe Charbel Teixeira

Felipe Charbel Teixeira holds a PhD in social history of culture from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2008). He is an associate professor in the department of theory and methodology of history at the Institute of History at UFRJ. He is the author of Timoneiros: retórica, prudência e história em Maquiavel e Guicciardini (2010). His research focuses on the relationship between history and literary studies, with an emphasis on theory of history, history of historiography, history of culture and literary history. He is currently a researcher in the CNPq Research Productivity category.

Silvia Liebel

Assistant professor of Early modern History at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Silvia Liebel holds a PhD in Early modern French History at Sorbonne Nord-Paris XIII, under the guidance of Robert Muchembled. She is co-coordinator of LAELAPS (Laboratory Europe. Literature, Art, Politics, Society), member of EUROPA (Center for Studies in Early Modern and Contemporary Europe) and associate researcher at Cia. das Indias (UFF), as well as editor-in-chief of Topoi. History Journal. Her research interests include printing history, women’s history and its representations, reception of classical heroines in the 16th and 17th centuries, absolute monarchy, violence and radical Enlightenment, with an emphasis on the French context. She is the author, notably, of Les Médées modernes. La cruauté féminine d’après les canards imprimés français (1574-1651) (PUR).

Jorge Victor de Araújo Souza

PhD in History from the Fluminense Federal University (2011), with a PDSE scholarship at the University of Coimbra. He is an Assistant Professor of the History of Colonial America at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of the book “Beyond the cloister: a social history of the Benedictine insertion in Portuguese America, c. 1580 – c. 1690”. Niterói: FAPERJ/EDUFF, 2014. He is a member of the Sacralidades laboratory (IH/UFRJ). He is a member of RED COLUMNARIA (International Community of Historians of the Iberian Monarchies) and H_Moderna (Brazilian Network for the Study of Modern History).

Henrique Buarque de Gusmão

Henrique Buarque de Gusmão holds a PhD. from UFRJ and is professor of theory and methodology of history at UFRJ. He is the current coordinator of PPGHIS. He conducts research on theater history, specifically the analysis of the social and historical conditions that configure practices connected to theatrical making in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the production of dramaturgy, the work of the actors, the activity of theater criticism, the construction of staging and the production of theatrical historiography. In recent years, he has focused on the study of the theatrical works of Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues and Russian director Constantin Stanislavski, both creators of highly impacted theatrical models. Dr. Gusmão is the author of “The romanesque art of the actor: Constantin Stanislavski in the culture of romance” (Hucitec, 2020).

Carlos Ziller Camenietzki

With a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (1995), Carlos Ziller Camenietzki is an associate professor in the modern history department at the History Institute of UFRJ. He is the author of The Cross and the Luneta (2001) and The Forbidden Paradise. Censorship of Brazilian Paradise, the Portuguese Church and the Restoration of Portugal between Salvador, Lisbon and Rome (2014). His research focuses on the history of modern science, the history of the Society of Jesus and the political history of Portugal.

Beatriz Catão Cruz Santos

Beatriz Catão Cruz Santos holds a PhD in history from the Fluminense Federal University (2000). She is an associate professor in the modern history department at the History Institute of UFRJ. She is the author of The Pinnacle of Temp(l)o; the Sermon of Father Antônio Vieira and Maranhão in the 17th Century (1997) and The Body of God in America; the Feast of Corpus Christi in the Cities of Portuguese America (2005). She writes a Social History of Religion and her research addresses rituals and festivals of the Catholic Church, the monarchy and the brotherhoods in the kingdom and in the Portuguese colonial space from the 16th to the 18th centuries. She has dedicated herself especially to artisans and their social (religious) practices in the Ancien Régime.

João R. M. Ohara

I am Assistant Professor of Theory and Philosophy of History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the deputy coordinator of PPGHIS. I have a PhD in History from the São Paulo State University (2017), with a dissertation on epistemic virtues and Brazilian professional historiography in the 1980’s. I was a visiting researcher at Leiden University and a postdoc researcher at the São Paulo State University, all with competitive funding from the São Paulo Research Foundation. My main areas of interest are the theory and philosophy of history, and my current research focuses on the ethics of history and the moral foundations of professional historiography.

Marieta de Moraes Ferreira

Marieta de Moraes Ferreira holds a PhD in History from the Fluminense Federal University (1991). She is a professor emeritus at the Institute of History at UFRJ. She was the national coordinator of the Professional Master’s Program in History Teaching (2013-2018); editor of the Brazilian Journal of History (2009-2013); president of the Brazilian Association of Oral History (1992-1994); president of the International Oral History Association (IOHA); researcher at CPDOC-FGV (1978-2012) and its director (1999-2005); and editor of the Journal of Historical Studies (1992-1998). She is currently the executive director of Editora FGV and coordinator of the binational and interdisciplinary project “Capital Cities: from Nation to Globalization”. She is the author of Em busca da Idade do Ouro (In Search of the Golden Age) (1994), among other publications. Her research is carried out in the areas of historiography, oral history, political history, the history of Rio de Janeiro, and history teaching, among others. She is currently a researcher in the CNPq Research Productivity category.

Luiza Larangeira da Silva Mello

Luiza Larangeira da Silva Mello has a PhD in History from PUC-Rio (2010) and is Professor of Theory and Methodology of History at the Institute of History of UFRJ. Her dissertation thesis received Honorable Mention from the CAPES Thesis Award (2013). She is currently deputy coordinator of PPGHIS and was the chief-editor of Topoi. Revista de História. Her research interests are intellectual history, history of culture, theory of history, and literary theory, particularly topics such as the relations between history and fiction, the novel in a historical perspective, and the figuration of subjectivity and time in 19th and 20th centuries fiction.

José Augusto Pádua

With a PhD in Political Science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro, IUPERJ (1997), José Augusto Pádua is an associate professor of Brazilian history at the Institute of History of UFRJ. He was president of the National Association of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Environment and Society, ANPPAS (2010-2015). He was a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford (2004 and 2008) and has been a Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, since 2014. He was a visiting professor in 2022 at the Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès (France) and is part of the Global Faculty of the Universitat zu Koln, in Germany, for the period 2024-2025. He is one of the principal investigators (PI) of the international project “Sharing a Planet in Peril”, based at the Universitat zu Koln. He was part of the board of consultants for the creation of the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, of which he is a member of the Scientific Committee. His research focuses on the history of Brazil, environmental history, territorial history, the history of forests, the history of science and the Anthropocene, the history of ideas about nature and the history of environmental policies.

Monica Grin

With a Ph.D. in political science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro, IUPERJ (2001), Monica Grin is full professor of contemporary history at the Institute of History of UFRJ. She was a FAPERJ Jovem Cientista de Nosso Estado, (2008). She was the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Social History at UFRJ (2012-2015). She is the author of “Race: public debate in Brazil (2010)”. Her research addresses issues related to race relations, post-abolition, multiculturalism, ethnicity, racial inequality, racism, antisemitism, immigration, and Jewish studies. She is currently the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Nucleus of Jewish Studies (NIEJ) of UFRJ.

Vinícius Liebel

Historian, PhD in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin (2011), Vinícius Liebel is professor of Contemporary History at the Institute of History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. With postdoctoral internships at USP, PUCRS, UFF and Paris-3, he is the author of Politische Karikaturen und die Grenzen des Humors und der Gewalt (Budrich Unipress, 2011) and Os Alemães (Contexto, 2018). He researches on and supervises students in the following themes: European History of the 20th century, with an emphasis on Cultural and Political History and on Intellectual History; Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism (nazism), Image, Violence and Politics (part. political cartoons).

Claudio Costa Pinheiro

Professor of African History at the Institute of History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He works at the interface between History and Social Sciences, particularly with Anthropology. His agenda focuses on two axes: a) the production and circulation of knowledge; b) power structures and categories of subordination (slavery, forms of dependency, compulsory labor, coercion), both considering the impact and lasting effects of colonialism on the institutionalization of power in Western and non-Western societies and the Global South as a theoretical concept. His interests also include the challenges of including contributions from intellectuals from the Global South in the canons of Social Theory.

Andréa Daher

PhD in history from Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Andrea Daher is an emeritus professor at the UFRJ Institute of History, where she coordinates the Research Laboratory for the History of Arts and Literature (PEHL). Her studies, as well as the researches under her supervision, focus on questions related to cultural practices, in particular the practices of representation and the relations between orality and literacy in modern and contemporary world. She is the author of Les Singularités de la France Equinoxiale (2002), Brazilian translation O Brasil francês, (2007); and A Oralidade perdida (2012), French translation L’Oralité perdue (2016). She held from December 2010 to January 201 the Chair of Social Sciences Sergio Buarque de Holanda at Maison des Sciences de l ‘Homme and the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, France. From 2020, she is visiting professor at the Graduate Program in History at the University of Brasília (2020-2021).

Jacqueline Hermann

Jacqueline Hermann holds a PhD in History from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (1996), is a Full Professor in the Modern History sector at the History Institute of UFRJ. She is a CNPq researcher and coordinator of the Sacralidades Laboratory. Studies on Power, Religion and Religiosities in the Ibero-American World. Her research focuses on themes related to Iberian history, the history of Luso-Brazilian messianisms, Luso-Brazilian Political Culture and Religiosities, the 16th-19th centuries, and gender studies.

Gabriel de Carvalho Godoy Castanho

Gabriel de Carvalho Godoy Castanho is an assistant professor of Medieval History at the Institute of History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He holds a PhD in History from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (2013). He was deputy coordinator of the Graduate Program in Social History at UFRJ (2018-2021), and currently is one of the coordinators of the Theory and History of Medieval Media Laboratory (LATHIMM-UFRJ/USP). His areas of expertise include history, rhetoric and literature; medieval written practices; historiography; historical semantics, the history of concepts; the history of emotions; ecclesiology; the Social History of the Medieval Church; Digital Humanities. He focuses on subjects such as social organization dynamics, culture and power relations; Western monasticism and eremitical life.

Lorena Lopes da Costa

PhD in History from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2016). Lorena Lopes da Costa worked under the supervision of José Antonio Dabdab Trabulsi. Her doctorate included studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS – Paris), with François Hartog, and Université Paris VII – Denis Diderot (now Université de Paris), with Pierre Ellinger. She has published in France, Brazil and the United States on the figure of the Greek hero and the procedures of reception and response to the Greek heroic tradition in literature. She works in the areas of Ancient History; Reception Studies in Literature; Ancient Historiography.

Michel Gherman

Michel Gherman holds a degree in History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2000). He completed a master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007), with a dissertation entitled “God and Devil in Holy Land: Universal Church of Kingdom of God in Israel”, under the supervision of Professor Nurit Shtadrer. His doctorate was completed in the Postgraduate Program in Social History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, under the supervision of Professor Monica Grin (2014). Michel is currently an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, where he is one of the coordinators of the Interdisciplinary Center for Jewish Studies-NIEJ of the Institute of History of UFRJ. At the university, he also coordinates the Laboratory of Religion, Spirituality and Politics (LAREP) of the Department of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Michel is also an associate researcher at the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of São Paulo, and an associate researcher at the Vital Sasson Center for Antisemitism Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has experience in the areas of history, sociology and anthropology, working mainly on the following topics: Genocide Studies, religious studies, antisemitism, nationalism, politics, the Holocaust, the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Judaism, new rights and extreme rights in Brazil and worldwide, studies of Zionism, genocides and memory.

Murilo Sebe Bon Meihy

With a PhD in Arabic studies from the University of São Paulo (2013), Murilo Sebe Bon Meihy is an adjunct professor in the contemporary history department at the History Institute of UFRJ. He is the author of The Thousand and One Badly Sleepless Nights: The Formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2010) and The Lebanese (2016). His research focuses on history and cultural studies, with an emphasis on modern and contemporary history of the Middle East and North Africa; nation and revolution in the Middle East, Arab-Islamic culture, Orientalism, Arabic political vocabulary, the Cold War and oil; and the issue of Arabs in Brazil.