ReSEED has given a double contribution to the XXXIX meeting of the Portuguese Association of Economic and Social History (APHES). It took place on November 15-16, 2019, at the University of Algarve in Faro, with the theme Circulations: from local to global.
Principal Investigator Dulce Freire, however, led her first presentation in the other way around: from global to local. When talking about the regional impacts of New World´s crops in the Iberian Peninsula, she raised the discussion about the most relevant historical sources for finding the new and old seeds that had been cultivated in Portugal and Spain since the 16th century. After the first year of ReSEED’s research, the main challenges identified are the lack of information, the diversity of designations for local products and the difficulty of connecting crops and localities.
ERC project’s conception
On the second day, Freire participated in the panel Economic and Social History and the European Research Council grants: challenges and prospects. She presented the ReSEED´s experience focusing on the project´s conception. Freire argued that historians must take into account how History can give tangible and intangible contributions, betting on innovative ideas.
“There are several paths to formulate a good project, but in all of them daring is essential. The proposal must benefit the scientific debate and the current societal challenges. We bet on transdisciplinarity and the History’s ability to contribute to a sustainable future”, remarked Freire.
