Networks and representations of diplomatic life in the Empire of Brazil: Manuel Rodrigues Gameiro Pessoa in London, 1824-1829

• Grant number: 23/06908-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Slemian
• Grantee: Marcus Vinicius Correia Biaggi
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project proposes the study of the public and private correspondence of the diplomat Manuel Rodrigues Gameiro Pessoa (17--; 1846), sent and received by him during the period in which he worked and organized Brazil's first diplomatic mission in London, between 1824 and 1829. The study will be based on his networks and the representations of diplomatic life and culture at the time. The project also proposes the exhaustive identification of this documentation and the systematic organization of metadata, using current tools in digital humanities. Through this documentation, the research seeks to bring new approaches and new problems to research on the history of Brazilian diplomacy, considering aspects of the cultural history of diplomacy. The contribution consists of providing a new framework for Gameiro Pessoa's participation in the formation, organization and history of diplomacy during the First Reign, starting from the investigation into his representations of diplomatic life and his networks of correspondence with diplomats and other sectors of society, especially British, such as bankers, investors, merchants, doctors, sanitation workers, scientists, accountants, lawyers, journalists. The identification of documents will take place in Brazilian and British archives and institutions, namely, Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty, Arquivo Nacional, Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Arquivo da Casa Imperial do Brasil, National Archives of the UK, British Library, London Metropolitan Archive, Natural History Museum Library and Archives, Rothschild Archive and others. The expected results correspond to a digital base based on the creation of three files in .csv format, one file in .json format and two scientific articles.