RESISTANCE aimed at providing an understanding of how ordinary and subaltern people from societies in the past challenged the established order. Covering the period from the sixteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century, and the Iberian Peninsula and the territories across the globe under Portuguese and Spanish colonial rule, the project was focused on groups and individuals that were discriminated due to their status, religion, gender, race, or colonial condition (for example, peasants, slaves, colonial natives, Jews, Muslims, and women, among others). The focus was on the way in which these individuals and groups responded to inequality, sought greater social justice, and pursued alternative political projects.
Another purpose of RESISTANCE was to take advantage of the territorial configuration of the former Iberian empires to build a transnational research and training network. Through participation in this network, scholars from a variety of cultural backgrounds engage in ground-breaking research and benefit from the transfer of knowledge between different academic communities.
Finally, RESISTANCE also aimed at carrying out an ambitious range of outreach activities with a view to communicate the scientific outputs outside the academic sphere. Extensive use of digital and multimedia means was put in place to achieve this goal.
RESISTANCE drew and followed a common research agenda. Its purpose was to circumscribe its scientific objectives, as well as its historiographical, theoretical, and methodological questions, in a way that facilitated the dialogue among its multi-institutional, multi-international, multi-generational, and multi-interdisciplinary team. It has proven to be of paramount importance for the coherence and convergence of the many activities carried out.
