Vinícius Borges Garcia Fonseca is a PhD Candidate at the Media and Culture Department, more specifically in Postcolonial and Memory studies. His PhD project, originally designed by Dr. Jamila Mascat, explores various practices applied by antiracist and decolonial movements to contest cultural heritage as a strategy to obtain historical reparation. The project focuses on colonial cultural heritage in two post-imperial and two postcolonial societies, namely Portugal and Spain, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago, looking at contemporary contestation of cultural heritage related to the navigations of the 15th and 16th centuries that became known as the ‘Great Discoveries’. 

This research scrutinizes the foundations, justifications, reparative outcomes, and potential drawbacks of the diverse protest strategies employed by contemporary antiracist and decolonial publics to engage with memory and cultural heritage related to the narrative of the ‘Discoveries’, varying from theater collectives, artists, politicians, members of civil society and non-governmental organizations.Thus, the project seeks a broad understanding of the different forms in which historical reparation is being demanded in contemporary societies in both postcolonial and post-imperial contexts and what are its effects so far.

This project is a Sector-Plan project, from which it acquired its funds.