The Laboratory for Studies on the Political Uses of the Past (Luppa) was founded in March 2017 at the History Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with funding from CNPq. LUPPA’s work is based on the inseparability of teaching, research and extension, through the promotion of initiatives of training and research, as well as working for scientific popularization in the area of history.
The researchers of the Laboratory develop case studies and multidisciplinary comparative analyses about the uses of the past, understood as historiographical or memorial narratives and representations, carried out by individuals or collectivities, including the State and other institutions. Such studies and analyses are based on discursive forms (school curricula, commemorative speeches, memorial laws etc.) or materials (memorials, monuments etc.), pointing out the differences and similarities in these processes over time and in different locations.