Interview with the historian Timothy J. Coates - College of Charleston - USA

Abstract

In mid-2012, during the commemorations of the 50 th anniversary of the History course of UNESP (São Paulo State University in Franca, São Paulo, Brazil), the coordinators of the research group named "Written about the new worlds" 1 achieved the academic congress "Images of the West in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries". This congress, part of the efforts to expand the intellectual exchange established between UNESP, other higher education institutions and research centers in the country and abroad, with the support of the History Department, the PostGraduate Program in History and the Center of Documentation and Support in Historical Research (CEDAPH in Portuguese) and was composed by three lectures of the historians Timothy J. Coates, from the Department of History at the College of Charleston (USA), Arno Wehling, President of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and History, and Caio César Boschi, one of the mentors of the Project "Historical Documentation Rescue-Baron of Rio Branco" and is currently teacher of the Department History of the Catholic University of Minas Gerais. The subject "Images of the West", major guide of the conferences held during the homonym congress, proceeded from discussions among the members of the aforementioned research group and now is deployed, with the addition of articles produced by some of the most prominent Brazilian historians, into the dossier "New Worlds Images in the Western Culture" of the journal História (São Paulo). Professor Coates, one of the speakers, kindly volunteered to approach more carefully, in an interview, about some of the issues discussed into his conference. In a casual conversation, the American researcher tells us a little about his career as a historian and his * Professor of History Department and Coordinator of the Center of Documentation and Support in Historical Research (CEDAPH in Portuguese), UNESP Campus Franca. The issues and presentation's translation to English of this interview counted with Ana Carolina C. Viotti (CEDAPH's historiographer) cooperation, whom I thank. 1 For more information about the activities of the research group "Written about the new worlds", please access