Gonzalo Pasamar Alzuria (Madrid, 1959)
Gonzalo Pasamar graduated in History from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), where he had his PhD in History in 1986 with a doctoral dissertation, supervised by Professor Juan José Carreras, later published under the title of Historiografía e ideología en la posguerra española: La ruptura de la tradición liberal (Zaragoza, Prensas Universitarias, 1991). Since then he has devoted to studying topics related to the field of historiography. This task has first dealt with the Spanish historiography in the 19th and 20th centuries, on which he has published, Historiografía y práctica social en España (Zaragoza, Prensas Universitarias, 1987), La Escuela Superior de Diplomática (los archiveros en la historiografía española contemporánea) (Madrid, Asociación Nacional de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas, 1996) and Diccionario de historiadores españoles contemporaneos, 1840-1980 (Madrid, Akal, 2002) (all of them in collaboration with Prof. Ignacio Peiró). In addition, he has published articles in Journals such as Bulletin d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Espagne (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Maison des Pays Ibériques, France), Manuscrits. Revista d’historia Moderna (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain), and Hispania. Revista Española de Historia (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [CSIC], Spain).
He has lately published Apologia and Criticism: Historians and the History of Spain, 1500-2000. (Oxford, Bern, Peter Lang Ltd., 2010), which can be considered his foremost work in topics related to the history of Spanish historiography.
After the firts steps devoted to Spanish historiography, at the end of 1990s Gonzalo Pasamar decides to broaden the scope of his research and to adress topics related to international historiography and theoretical history, although he had already published on some of them (e.g., “La operatividad de las categorías historiográficas: ¿problema epistemológico o histórico?”, Arbor. Ciencia. Pensamiento y Cultura. Madrid, CSIC, 502 (Abril 1988), pp. 63-86, and “La invención del método histórico y de la historia metódica en el siglo XIX”, Historia Contemporánea. Universidad del País Vasco, 11(1994), pp. 183-213).
From the aforementioned period dates the text-book, La historia contemporánea. Aspectos teóricos e historiográficos (Madrid, Síntesis, 2000). Later on he would publish, following these new topics, for instance, “El concepto de paradigma y su importancia en historia de la historiografía”, in Miguel Angel Cabrera, and Marie MacMahon, eds., La situación de la historia. Ensayos de historiografía. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de La Laguna: La Laguna (Tenerife), 2002, pp. 133-155; “La influencia de Annales en la historiografía española durante el franquismo: un esbozo de explicación”, Historia Social, Fundación Instituto Historia Social-UNED, Valencia, 48 (2004), pp. 149-172, “Los historiadores y el uso público de la historia: viejo problema y desafío reciente”, in Ayer. Revista de Historia Contemporánea, Madrid, 49 (2003), pp. 221-248 (re-edited in Boris Berenzon Gorn, ed., Historiografía crítica del siglo XX. México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004, pp. 87-112), “The History of Historiography: Retrospective Analysis and Research”, in Carlos Barros, Lawrence J. McCrank (eds.), History under Debate. International Reflection on the Discipline (New York, The Haworth Press, 2004, pp. 113-132), and “Os historioadores espahóis e a reflexao historiográfica (circa 1880-2000)”, in Jurandir Malerba, Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas (org.), Historiografía Contemporânea em perspectiva crítica. Baru (Brasil), Edusc, 2007, pp. 121-166.
In recent years Gonzalo Pasamar has focused especially upon theoretical aspects of the “history of the present” and memory, with works such as “Formas tradicionales y formas modernas de la ‘Historia del Presente’”, Historia Social. Fundación Instituto Historia Social-UNED, Valencia (Spain), 62 (2008), pp. 147-169; “Origins and Forms of the ‘History of the Present’: an Historical and Theoretical Approach”, Storia della Storiografia. Rivista Internazionale, Milano, 58 (2010), pp. 86-103; and “The Traditional Forms of the “History of the Present” from Herodotus to Humanist Historians”, História da Historiografia. Sociedade Brasileira de Teoria e História da Historiografia, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, 10 (dezembro 2012), pp. 165-182.
This research has been accompanied by the belonging to several academic societies, projects of research and stays in other academic centers which have been largely responsible for his research reorientations. Throughout the period 1999-2012 he took an active part of the group “Historia a Debate” (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), in which he belonged to several projects of research under this title and cooperated in the International Congresses of 1999 and 2004 organized by this group. Over the years 2004-2006, he took also part of the Société Marc Bloch (Paris), which gave him cause to deliver, on the occasion of the setting-up of “Marc Bloch. Historien et homme d’action, 1886-1944. Le site official de l’Association Marc Bloch”, the paper entitled, “Marc Bloch, les Annales et l´histoire d´Espagne”. Université Paris IV, Paris (26 May 2004). Invited in June 2001 to the 30 Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations at Rutgers University (campus at Newark) (New Jersey, USA), he defended there the paper “The concept of ‘paradigm’ and its importance in the History of Historiography”. In 2006 he would stay at this University (campus at Newark) as Visiting Research Professor (September-November) with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science to research into the US Hispanism. In this center he delivered a seminar made of 6 conferences under the title: “Historians and Spanish Culture in the Ninetieth and Twentieth Centuries (Rutgers, 2, 16, 30, October; 6, 13, 20 November 2006). Member of the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (USA) (2006-2013), on 5 and 6 March 2013 he is required to conduct the seminar entitled “The memory of the Civil War in Spain: from the Franco era to current times”, at the Universities William Paterson and Rutgers (New Jersey, USA).
Since 1988 Gonzalo Pasamar teaches contemporary history at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), and he is currently in charge of the international online journal, Historiografías, revista de historia y teoría (founded in 2010) (www.unizar.es/historiografias) and of the Project of Research entitled “La memoria de la Guerra civil durante la transición a la democracia” funded by the Secretary of State for Innovation, Development and Research of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) (2012-2014).