About the Journal
Who we are
The journal Gerónimo de Uztáriz was born within the Instituto de Historia Económica y Social Gerónimo de Uztáriz / Geronimo de Uztariz Institutua (IGU/GUI). The IGU/GUI was founded in 1984 as an association of historians in Navarra who sought to promote historical research, debate and dissemination from a rigorous, critical perspective.
The IGU/GUI has been based in Pamplona/Iruña since it was formed and its activities and interests have mainly, although not exclusively, focused on Navarra. In particular, one of the initial objectives of the association was to show a truer, more complex image of the land and a people that historians had often depicted in a monolithic, homogenous way through the repetition of clichés. Their aim was to place Navarra's historiography in dialogue with attempts to renovate historical writing in the late twentieth century. They placed emphasis on promoting research, particularly the study of the historical foundations of contemporary Navarra, which was practically unknown. The ambitious approaches from Economic and Social History -or perhaps we should say Economic History and Social History- proved to be the ideal instrument for this endeavour. The association grew and matured, through critique, new proposals and new approaches in the historical sciences.
Since its creation, the IGU's public activities have moved in several complementary directions, including research, dissemination, teaching and historiographical reflection. It has promoted the education and training of historians and encouraged research activity, both individual and collective, developing projects and research groups. It has created discussion forums for the main methodological and theoretical problems, stimulating intellectual debate and reflection on teaching through multiple courses, seminars and monographic conferences. It has also convened three regional history conferences (1985, 1991, 2000) and one on historical and didactic reflection (2005). These activities have involved the participation of professors who are based in leading universities and research centres that specialise in the topics under discussion, and the presentation of unpublished research by a good number of professional historians, both established and new. In addition, the founding of its own specialized journal (Gerónimo de Uztariz) in 1987 has served to disseminate the results of these conferences, as well as many other studies.
Likewise, the IGU/GUI has always shown a particular concern for disseminating historical knowledge, so that these new interpretations may reach the general public. To this end, it has organized, in cultural centres and cultural entities in various towns in Navarra, multiple public lectures and talks, exhibitions (such as La Navarra del Ochocientos or Esclavitud bajo el franquismo), as well as the screening of documentaries, at times in collaboration with the Eguzki Bideoak collective (such as Desafectos or Nos quitaron todo).
The Institute has often been able to count on institutional support (Government of Navarra, Public University of Navarra, Ministry of the Presidency) and other cultural entities, including the Society of Basque Studies - Eusko Ikaskuntza.
The IGU/GUI has, in summary, always been attentive to new proposals for research and interpretation of historiography, especially in the field of Social and Economic History, and has always been concerned with bringing the tools of historical science (empirical analysis, critical interpretation) to a wider public in order that they can reach their own conclusions on the events of the past, and also of the present.
You can follow the activities of the IGU / GUI at http://www.geronimouztariz.
To learn more about the emergence of the Instituto Gerónimo de Uztáriz, we recommend reading Emilio Majuelo Gil's contribution on the first ten years of the Institute: