The doctoral thesis “Beyond the nostalgia of Macunaíma: the promises of Brazil in the National Information Technology Policy, in free software initiatives and in the citizen generation of data in favelas”, authored by Alberto Jorge Silva de Lima, defended at PESC/COPPE /UFRJ in 2022 and guided by Prof. Henrique Luiz Cukierman, from the research area in Informatics and Society, received the Honorable Mention for Thesis in History of Informatics in the 2024 edition of the Award for Best Doctoral Thesis in History of Sciences from the Brazilian Society for the History of Science (SBHC).

The Brazilian Society for the History of Science (SBHC) represents the greatest expression of the institutionalization of the History of Science area in the country, through the promotion of the National Seminar on the History of Science and Technology every two years. See more by clicking here.

SBHC promotes the Theses and Dissertations Competition in which the thesis was awarded. See the result by clicking here.

Alberto Lima's thesis represents an original interdisciplinary research effort, which articulates the History of Sciences, STS Studies (Sciences-Technologies-Society) and Literary Criticism to reflect on the “promises of Brazil” put on the scene based on the experiences places with Information Technology, bringing new elements to the History of Information Technology, such as the movements of US diplomacy in relation to the National Information Technology Policy (1976-1992), studied via the WikiLeaks collection; the history of public software ExpressoBR as a situated study of public policies to encourage free software in the government; and the history of the formation and consolidation of data_labe, a data and narrative laboratory located in Maré, Rio de Janeiro, as a case study that highlights favelas as protagonists in a more diverse data science.

Congratulations to Alberto Lima and his advisor Prof. Henry Cukierman.

Below is a photo of the award and the certificate.

Published on 08/08/2024.