António Costa Pinto, professor at Universidade Lusófona and one of the leading scholars of Southern European authoritarian regimes and democratization, participated in the international conference “Dopo le dittature: Transizioni, eredità, memorie” (After the Dictatorships: Transitions, Legacies and Memories), held in Buenos Aires from 18-20 February 2026. The event was organized within the REFAT academic network coordinated by the University of Bologna.
The conference brought together researchers from Europe and Latin America dedicated to the comparative study of authoritarianism, democratic transitions and political memory. Discussions focused on how societies interpret dictatorial pasts, how public narratives are constructed, and how these narratives continue to shape contemporary democratic politics.
In the panel “Memorie e intellettuali” (Memory and Intellectuals), António Costa Pinto presented the Portuguese case, examining the legacy of the Estado Novo regime and the long-term impact of the 1974 democratic transition. The panel also included comparative contributions on Spain, Argentina and Brazil, enabling broader reflection on transitional justice, public history and the role of intellectuals in shaping collective memory.
Across these cases, discussions highlighted a shared challenge: the democratic management of contentious pasts and the relationship between historical narratives and contemporary political polarization. The event forms part of a wider international research effort examining how democratic systems confront the legacies of dictatorship and how public memory shapes political competition in the twenty-first century.