Laboratório de Estudos de História dos Mundos do Trabalho (LEHMT)

Created in 2019 at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the Laboratory for the Study of the History of Worlds of Labor (LEHMT) has been a leading research center dedicated to advancing labor history in Brazil. Since the launch of its web portal in June 2019 (lehmt.org), LEHMT has quickly become a key platform for public history and scholarly dissemination in the field, attracting a broad and diverse audience including students, educators, union activists, and members of social movements.

The portal offers a variety of resources such as podcasts, special video series for YouTube, and educational content specifically designed for public school teachers, reflecting the Laboratory's commitment to fostering dialogue between academic research and wider society. LEHMT’s research agenda encompasses a wide range of themes, including the history of formal and informal workers' organizations and social movements, labor processes and production systems, migration dynamics, the connections between labor and urban spaces, the role of everyday life and cultural practices within working-class communities, political struggles and capital-labor relations, as well as the actions of social movements in public spaces and their interactions with different spheres of the state.

Particular attention is given to the processes of class formation and their articulation with various identity dimensions such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, regional, national origins and life-cycle. The Laboratory has also expanded its focus to research on deindustrialization and its effects on the collective memory of working-class communities, as well as debates around industrial heritage. Furthermore, LEHMT actively promotes comparative and transnational approaches in labor history, in line with recent historiographical trends that emphasize the global dimensions of labor and social movements, thus contributing to the international dialogue and fostering research that is simultaneously locally grounded and globally connected.