Conferência que procura desafiar o revisionismo histórico, amplificar vozes marginalizadas e promover diálogos transnacionais sobre reconciliação, responsabilização e justiça restaurativa.

The Public History of Difficult Pasts

8th International Conference on Public History

IFPH 2026

The 8th International Conference on Public History, organised by the International Federation for Public History, IFPH, will take place in Lisbon from September 7 to 11, 2026. It will be hosted by IN2PAST – the Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory, a transdisciplinary consortium of seven research centres, at the Almada Negreiros College on the Campolide Campus of NOVA University Lisbon.

In a time of escalating attacks by right-wing movements on memory, diversity, human rights, democracy, and history itself, the IFPH reaffirms its commitment to fostering critical engagement with the ways societies confront, interpret, and relate to their difficult pasts and challenging presents. The IFPH strongly condemns book banning, the censorship of historical narratives, the surveillance of students and educators, the targeting of sites of remembrance, and the imposition of ideological agendas — particularly right-wing distortions — that not only threaten academic freedom but undermine the very principles upon which public history is built. Against this backdrop, the conference seeks to challenge historical revisionism and silencing, to amplify marginalised voices and memories, and to promote transnational dialogues on reconciliation, accountability, and restorative justice.

Public History has long addressed global historical processes such as colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the genocide of Indigenous peoples, as well as phenomena that emerge in multiple contexts, including armed conflicts and dictatorships. It embodies both a political and ethical commitment to examining how difficult pasts have been lived and remembered by different communities and individuals, ensuring that their perspectives are acknowledged and respected. At the same time, engaging with these histories through Public History raises significant challenges. Sharing authority with specific communities and amplifying marginalised narratives may unintentionally silence other voices, while also presenting complex ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, Public History operates within the public sphere, engaging diverse audiences and navigating competing representations of the past in an era increasingly marked by the political instrumentalisation of history and the spread of revisionist and denialist discourses.

>> Programme (PDF) <<

🔗 Free registration HERE.

Call for contributions

This conference seeks to challenge historical revisionism, amplify marginalised voices, and foster transnational dialogues on reconciliation, accountability, and restorative justice. We invite contributions that explore:

Historical Contexts and Global Processes

• • Colonialism and its enduring legacies
  • The transatlantic slave trade and its commemorations
  • Indigenous genocide and cultural destruction
  • Armed conflicts, civil wars, and their aftermath
  • Dictatorships, authoritarianism, and state violence
  • Mass atrocities and crimes against humanity

Contemporary Challenges and Methodological Innovations

• • Countering historical denial and revisionism
  • Navigating contested memories and competing narratives
  • Sharing authority with affected communities
  • Ethical dilemmas in representing traumatic pasts
  • Digital humanities, media, and social networks
  • Museum practices and memorial sites
  • Archives, and archival activism
  • Educational approaches to sensitive histories

Voices and Perspectives

• • Survivor testimonies and intergenerational trauma
  • Community-based historical projects
  • Oral history and marginalised narratives
  • Gender, sexuality, and intersectional approaches
  • Youth engagement with difficult pasts
  • Transnational and comparative perspectives

Justice and Reconciliation

• • Truth commissions and transitional justice
  • Reparations and historical redress
  • Memorialisation and commemoration practices
  • Restorative justice approaches
  • Healing and collective memory
  • Building inclusive historical narratives

Calendar

Opening of the Call for Presentations: 30 September 2025
Deadline for Application: 30 November 7 December 2025 [new deadline]
Deadline for reviewers to do their reviews: 31 January 2026
Call for posters: January 2026
Results of the Call for Presentations will be announced by March 2026
Programme of the conference shall be available around June 2026
Deadline for registration for on-site attendance: August 2026
Conference: 7-11 September 2026

Submission of proposals

🔗 Submit your panel proposal HERE.
🔗 Submit your paper proposal HERE.
🔗 Submit your Working Group proposal HERE.

>> Download the call for papers (PDF) <<

Conversa a partir do livro ‘European Perspectives on Transition‘. Com Pablo Sánchez León e José Neves.

Conversa sobre conceitos, transição e revolução

O conceito de transição ocupa um lugar incómodo nos estudos sobre a história europeia contemporânea. Aparentemente incapaz de decifrar os complexos factores que moldam os processos de democratização, parece muitas vezes redundante como estrutura para a compreensão dos desenvolvimentos políticos recentes e em curso. Em European Perspectives on Transition: A Comparative and Transnational Approach to the History of a Political and Social Concept, Pablo Sánchez León e Agustín Cosovschi mostram o contrário, oferecendo uma história conceptual pioneira e muito necessária da transição numa perspectiva comparativa. Reunindo oito estudos de caso sobre o discurso transicional, que vão desde a chamada Terceira Vaga do Sul da Europa na década de 1970 até às mudanças de regime na Europa Central e Oriental, este volume apresenta um novo e importante caminho para o estudo da temporalidade e da transição na Europa.

Conversa entre Pablo Sánchez León e José Neves, com moderação de Rita Luís.

O segundo volume do livro de José Pedro Castanheira vai ser lançado no Liceu Camões, em Lisboa, com apresentação de Maria Inácia Rezola e Fernando Mendes.

Histórias da PIDE

Quando era a DGS de Caetano. Volume 2

A «evolução na continuidade» prometida em 1968 por Marcello Caetano nada alterou na temida e execrada polícia política da ditadura. Apenas mudou o nome: a salazarista PIDE passou a chamar‑se Direção‑Geral de Segurança (DGS). A «primavera marcelista», que desabrochara com o fim da deportação de Mário Soares em São Tomé, começou a murchar 18 meses depois, quando o socialista foi compelido ao exílio em Paris. Outra vítima foi Daniel Cabrita, militante clandestino do PCP, fundador e primeiro líder da Intersindical (atual CGTP), torturado, julgado e condenado, cuja mulher se suicidou quando ele estava preso na cadeia de Peniche. À atenção e vigilância da PIDE/DGS continuava a não escapar ninguém: nem os sucessivos patriarcas de Lisboa, nem os sete oficiais que viriam a fazer parte da Junta de Salvação Nacional do 25 de Abril de 1974. A violência da DGS atingiu o paroxismo nas colónias, testemunhada pela Cruz Vermelha Internacional: nas vésperas da revolução, em Moçambique a tortura prosseguia, em massa e até à morte.

Estas são algumas das Histórias da PIDE que José Pedro Castanheira investigou ao longo dos anos para o Expresso, e que ocorreram durante a governação de Marcello Caetano.

Mais informações sobre o livro

A 8.ª edição do IWHSCR vai dar especial destaque à fonética experimental como um campo emergente na intersecção entre as ciências humanas, as ciências médicas e a engenharia, que registou um rápido desenvolvimento ao longo do século XX.

8th International Workshop on the History of Speech Communication Research

(IWHSCR)

Following its launch in Dresden in 2015, and subsequent editions in Helsinki (2017), Vienna (2019), Prague (2021), Porto (2022), Budapest (2024), and Paris (2025), the 8th edition of the IWHSCR will be organised by members of the PHONLAB project (2022.06811.PTDC), in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra.

This edition will place a special emphasis on experimental phonetics as an emerging field at the intersection of the humanities, medical sciences, and engineering, which underwent rapid development throughout the twentieth century. Particular attention will be given to the role of institutions, internationally engaged scientific actors, and the creation of innovative scientific spaces, technologies, and techniques.

>> Programme (PDF) <<

Keynote speakers:

Ana Simões is full professor of History of Science at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal, and member of the Centre for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT), which she (co-)coordinated from 2007 to 2019. She is the President-elect of the Division for the History of Science and Technology (2025–2029) – a division of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST) – and was previously the President of the European Society for the History of Science (2018–2020). She has written extensively on the history of quantum chemistry, and aspects of history of science in Portugal, 18th to 20th centuries, including popularisation of science and science and the city, framed by a historiographical reflection on the circulation of science including non-central places. She is a founding member of the international network Science and Technology in the European Periphery. She is member of several national and EU projects, editorial boards, scientific advisory boards and scientific societies.

Bernd Möbius studied phonetics, linguistics and sociology at the University of Bonn, where he also received his PhD degree in 1992. He was a member of technical staff (senior researcher) at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, from 1993 to 1998, and Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Stuttgart from 1999 to 2011. After being Acting chair of Phonetics and Speech Communication at the University of Bonn (2007-2010), he was Full Professor of Phonetics and Phonology in the Department of Language Science and Technology at Saarland University from 2011 to 2025, where he is now a Senior Professor. A central theme of his research is to integrate phonetic knowledge in speech technology. He has worked extensively on text-to-speech synthesis and speech prosody, and recent work has focused on experimental methods and computational simulations to study aspects of speech production, perception and acquisition.

Call for papers

Contributions addressing this focus are welcome, as are submissions on any topics related to the historical aspects of speech communication research. Submissions must not exceed 10 pages (including references) and must follow the guidelines provided HERE. The proceedings will be published in the book series Studientexte zur Sprachkommunikation by TUDpress and will also be made available electronically in the ISCA archive.

Full paper submissions should be sent to the following email address: phonlab.project@gmail.com

Important dates:

Manuscript submission: 15 May 2026
Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2026
Registration: 30 June 2026
Revised manuscript submission: 1 July 2026

Organising Committee:

Albano Figueiredo, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra
Ângela Salgueiro, University of Évora and IHC / IN2PAST
Jürgen Trouvain, Saarland University
Quintino Lopes, University of Évora and IHC / IN2PAST

>> Official website <<

Inauguração da exposição que explora a história do Laboratório de Fonética Experimental de Coimbra. Iniciativa do projecto PHONLAB.

Ala Armando de Lacerda: Laboratório de Fonética Experimental de Coimbra

Durante o 8th International Workshop on the History of Speech Communication Research (IWHSCR), será inaugurada a exposição Ala Armando de Lacerda: Laboratório de Fonética Experimental de Coimbra, localizada na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, com a realização de uma visita guiada.

A exposição explora a história da fonética em Portugal, com especial destaque para o Laboratório de Fonética Experimental de Coimbra e o seu director, Armando de Lacerda. Reúne instrumentos científicos, materiais de arquivo e testemunhos orais para preservar e divulgar o legado do Laboratório, oferecendo uma perspectiva crítica sobre um capítulo largamente ignorado da investigação fonética do século XX.

Esta exposição é resultado do projeto PHONLAB, financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2022.06811.PTDC), em colaboração com a Reitoriaitorado da Universidade de Coimbra, o seu Museu da Ciência e a Faculdade de Letras.

Curso que visa compreender como o fogo e as crises ecológicas contemporâneas afetam os debates nas humanidades e nas ciências. Inscrições até 15 de Setembro.

Curso “História, Ambiente e Conhecimento no Antropoceno – edição especial Fogo”

No âmbito do projeto Ecologias Insubmissas no Antropoceno coordenado pela Fiocruz (Rio Janeiro) e, em Portugal, pelo CIUHCT – NOVA FCT, realiza-se em setembro/outubro uma nova edição do curso História, Ambiente e Conhecimento no Antropoceno, dedicado ao tema do FOGO. Num total de cinco aulas online, a organização desta edição juntou investigadores do IHC que trabalharam no projeto FIREUSES – Paisagens de Fogo.