STEXEU‘s launch conference, to discuss how states of exception reshaped the roles of governments, security forces, and non-state actors.

The Constitutional Road to Dictatorship:

States of Exception and Authoritarianism in Europe, 1900–39

Liberal democracies in the early twentieth century used emergency powers to confront political unrest, but these measures often paved the way for authoritarian rule. This conference discusses how states of exception reshaped the roles of governments, security forces, and non-state actors, highlighting how constitutional mechanisms intended to defend liberal rule could, in fact, contribute to its erosion and to the rise of fascism.

STEXEU is coordinated by Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez and funded by the European Research Council.

FREE ADMISSION

>> Programme (PDF) >>

Continuing the celebration of the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, this cycle proposes to reflect on his multiple legacies, from the anti-racist struggle to decolonisation movements, as well as his work as a psychiatrist.

Frantz Fanon | Ciclo de Cinema 2026

Dando continuidade à celebração do centenário do nascimento de Frantz Fanon, este ciclo propõe reflectir sobre os seus múltiplos legados, desde a luta anti-racista aos movimentos de descolonização, passando ainda pela sua actividade como psiquiatra – intimamente entrelaçada com as duas outras vertentes. Já na sua primeira obra Pele negra, máscaras brancas (1952), o cinema ocupa um espaço marginal mas não menos decisivo no que diz respeito a questões de representação, tendo um lugar central nas terapias alternativas que Fanon viria a introduzir no Hospital Psiquiátrico de Blida-Joinville, na Argélia, enquanto Médico-chefe de serviço entre 1953 e 1956. A leitura de Fanon revela-se fundamental não só para a compreensão do contexto histórico em que surgiu, com as suas ramificações entre os movimentos de libertação e as causas do chamado Terceiro Mundo nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas sobretudo na luta pelos direitos de grupos racializados. Todas estas questões voltam a ecoar no século XXI, quer em movimentos sociais que reivindicam uma cidadania efectivamente igualitária, quer na discussão sobre a urgência da descolonização dos saberes e das instituições. Como ler Fanon, hoje, a partir de Portugal? Qual o papel das instituições e dos diferentes movimentos na sua recepção? Qual a relevância da sua obra para a nossa contemporaneidade, tendo em conta a complexidade das suas diferentes vertentes – anti-colonial, anti-racista, terapêutica – e a reivindicação para se “sair da grande noite” do colonialismo?

À projecção dos filmes segue-se uma conversa com convidados/as e debate.

As sessões 1 a 4 decorrem na Casa do Comum; a sessão 5 decorre no Cinema Fernando Lopes.
Os filmes são legendados em inglês.

Organização: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, Miguel Ribeiro e Sofia Victorino, com o IHC —NOVA FCSH

>> Descarregar o programa do ciclo (PDF) <<

Sessão 1 | Sábado, 17 Janeiro, 16:00

Chroniques fidèles survenues au siècle dernier à l’hôpital psychiatrique Blida-Joinville, Abdenour Zahzah, Algeria, França, 2024, 90’

1953, Argélia colonizada. Frantz Fanon, um jovem psiquiatra negro da Martinica, é nomeado médico-chefe do Hospital de Blida-Joinville. Ao pôr em prática as suas teorias de “psicoterapia institucional”, em oposição às teorias racistas da Escola de Psiquiatria de Argel, uma guerra irrompe dentro das próprias enfermarias. Esta longa-metragem centra-se nos métodos visionários de terapia social de Frantz Fanon durante o período em que trabalhou como psiquiatra na Argélia, entre 1953 e 1956.

Conversa com Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mina Untalan e Lucas Manarte. Moderação de Manuela Ribeiro Sanches

Fotografia: Frantz Fanon numa conferência de imprensa durante um congresso de escritores em Tunes, 1959 (Frantz Fanon Archives / IMEC)

Lecture presenting some of the methods, archives, and challenges of the social and cultural history of specific communities with a focus on queer and LGBTQIA+ history. With Matt Cook, IHC Visiting Scholar 2026.

Entangled Tales, Liveable Lives: Making Queer History Since the 1960s

Palestra dirigida ao público não-académico (em inglês) que apresenta alguns dos métodos, arquivos e desafios da história social e cultural de comunidades específicas. Com foco na história queer, LGBTQIA+, e das dissidências sexuais e de género na época contemporânea, propõe uma reflexão em torno da sua circulação entre memória, arquivo, academia, arte, e espaço público.

A palestra será proferida por Matt Cook, destacado historiador social e cultural, Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexuality no Mansfield College, Universidade de Oxford. O seu trabalho tem-se centrado em temáticas queer e LGBTQ+ no Reino Unido, incluindo livros de referência como London and the Culture of Homosexuality (2003), Queer Domesticities (2014) e Queer Beyond London (com Alison Oram, 2022), bem como numerosos textos e colaborações públicas em torno da história urbana, VIH/SIDA e culturas queer. Desde 2002, integra o conselho editorial da History Workshop Journal, uma das principais revistas internacionais em história social. Writing Queer History (no prelo, Março 2026) propõe um sumário do campo e é a base desta palestra. Matt Cook é o IHC Visiting Scholar do ano 2026.

Será seguida por uma conversa com os artistas Odete e André Murraças, moderada por Joana Matias (IHC — NOVA FCSH / CITCOM), que propõe dialogar com as suas respectivas abordagens aos arquivos e genealogias queer e trans no contexto português.

Odete é uma artista multidisciplinar que trabalha entre a escrita, a música, o teatro e as artes visuais. Afirma ser uma filha bastarda de Lúcifer, descendente da prática medieval de pactos satânicos para alterar o corpo sexuado de alguém. Tem pesquisado e trabalhado em torno da construção de pontos de ligação entre histórias “efeminadas”, desde os castrati barrocos até aos dandies do século XIX. They Lied to You About the Eunuchs (2025) é o seu último livro.

André Murraças é encenador, dramaturgo e cenógrafo, licenciado pela Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, com um Master of Arts em Scenography (Utrecht) e mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação. Assinou dezenas de espetáculos de teatro como autor, encenador e cenógrafo, com textos premiados e editados pela Cotovia/Artistas Unidos. Venceu em 2023 a bolsa literária para teatro da DGLAB e a III Bolsa de Residência Literária em Madrid, tendo sido distinguido várias vezes pelo CPAI e representado Portugal na Bienal de Jovens Criadores. Desenvolve ainda trabalho em cinema, rádio e projectos queer, como O Museu Fora do Armário e o Queerquivo, sendo considerado pela Mini Internacional um dos autores mais relevantes da sua geração.

O Quir Research Hub é uma comunidade transdisciplinar de investigadores/as que trabalham no domínio alargado dos estudos de género e da sexualidade, com foco nos estudos literários e culturais, na performance, e na representação. O compromisso-base jaz com a produção de análise cultural e acção institucional consequente, propondo soluções teóricas, críticas, e pedagógicas relevantes.

Workshop aimed at researchers interested in applying social network analysis and other digital humanities tools to historical research.

Humanidades Digitais e Investigação:

Análise e visualização de redes

Com Anderson Pereira Antunes.

Este workshop visa:

• apresentar os princípios básicos da análise e visualização de redes sociais;
• demonstrar a diversidade de aplicação desta metodologia, sobretudo nas Humanidades;
• destacar como a visualização de redes amplia a comunicação científica (entre pares e para disseminação para o público não-académico);
• incentivar o uso crítico e criativo de novas metodologias e softwares como ferramentas de investigação.

Formato híbrido: Sala 295 do Colégio do Espirito Santo e online em https://meet.google.com/etg-bgfo-rrz

A participação é gratuita, mas é obrigatória inscrição prévia NESTE LINK.
Participação limitada a 50 pessoas no formato presencial.

Organização: IIFA e Instituto de História Contemporânea — Universidade de Évora

>> Descarregar folheto informativo (PDF) <<

Continuing the celebration of the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, this cycle proposes to reflect on his multiple legacies, from the anti-racist struggle to decolonisation movements, as well as his work as a psychiatrist.

Frantz Fanon | Ciclo de Cinema 2026

Dando continuidade à celebração do centenário do nascimento de Frantz Fanon, este ciclo propõe reflectir sobre os seus múltiplos legados, desde a luta anti-racista aos movimentos de descolonização, passando ainda pela sua actividade como psiquiatra – intimamente entrelaçada com as duas outras vertentes. Já na sua primeira obra Pele negra, máscaras brancas (1952), o cinema ocupa um espaço marginal mas não menos decisivo no que diz respeito a questões de representação, tendo um lugar central nas terapias alternativas que Fanon viria a introduzir no Hospital Psiquiátrico de Blida-Joinville, na Argélia, enquanto Médico-chefe de serviço entre 1953 e 1956. A leitura de Fanon revela-se fundamental não só para a compreensão do contexto histórico em que surgiu, com as suas ramificações entre os movimentos de libertação e as causas do chamado Terceiro Mundo nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas sobretudo na luta pelos direitos de grupos racializados. Todas estas questões voltam a ecoar no século XXI, quer em movimentos sociais que reivindicam uma cidadania efectivamente igualitária, quer na discussão sobre a urgência da descolonização dos saberes e das instituições. Como ler Fanon, hoje, a partir de Portugal? Qual o papel das instituições e dos diferentes movimentos na sua recepção? Qual a relevância da sua obra para a nossa contemporaneidade, tendo em conta a complexidade das suas diferentes vertentes – anti-colonial, anti-racista, terapêutica – e a reivindicação para se “sair da grande noite” do colonialismo?

À projecção dos filmes segue-se uma conversa com convidados/as e debate.

As sessões 1 a 4 decorrem na Casa do Comum; a sessão 5 decorre no Cinema Fernando Lopes.
Os filmes são legendados em inglês.

Organização: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, Miguel Ribeiro e Sofia Victorino, com o IHC —NOVA FCSH

>> Descarregar o programa do ciclo (PDF) <<

Sessão 2 | Sábado, 24 Janeiro, 16:00

Where did we land, Rabz Lansiquot, Reino Unido, 2019, 30′

Where did we land é uma experiência artística em curso que interroga o impacto das imagens disseminadas de violência anti-negra sobre a sociedade, a justiça e, sobretudo, sobre a psique das pessoas negras que as confrontam. O filme assume a forma de um ensaio em movimento, que aborda a problemática do espectáculo em torno dos corpos negros no ecrã. A obra apresenta 900 imagens fixas de arquivo, abstraídas e manipuladas, que atravessam a diáspora africana no tempo e no espaço, acompanhadas por um texto que convoca autoras como Tina Campt, Saidiya Hartman, Susan Sontag, Ruun Nuur, Guy Debord e Frank B. Wilderson III.

We Demand, Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold, EUA, 2016, 11′

Em registo documental e performativo, We Demand recria a ocupação histórica do edifício de administração da Universidade da Virgínia em Maio de 1969, quando estudantes afro-americanos exigiram mudanças curriculares e maior representação institucional. Esta curta-metragem entrelaça encenação e arquivo para dar corpo às vozes da militância estudantil negra, evocando as tensões de uma época marcada pela luta pelos direitos civis e pelo fim da Guerra do Vietname. Mais do que um registo histórico, o filme funciona como exercício de memória colectiva, resgatando episódios de resistência que moldaram o percurso político e académico da universidade e ecoam ainda nas lutas contemporâneas contra o racismo.

Quem se move, Stephanie Ricci, Brasil, Portugal, 2025, 20′

Uma noite lisboeta é atravessada pela intensidade de René, uma jovem brasileira precária que aportou na cidade, mergulhada em conflitos pessoais e existenciais. Festas queer, amor, rejeição e solidão atravessam o seu corpo, deslocado entre dois continentes – entre a pertença e a não pertença, entre a precariedade e a esperança.

Ian Capillé conversa com Vânia Sanha. Moderação de Miguel Ribeiro

Fotografia: Frantz Fanon numa conferência de imprensa durante um congresso de escritores em Tunes, 1959 (Frantz Fanon Archives / IMEC)

Lecture on public history and the teaching of history with Arthur Chapman, Professor of History Education at University College London.

School and Public History: Challenges and Opportunities

Sessão sobre história pública e ensino da história intitulada “School and Public History: challenges and opportunities” com Arthur Chapman, professor de Educação em História e coordenador do Departamento de Currículo, Pedagogia e Avaliação Faculty of Education and Society of University College, London.

Arthur Chapman tem trabalhado sobre o ensino e a aprendizagem de História em contextos educativos formais e informais e, também, sobre questões relacionadas com a pedagogia da história na história pública, na cultura contemporânea e na teoria da história. É Editor-chefe do History Education Research Journal, Editor Executivo da Teaching History e editor de série da colecção de livros Knowledge and the Curriculum da UCL Press e do International Review of History Education. É vice-presidente da History Educator’s International Research Network (HEIRNET) e coordenador do History in Education Special Interest Group do Instituto de Educação da faculdade onde trabalha. É Vice-Presidente do Conselho Consultivo Científico do Observatório sobre o Ensino de História na Europa (Conselho da Europa) e foi, durante vários anos, Subdiretor da Public History Weekly. Contribui frequentemente para discussões internacionais sobre educação histórica e tem sido investigador visitante no Brasil, Canadá, Chile, Japão, Portugal, Taiwan, Singapura, Espanha e Suécia, entre outros.

ENTRADA LIVRE

Continuing the celebration of the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, this cycle proposes to reflect on his multiple legacies, from the anti-racist struggle to decolonisation movements, as well as his work as a psychiatrist.

Frantz Fanon | Ciclo de Cinema 2026

Dando continuidade à celebração do centenário do nascimento de Frantz Fanon, este ciclo propõe reflectir sobre os seus múltiplos legados, desde a luta anti-racista aos movimentos de descolonização, passando ainda pela sua actividade como psiquiatra – intimamente entrelaçada com as duas outras vertentes. Já na sua primeira obra Pele negra, máscaras brancas (1952), o cinema ocupa um espaço marginal mas não menos decisivo no que diz respeito a questões de representação, tendo um lugar central nas terapias alternativas que Fanon viria a introduzir no Hospital Psiquiátrico de Blida-Joinville, na Argélia, enquanto Médico-chefe de serviço entre 1953 e 1956. A leitura de Fanon revela-se fundamental não só para a compreensão do contexto histórico em que surgiu, com as suas ramificações entre os movimentos de libertação e as causas do chamado Terceiro Mundo nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas sobretudo na luta pelos direitos de grupos racializados. Todas estas questões voltam a ecoar no século XXI, quer em movimentos sociais que reivindicam uma cidadania efectivamente igualitária, quer na discussão sobre a urgência da descolonização dos saberes e das instituições. Como ler Fanon, hoje, a partir de Portugal? Qual o papel das instituições e dos diferentes movimentos na sua recepção? Qual a relevância da sua obra para a nossa contemporaneidade, tendo em conta a complexidade das suas diferentes vertentes – anti-colonial, anti-racista, terapêutica – e a reivindicação para se “sair da grande noite” do colonialismo?

À projecção dos filmes segue-se uma conversa com convidados/as e debate.

As sessões 1 a 4 decorrem na Casa do Comum; a sessão 5 decorre no Cinema Fernando Lopes.
Os filmes são legendados em inglês.

Organização: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, Miguel Ribeiro e Sofia Victorino, com o IHC —NOVA FCSH

>> Descarregar o programa do ciclo (PDF) <<

Sessão 3 | Sábado, 31 Janeiro, 16:00

Burn!, Gillo Pontecorvo, Itália, França, 1969, 112’

Descrito como uma epopeia luxuriante “contada de um ponto de vista neo-marxista e fanoniano”, o filme de Pontecorvo que sucede a A Batalha de Argel (1966) é um drama anti-colonial situado no século XIX. Marlon Brando interpreta William Walker, um agente provocador enviado pelo governo britânico para fomentar a mudança de regime na ilha caribenha fictícia de Queimada. Walker é um mercenário ao serviço do imperialismo europeu que acaba envolvido num confronto direto com um revolucionário negro chamado José Dolores (interpretado pelo actor não profissional Evaristo Márquez). Com as suas imagens intensas e saturadas de cor, acompanhadas pela música de Ennio Morricone, Queimada! oferece uma visão contundente de uma rebelião de escravos que constitui uma ameaça existencial ao sistema colonial-capitalista.

Conversa com Rui Lopes e Rebeca Ávila

Fotografia: Frantz Fanon numa conferência de imprensa durante um congresso de escritores em Tunes, 1959 (Frantz Fanon Archives / IMEC)

This meeting seeks to encourage the participation and sharing of ideas calling on the voice of workers and the power of archives as a living tool for knowledge.

We are with you at home

Domestic work and collective action — Archives, memories, testimonies

In recent decades, the formation of a global economy of care and domestic services has become one of the central elements in understanding the transformations of work in capitalist societies (Ehrenreich and Hochschild, 2002; Lutz, 2011). This process of “international division of reproductive labour” (Parreñas, 2001; Anderson, 2007) is an example of how historical inequalities have been reconfigured and deepened in the transition from colonial to postcolonial contexts (Cox, 2006; Sartri, 2008). The absence of public care policies, combined with labour market deregulation and labour shortages in the sector, has produced a scenario of labour and social precariousness in which gender, ethnicity and class intersect. Employers’ preference for migrant workers—often without residence permits—has allowed the formation of a new servile class, characterised by fragile ties, an almost complete absence of rights and low wages (Giordano, 2022).

This context of structural vulnerability fuels the idea that domestic and care work is marked by social invisibility and a supposed inability to mobilise collectively. However, this interpretation tends to obscure the long history of resistance and organisational experiences led by these workers. Since the 19th century, multiple examples of labour demands and struggles against oppressive practices demonstrate that the sector, far from being disorganised, has been the scene of various forms of mobilisation for better working conditions (Anderson, 2001; Boris and Nadassen, 2008; Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, 2010). To recover and reflect on this historical trajectory is not only an exercise of remembrance, but a necessary step to reinscribe domestic and care work in the global history of labour struggles, challenging narratives that seek to naturalise its subalternity.

DOMESTIC AND ARCHIVAL WORK

The title of this meeting is taken from a letter sent by a domestic worker to her union, kept in an archive, with no date, no sender or recipient, only a handwritten note: archive. It reads: ‘And never think you are alone, we are with you in the house where we work.’

We took inspiration for this meeting from this short excerpt, part of a text that describes, in the first person, the early migration to the city of Lisbon to work in someone else’s home at the age of seven.

Work on the archives of women workers’ organisations and the increased focus on trade unionism in the domestic service sector has received growing attention in recent years, throughout the world, partly driven by a renewed interest in the intersection of gender, class and migration inequalities in the sphere of paid domestic work. At this meeting, which will take place on 6 and 7 February 2026 in Lisbon, we are opening a space for, based on the project A Voz das Trabalhadoras (The Voice of Women Workers: The Archives of the Domestic Service Union [1974-1992]), to gather contributions from different geographical areas and fields of practice that intersect around domestic work, care and cleaning — and their articulation with forms of collective action, cooperativism, trade unionism, and memory construction.

Thus, with immersion in trade union archives and experiences of self-management and cooperativism in domestic service as our main starting point, we invite submissions of proposals that focus on the various repertoires of organisation and struggle adopted by workers in this sector/activity, focusing on oral history or archival research, the narration of experiences and self-representations of working conditions and contexts.

A TRANSNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE

Seeking to establish a transnational and interdisciplinary dialogue on these experiences, contributions are welcome in the following areas:

1. Archival practices of/on domestic work;
2. Migratory flows, citizenship, gender, and racialisation in domestic, cleaning, and care work;
3. Collective action, cooperativism, and trade unionism in domestic work.

This meeting seeks to encourage the participation and sharing of ideas among activists, artists, researchers, workers and trade unions — calling on the voice of workers and the power of archives as a living tool for knowledge, learning and transformation.

Call for papers

We therefore invite proposals from different disciplinary fields and with different methodological approaches, welcoming the intersection of perspectives. The Meeting welcomes proposals from:

a) artists (performance, theatre, audiovisual);
b) researchers, archivists, activists and students;
c) domestic and care workers (collectives, cooperatives, trade unions)

Who, where, how?
Send short abstracts (max. 500 words) with a brief biography by 10 November 2025. Submissions to: encontro.trabalhodomestico2026@gmail.com.

Accepted languages: Portuguese, Spanish, English.

Venues: NOVA FCSH, Cape Verde Cultural Centre (Lisbon)

Organisation: CICS.NOVA and IHC

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

Organising Committee

Ackssana Silva
Elsa Nogueira
Inês Brasão
José Soeiro
Mafalda Araújo
Nuno Ferreira Dias

Continuing the celebration of the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, this cycle proposes to reflect on his multiple legacies, from the anti-racist struggle to decolonisation movements, as well as his work as a psychiatrist.

Frantz Fanon | Ciclo de Cinema 2026

Dando continuidade à celebração do centenário do nascimento de Frantz Fanon, este ciclo propõe reflectir sobre os seus múltiplos legados, desde a luta anti-racista aos movimentos de descolonização, passando ainda pela sua actividade como psiquiatra – intimamente entrelaçada com as duas outras vertentes. Já na sua primeira obra Pele negra, máscaras brancas (1952), o cinema ocupa um espaço marginal mas não menos decisivo no que diz respeito a questões de representação, tendo um lugar central nas terapias alternativas que Fanon viria a introduzir no Hospital Psiquiátrico de Blida-Joinville, na Argélia, enquanto Médico-chefe de serviço entre 1953 e 1956. A leitura de Fanon revela-se fundamental não só para a compreensão do contexto histórico em que surgiu, com as suas ramificações entre os movimentos de libertação e as causas do chamado Terceiro Mundo nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas sobretudo na luta pelos direitos de grupos racializados. Todas estas questões voltam a ecoar no século XXI, quer em movimentos sociais que reivindicam uma cidadania efectivamente igualitária, quer na discussão sobre a urgência da descolonização dos saberes e das instituições. Como ler Fanon, hoje, a partir de Portugal? Qual o papel das instituições e dos diferentes movimentos na sua recepção? Qual a relevância da sua obra para a nossa contemporaneidade, tendo em conta a complexidade das suas diferentes vertentes – anti-colonial, anti-racista, terapêutica – e a reivindicação para se “sair da grande noite” do colonialismo?

À projecção dos filmes segue-se uma conversa com convidados/as e debate.

As sessões 1 a 4 decorrem na Casa do Comum; a sessão 5 decorre no Cinema Fernando Lopes.
Os filmes são legendados em inglês.

Organização: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, Miguel Ribeiro e Sofia Victorino, com o IHC —NOVA FCSH

>> Descarregar o programa do ciclo (PDF) <<

Sessão 4 | Sábado, 7 Fevereiro, 16:00

La Hora de los Hornos. Parte 1: Neo-colonialismo e Violência, 1968, Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino, 1966-68, Argentina, 85’

Produzido pelo Grupo Cine Liberación nos anos que antecederam a chamada Guerra Suja, A Hora dos Fornos foi ao mesmo tempo cinema inovador e manifesto guerrilheiro pela queda da ditadura argentina. Combinando imagens de actualidade que retratam a agitação socio-política entre 1945 e 1968 com testemunhos de militantes peronistas e de figuras revolucionárias como José Martí, Che Guevara, Frantz Fanon e José Carlos Mariátegui, o filme assumiu-se como ferramenta de resistência e de mobilização socialista. Exibido clandestinamente perante públicos que interrompiam as sessões para debater, tornou-se obra-chave do chamado Third Cinema, conceito defendido por Fernando Solanas e Octavio Getino em oposição ao modelo comercial de Hollywood. Dividido em catorze capítulos, a sua influência estendeu-se a cineastas e coletivos empenhados na transformação política, de Chris Marker ao Grupo Dziga Vertov e a Patricio Guzmán.

Conversa com Luís Trindade e Raquel Ribeiro

Fotografia: Frantz Fanon numa conferência de imprensa durante um congresso de escritores em Tunes, 1959 (Frantz Fanon Archives / IMEC)

Continuing the celebration of the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, this cycle proposes to reflect on his multiple legacies, from the anti-racist struggle to decolonisation movements, as well as his work as a psychiatrist.

Frantz Fanon | Ciclo de Cinema 2026

Dando continuidade à celebração do centenário do nascimento de Frantz Fanon, este ciclo propõe reflectir sobre os seus múltiplos legados, desde a luta anti-racista aos movimentos de descolonização, passando ainda pela sua actividade como psiquiatra – intimamente entrelaçada com as duas outras vertentes. Já na sua primeira obra Pele negra, máscaras brancas (1952), o cinema ocupa um espaço marginal mas não menos decisivo no que diz respeito a questões de representação, tendo um lugar central nas terapias alternativas que Fanon viria a introduzir no Hospital Psiquiátrico de Blida-Joinville, na Argélia, enquanto Médico-chefe de serviço entre 1953 e 1956. A leitura de Fanon revela-se fundamental não só para a compreensão do contexto histórico em que surgiu, com as suas ramificações entre os movimentos de libertação e as causas do chamado Terceiro Mundo nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas sobretudo na luta pelos direitos de grupos racializados. Todas estas questões voltam a ecoar no século XXI, quer em movimentos sociais que reivindicam uma cidadania efectivamente igualitária, quer na discussão sobre a urgência da descolonização dos saberes e das instituições. Como ler Fanon, hoje, a partir de Portugal? Qual o papel das instituições e dos diferentes movimentos na sua recepção? Qual a relevância da sua obra para a nossa contemporaneidade, tendo em conta a complexidade das suas diferentes vertentes – anti-colonial, anti-racista, terapêutica – e a reivindicação para se “sair da grande noite” do colonialismo?

À projecção dos filmes segue-se uma conversa com convidados/as e debate.

As sessões 1 a 4 decorrem na Casa do Comum; a sessão 5 decorre no Cinema Fernando Lopes.
Os filmes são legendados em inglês.

Organização: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, Miguel Ribeiro e Sofia Victorino, com o IHC —NOVA FCSH

>> Descarregar o programa do ciclo (PDF) <<

Sessão 5 | Sábado, 14 Fevereiro, 16:00

You hide me, Nii Kwate Owoo, Gana, Reino Unido, 1970, 17’

Esta curta-metragem revela de forma crua e directa as contradições de um sistema museológico que legitima séculos de violência colonial. A câmara percorre vitrinas, depósitos e corredores dos acervos do Museu Britânico em Londres, transformando o inventário em denúncia: cada objecto exposto é também um testemunho das condições em que foi retirado do seu contexto original. O gesto do realizador, simples mas radical, assume-se como um show-and-tell político, convocando tanto a urgência da restituição material quanto a necessidade de repensar narrativas históricas dominantes. Proibido em território ganês mas hoje visto como um marco do cinema anti-colonial, este filme recorda-nos que a luta pela devolução do património não é apenas simbólica, mas profundamente ligada a questões de justiça histórica.

Soleil Ô, Med Hondo, 1970, França, Mauritania, 112’

Um grito de resistência contra a opressão racista e um marco revolucionário do cinema político, esta primeira longa-metragem do realizador mauritano Med Hondo constitui um ataque ao capitalismo e ao colonialismo. Soleil Ô acompanha a trajectória de um jovem imigrante que parte rumo a Paris em busca de trabalho e de uma comunidade. Rapidamente descobre uma sociedade hostil, onde a sua simples presença gera medo e desconfiança. Hondo recorre a uma linguagem cinematográfica experimental para denunciar as contradições da metrópole pós-colonial: a promessa de integração convive com mecanismos de exclusão sistemática. O filme não só denuncia as condições de marginalização vividas por milhares de migrantes africanos em França, como se afirma como um manifesto artístico de emancipação e resistência. Meio século depois da sua estreia, Soleil Ô permanece uma obra de referência incontornável, cuja energia estética e política continua a interpelar espectadores de diferentes gerações.

Conversa com Ângela Ferreira, Flávio Almada, Henrique Entratice, Víctor Barros. Moderação de Sofia Victorino

Fotografia: Frantz Fanon numa conferência de imprensa durante um congresso de escritores em Tunes, 1959 (Frantz Fanon Archives / IMEC)

This conference aims to open the space for dialogue on how Digital Humanities can boost plural approaches to history, memory, heritage, and creativity. Deadline: 5 December 2025 26 January 2026 [new deadline]

Crossing Oceans: Digital Humanities in Dialogue

We are pleased to announce the international conference Crossing Oceans: Digital Humanities in Dialogue, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and digital humanists from all around the globe. This event seeks to create a space of truly transoceanic dialogue to discuss the present and future of Digital Humanities.

The conference invites participants to rethink methodologies for work in the Humanities at a time when digital transformations are reshaping how we investigate, interpret, and share knowledge. The digitization of archival materials, alongside the proliferation of born-digital records, has multiplied the sources available for historical, literary, and cultural analysis. Today, researchers have at their disposal a wide range of digital tools and software that allow them to organise, interpret, manipulate, share, and store data in increasingly diverse ways, opening new pathways for both collaborative and innovative research. At the same time, the emergence of artificial intelligence challenges us to critically assess both the possibilities and the risks of automated tools in the construction of knowledge.

Call for papers

By crossing oceans and perspectives, this conference aims to open the space for dialogue on how Digital Humanities can boost plural approaches to history, memory, heritage, and creativity, while also confronting questions of accessibility, ethics, and epistemic justice, as when we use these tools to give voice to new agents previously made invisible by traditional historiography, for instance.

On this conference, we welcome contributions on topics including but not limited to:

• Methodological innovations in Digital Humanities research.
• The impact of AI on the Humanities and critical approaches to its use.
• Digitization projects and the challenges of working with born-digital materials.
• Digital strategies for reaching non-academic audiences.
• Tools and projects that facilitate collaborative and transnational projects.

Submission period: 20 October – 5 December 2025 26 January 2026 [new deadline]

Participation: Free of charge, registration required

Language: English (presentations in other languages may be considered)

🔗 Conference website

🔗 Registration and proposal submission

🔗 Call for papers (PDF)

Organisation

Organising Committee

Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)

Scientific Committee

Ana Margarida Dias da Silva (University of Coimbra / CHSC / DCV-UC)
Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Daniel Alves (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Santiago Perez (CEComp — FLUL)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Silvia Valencich Frota (CEComp — FLUL)

Executive Committee

Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Diana Barbosa (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Paula Gentil Santos (University of Évora)

This conference is inspired by the KNOW.AFRICA project (https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.01599.PTDC), which investigates nineteenth-century Portuguese scientific expeditions in Angola by highlighting the invisible contributions of local agents who made travelling and collecting possible. In this project, we analyse how cooks, guides, interpreters, porters, local rulers, and others, collaborated with the construction of knowledge and the formation of scientific collections. Through the use of Digital Humanities methods and tools – such as GIS mapping, network analysis and visualisation, databases, and interactive digital timelines – KNOW.AFRICA aims to explore how digital tools can assist in the construction and dissemination of historical knowledge. By combining archival research with digital tools, the project not only advances academic debates on colonial science but also develops outputs aimed at wider publics, including digital exhibitions, podcasts, and interactive maps and timelines. In this way, KNOW.AFRICA aims to use the Digital Humanities as a way to bridge research and dissemination, turning historical inquiry into a shared, multidisciplinary and collaborative process.

Conference that intends to discuss how the new far-right of the 21st century positions itself in relation to the legacy of classical fascism. Deadline: 4 January 2026

From Fascism to Neo-Fascism?

(Dis)Continuities Between Classical Fascism and 21st Century’s Far-Right

The debate on the political, ideological and social nature of contemporary far-right, especially the one active in the 21st century, has been ongoing for a long time. Academic debate, in this case more than in others, closely follows the public debate on political developments that are perceived to have dramatic consequences for the future. A large number of positions have been proposed and a wide range of concepts offered, applicable to specific cases, whether national or regional in scope, or to the global phenomenon itself — because, let us start here, it is a global phenomenon we are dealing with. Just as fascism was a hundred years ago. However, research is almost always forced to take a position on the question of continuities (Finchelstein, 2019; Palheta, 2022) and discontinuities (Forti, 2024) between, on the one hand, classical fascism (1922-1945) and what were in those days other ultra-reactionary phenomena that in the interwar years became by-products of fascism through the process of fascistization, and, on the other hand, the new forms adopted by the far-right since 1945 and, above all, since the turn of the 20th century to the 21st century. In the name of the urgency of a scientific approach to what appears to be the most serious crisis of liberal systems since the 1930s, at this conference we intend to discuss how the new extreme right of the 21st century positions itself in relation to the legacy of classical fascism, because “we need to explain the continuity between historical fascism and contemporary right-wing populism as a radicalization of post-liberal politics based on the erosion of democratic participation and the emergence of a new politics of fear” (Woodley, 2010).

In line with this position, this conference will also welcome studies on the anti-fascist political cultures, starting with those that emerged in reaction to the fascist wave of the 1930s and its political success (Kallis, 2015). The aim here is to make room for studies on the variety of forms of resistance to fascism. Anti-fascism is also a transnational movement (Traverso, 2004), and it did not lose its political effectiveness in 1945 or become a community of memory of a past encapsulated in time. It has re-emerged over the last 80 years whenever the extreme right has reappeared in force. As is the case today.

We welcome different possible areas for papers and panels on:

(i) (Fascism(s), neo-fascism, far-right, reaction and modernity. Concepts and theory.
(ii) The nation, the West, white supremacy: one hundred years of far-right worldvisions.
(iii) Hypermasculinity, anti-feminism and misogyny: social reproduction and fascism.
(iv) One hundred years of far-right political culture: continuities, discontinuities, adaptation, networks.
(v) Fascism, neo-fascism and the other(s): specificities of fascist and global far-right political articulation of xenophobia and racism.
(vi) Party, State, movements, militias, welfare, associations. The organisational dimension of the far-right. (vii) Violence, war, and genocide: far-right and political action.
(viiii) Fascism and crisis: context and causality of far-right boosts in history.
(ix) Anti-fascism as a transnational political culture: resisting fascism, preserving democracy, rebuilding democracy, from the 1920s to the 2020s. Intersections with anti-colonialism, anti-racism and feminism.
(x) Neo-fascism, far-right and anti-fascism in collective memory: uses of the past, memory, “culture wars” and political action.

Submission and presentations:

Researchers interested in attending or contributing to the conference should send an email with a title, an abstract (350 words max.), short bio, and contact information to congresso.neo.fascismo.2026@gmail.com no later than 4 January 2026.

We welcome individual papers as well as panel proposals in English. We will also welcome proposals for creative/artistic interventions that are built on an interdisciplinary intersection with the social sciences, which will be subject to peer review in the same way as proposals for papers and panels. In this case, proposals must include a description of the performance (specifying the means and time) and an abstract of objectives. Acceptance will depend on the actual and practical possibilities for integration into the programme.

Presentations should be done in-person in Portuguese, English or Spanish. There will be no online presentations.

Notification of acceptance by 8 February 2026.

No registration fees will be charged.

Keynote speakers: Ugo Palheta, Virgínia Fontes, and Fernando Rosas

>> Download the call for proposals (New! PDF) <<

Organising committee:

Manuel Loff (FLUP / IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST) Luís Trindade (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Arturo Zoffmann (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ana Sofia Ferreira (FLUP / IS — Universidade do Porto)
Sílvia Correia (FLUP / IS — Universidade do Porto)
Adriano Amaral (IS — Universidade do Porto)
Gabriela Azevedo (IS — Universidade do Porto)
Bruno Madeira (Universidade do Minho / Lab2PT / IN2PAST) Sérgio Neto (FLUP / CITCEM)
Afonso Silva (UAB / IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Carlos Martins (IS — Universidade do Porto)

Scientific Committee:

Caroline Silveira Bauer (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Francesca Billiani (University of Manchester, UK)
Kasper Braskén (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Gilberto Calil (Unioeste, Brazil)
Leonardo Carnut (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)
Rejane Carol (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
André Dantas (Fiocruz, Brazil)
Cristina Diac (The National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, Romania)
Fátima Moura Ferreira (University of Minho / Lab2PT / IN2PAST, Portugal)
Steven Forti (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Hugo García (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain)
Cátia Guimarães (Fiocruz, Brazil)
Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Virgílio Borges Pereira (Universidade do Porto / IS, Portugal)
Fernando Rosas (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST, Portugal)
Carlos Zacarias de Sena Júnior (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil)
Carla Luciana Silva (Unioeste, Brazil)
Luís Reis Torgal (University of Coimbra / CEIS20, Portugal)
Vicente Valentim (IE University, Spain)

Two-day conference on the alter-lives of independence movements that explores the evolution and transformation of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles. Deadline: 13 February 2026

The Alter-lives of Independence Movements:

Frustrated Hopes, Renewed Utopias

Decades after formal decolonisation, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism have remained a wellspring of inspiration and contestation. Studies about anticolonial thought, the 1955 Bandung Conference, and transcontinental solidarity movements have proliferated in academia and activist networks, providing the basis of theories and practices of resistance in contemporary times. Nevertheless, the ideas and the movements they inspired did not perish with the epoch that produced them. They evolved and acquired alternative lives in the period of nation-building and world-making, whether in extended or distorted forms. On the one hand, there were local and transnational efforts to sustain and enrich the revolutionary impulse through embracing the anticolonial spirit in various areas such as development, education, and diplomacy. As international institutions such as the UN welcome additional member states, Europeans and non-Europeans travelled to decolonised states like Algeria and Angola to learn and further cultivate ideas in building new societies. On the other hand, some dominant groups that took over the independent states capitalised on the anti-colonial pride to justify authoritarian and anti-democratic rule. Their utopian visions led to the systematic oppression of opposing forces and reproduced the hierarchical international state model. The fear of neocolonialism and disillusionment propelled both the former coloniser and colonised to reorganise their strategies and desires in the face of an emerging world order.

This two-day conference on the alter-lives of independence movements explores the evolution and transformation of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles. It focuses on the events and reflections about the early years of independence, a period of turbulent transition from colonial domination to self-governing nation-states, and of tumultuous beginnings of a new international order. We introduce the concept “alter-lives” to denote the process of altering imaginaries and practices that emerged during the colonial period in responding to uncertain futures, including the political uses of anticolonial memories and/or histories. It also refers to alternative relations forged between and among the former colonisers and colonised after independence. Thus, using “alter-lives” as a conceptual ground, this conference engages in the following questions: first, how have anticolonial thinking and practices evolved domestically and transnationally? Second, what were the structural and agential forces behind these evolutions? Third, how were anticolonial memories and histories politicised to achieve certain ends? Fourth, what difficulties did these agents face in realising their envisioned future? Lastly, how have alterations and alternatives affirmed and/or challenged the revolutionary ideas of the independence struggles?

Call for papers

We welcome theoretical and praxis-oriented proposals to gather scholars, activists, and artists from various disciplinary backgrounds and acquire a broad comparative perspective. Possible
areas include, but are not limited to:

• Transnational solidarities and resistance, such as North-South and South-South cooperation
• Nation-building
• Anticolonial thought and figures
• Diplomacy and international affairs
• Pedagogy and knowledge transmission
• Literary and artistic representations, such as documentaries, films, and novels
• Rhetorics of failure, frustrated political projects

Please submit your abstract (300 words max.) by 13 February 2026 to jiw.hopesandfears@gmail.com.

Decisions will be communicated by the first week of March 2026.

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

This event is organised as part of the Joint International Workshop “Hopes and Fears. Anti-colonial and Postcolonial Imaginaries in the Lusotopy and Beyond”, that gathers the Institute of Contemporary History — NOVA University Lisbon / University of Évora, the University of São Paulo, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Conference that seeks to challenge historical revisionism, amplify marginalised voices, and foster transnational dialogues on reconciliation, accountability, and restorative justice. Deadline: 30 November 7 December 2025 [new deadline]

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.

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) <<

Picture: Peniche Fortress, Fortim Redondo, site of the infamous isolation cells (‘Segredo’) (Credit: © Paulo)

This conference aims to open the space for dialogue on how Digital Humanities can boost plural approaches to history, memory, heritage, and creativity. Deadline: 5 December 2025 26 January 2026 [new deadline]

Crossing Oceans: Digital Humanities in Dialogue

We are pleased to announce the international conference Crossing Oceans: Digital Humanities in Dialogue, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and digital humanists from all around the globe. This event seeks to create a space of truly transoceanic dialogue to discuss the present and future of Digital Humanities.

The conference invites participants to rethink methodologies for work in the Humanities at a time when digital transformations are reshaping how we investigate, interpret, and share knowledge. The digitization of archival materials, alongside the proliferation of born-digital records, has multiplied the sources available for historical, literary, and cultural analysis. Today, researchers have at their disposal a wide range of digital tools and software that allow them to organise, interpret, manipulate, share, and store data in increasingly diverse ways, opening new pathways for both collaborative and innovative research. At the same time, the emergence of artificial intelligence challenges us to critically assess both the possibilities and the risks of automated tools in the construction of knowledge.

Call for papers

By crossing oceans and perspectives, this conference aims to open the space for dialogue on how Digital Humanities can boost plural approaches to history, memory, heritage, and creativity, while also confronting questions of accessibility, ethics, and epistemic justice, as when we use these tools to give voice to new agents previously made invisible by traditional historiography, for instance.

On this conference, we welcome contributions on topics including but not limited to:

• Methodological innovations in Digital Humanities research.
• The impact of AI on the Humanities and critical approaches to its use.
• Digitization projects and the challenges of working with born-digital materials.
• Digital strategies for reaching non-academic audiences.
• Tools and projects that facilitate collaborative and transnational projects.

Submission period: 20 October – 5 December 2025 26 January 2026 [new deadline]

Participation: Free of charge, registration required

Language: English (presentations in other languages may be considered)

🔗 Conference website

🔗 Registration and proposal submission

🔗 Call for papers (PDF)

Organisation

Organising Committee

Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)

Scientific Committee

Ana Margarida Dias da Silva (University of Coimbra / CHSC / DCV-UC)
Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Daniel Alves (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Santiago Perez (CEComp — FLUL)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Silvia Valencich Frota (CEComp — FLUL)

Executive Committee

Anderson Antunes (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Diana Barbosa (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Sara Albuquerque (University of Évora / IHC / IN2PAST)
Paula Gentil Santos (University of Évora)

This conference is inspired by the KNOW.AFRICA project (https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.01599.PTDC), which investigates nineteenth-century Portuguese scientific expeditions in Angola by highlighting the invisible contributions of local agents who made travelling and collecting possible. In this project, we analyse how cooks, guides, interpreters, porters, local rulers, and others, collaborated with the construction of knowledge and the formation of scientific collections. Through the use of Digital Humanities methods and tools – such as GIS mapping, network analysis and visualisation, databases, and interactive digital timelines – KNOW.AFRICA aims to explore how digital tools can assist in the construction and dissemination of historical knowledge. By combining archival research with digital tools, the project not only advances academic debates on colonial science but also develops outputs aimed at wider publics, including digital exhibitions, podcasts, and interactive maps and timelines. In this way, KNOW.AFRICA aims to use the Digital Humanities as a way to bridge research and dissemination, turning historical inquiry into a shared, multidisciplinary and collaborative process.

Two-day conference on the alter-lives of independence movements that explores the evolution and transformation of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles. Deadline: 13 February 2026

The Alter-lives of Independence Movements:

Frustrated Hopes, Renewed Utopias

Decades after formal decolonisation, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism have remained a wellspring of inspiration and contestation. Studies about anticolonial thought, the 1955 Bandung Conference, and transcontinental solidarity movements have proliferated in academia and activist networks, providing the basis of theories and practices of resistance in contemporary times. Nevertheless, the ideas and the movements they inspired did not perish with the epoch that produced them. They evolved and acquired alternative lives in the period of nation-building and world-making, whether in extended or distorted forms. On the one hand, there were local and transnational efforts to sustain and enrich the revolutionary impulse through embracing the anticolonial spirit in various areas such as development, education, and diplomacy. As international institutions such as the UN welcome additional member states, Europeans and non-Europeans travelled to decolonised states like Algeria and Angola to learn and further cultivate ideas in building new societies. On the other hand, some dominant groups that took over the independent states capitalised on the anti-colonial pride to justify authoritarian and anti-democratic rule. Their utopian visions led to the systematic oppression of opposing forces and reproduced the hierarchical international state model. The fear of neocolonialism and disillusionment propelled both the former coloniser and colonised to reorganise their strategies and desires in the face of an emerging world order.

This two-day conference on the alter-lives of independence movements explores the evolution and transformation of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles. It focuses on the events and reflections about the early years of independence, a period of turbulent transition from colonial domination to self-governing nation-states, and of tumultuous beginnings of a new international order. We introduce the concept “alter-lives” to denote the process of altering imaginaries and practices that emerged during the colonial period in responding to uncertain futures, including the political uses of anticolonial memories and/or histories. It also refers to alternative relations forged between and among the former colonisers and colonised after independence. Thus, using “alter-lives” as a conceptual ground, this conference engages in the following questions: first, how have anticolonial thinking and practices evolved domestically and transnationally? Second, what were the structural and agential forces behind these evolutions? Third, how were anticolonial memories and histories politicised to achieve certain ends? Fourth, what difficulties did these agents face in realising their envisioned future? Lastly, how have alterations and alternatives affirmed and/or challenged the revolutionary ideas of the independence struggles?

Call for papers

We welcome theoretical and praxis-oriented proposals to gather scholars, activists, and artists from various disciplinary backgrounds and acquire a broad comparative perspective. Possible
areas include, but are not limited to:

• Transnational solidarities and resistance, such as North-South and South-South cooperation
• Nation-building
• Anticolonial thought and figures
• Diplomacy and international affairs
• Pedagogy and knowledge transmission
• Literary and artistic representations, such as documentaries, films, and novels
• Rhetorics of failure, frustrated political projects

Please submit your abstract (300 words max.) by 13 February 2026 to jiw.hopesandfears@gmail.com.

Decisions will be communicated by the first week of March 2026.

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

This event is organised as part of the Joint International Workshop “Hopes and Fears. Anti-colonial and Postcolonial Imaginaries in the Lusotopy and Beyond”, that gathers the Institute of Contemporary History — NOVA University Lisbon / University of Évora, the University of São Paulo, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.