In the year of his induction into the Panthéon of the French Republic, a conference in honour of Marc Bloch, at which the practical relevance of his work in our present day will be critically re-examined.

Marc Bloch, renovador da História

Marc Bloch será solenemente homenageado com a sua entrada no Panteão da República Francesa, em Junho de 2026. Este gesto simbólico representa muito mais do que uma consagração póstuma: é o reconhecimento de uma personalidade singular cuja vida e a obra marcaram de forma indelével a historiografia contemporânea e, com ela, a própria ideia de compromisso intelectual no século XX. Esta conferência associa-se a estas comemorações não apenas para celebrar o autor, mas para reavaliar criticamente a força operatória da sua obra no nosso presente.

O encontro propõe uma reflexão sobre o lugar da história como ciência social e sobre a actualidade do pensamento de Marc Bloch. Para além da dimensão comemorativa, a conferência centra-se na análise crítica do seu legado, tendo em conta questões contemporâneas como a relação entre passado e presente, o uso público da história e os desafios colocados à produção do conhecimento histórico. Com contributos de investigadores/as de diferentes áreas das ciências sociais e humanas, pretende-se contribuir para um diálogo interdisciplinar, enquadramento que permitirá discutir métodos, objectos e abordagens da história em articulação com outras disciplinas.

Os trabalhos organizam-se em torno de vários eixos temáticos, incluindo a história como ciência social, a problemática do tempo histórico, a história do presente, a obra medievalista de Bloch, bem como questões de método e de epistemologia. Estes temas retomam aspectos centrais do seu pensamento e incentivam a sua reavaliação no contexto atual.

A conferência contribui para o intercâmbio académico e para a discussão de linhas de investigação em curso, com particular relevância para o contexto português. Ao mesmo tempo, sublinha a importância do papel do historiador na análise crítica do presente e na construção do conhecimento histórico.

Programa:

9 de Abril

10h30 – Sessão de abertura
Suzette Bloch – Marc Bloch, genealogia e legado familiar
Diogo Ramada Curto (BNP) – Marc Bloch e os Annales durante a Ocupação

11h30 – A história como ciência do presente
Christophe Prochasson (EHESS) – Marc Bloch et le temps présent

12h30 – Almoço

14h00 – A história como ciência social. O advento de um novo paradigma e a sua persistência em nossos dias
Luís Reis Torgal (Universidade de Coimbra), Marc Bloch e nós. Reflexões sobre a História, com Memória
Maria de Lurdes Rosa (IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST), Repensando e reconfigurando o método histórico na Apologia da História
Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri (Universidade de Urbino) – Teaching Historical Research Methodology with Bloch’s ‘The Historian’s Craft’: some notes after almost thirty years of experience

15h20 – Pausa

15h40 – Recepção e atualidade da obra
João Paulo Avelãs Nunes (Universidade de Coimbra) – Marc Bloch observado a partir da Universidade de Coimbra: do pós-Primeira Grande Guerra ao pós-Guerra Fria
Pedro Martins (IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST) – Marc Bloch e Vitorino Magalhães Godinho: diálogos e convergências
Victor Pereira (IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST) – Marc Bloch em Portugal: A Sociedade Portuguesa de História da Civilização

10 de Abril

10h30 – Abertura do segundo dia
Jean-Claude Schmitt (EHESS) – Marc Bloch, pionnier de l’histoire des mentalités ?

11h30 – Marc Bloch, medievalista. Aportes e balanços da obra empírica
Luís Miguel Duarte (Universidade do Porto), Os inclassificáveis Reis taumaturgos
André Evangelista Marques (IEM – NOVA FCSH), March Bloch ruralista, ou sempre o ogre farejador de homens: em torno dos Caractères originaux de l’histoire rurale française
Luís Filipe Oliveira (IEM – NOVA FCSH), Comparar na sincronia e na diacronia: Os senhorios franceses e ingleses
Maria João Branco (IEM – NOVA FCSH), La Société Féodale, então e agora: continuidades e rupturas

13h10 – Almoço

14h40 – Aberturas historiográficas
Felipe Brandi (IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST) – O ‘erro’ como ‘sintoma’ de um estado social: Marc Bloch frente aos rumores, às alucinações e às fausses nouvelles
Miguel Palmeira (USP), Interrogar o passado e interpelar o presente: Marc Bloch e o bom uso da erudição
João Luís Lisboa (CHAM – NOVA FCSH), Marc Bloch e a renovação dos estudos históricos em França e alhures

16h00 – Pausa

16h20 – Resistência, testemunho e memória: o intelectual e o combate no século
Filipe Themudo Barata (Universidade de Évora) – Um historiador, um cientista social e, acima de tudo, um cidadão
Gerardo Vidal (Associação de História e Arqueologia de Sabrosa, AHAS) – Seguir Marc Bloch: entre a História e a esperança

17h20 – Encerramento
Peter Schöttler (Freie Universität Berlin) – Marc Bloch, la politique et le nazisme
Suzette Bloch – Panteonização: uma segunda vida para Marc Bloch?

>> Descarregar o programa (PDF) <<

Organização: IHC, com a colaboração do CHAM, do IFP, do IEM e da BNP

A conversation between Aurora Almada e Santos and Hélène Dumas about the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.

Conversation between Aurora Almada e Santos and Hélène Dumas about the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda

About Hélène Dumas:
Hélène Dumas is an historian, full researcher at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-CESPRA-EHESS). Her research is dedicated to the history of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. After first research focused on the micro-level dynamics of violence through an analysis of the hearings of the gacaca courts, she is now working on victims and survivors’ history and especially on the children experiences. She published Beyond Despair. The Rwanda Genocide against the Tutsi through the Eyes of Children, translated by Catherine Porter, New York, Fordham UP, 2024.

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

History and Image Workshop session, open and off-site: a conversation with Paula Albuquerque at the Tigre de Papel bookshop.

Becoming Opaque — A opacidade como resistência ao estereótipo fílmico

Paula Albuquerque (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Resumo:
O meu trabalho debruça-se sobre o cinema documental colonial a partir de uma perspectiva histórica, decolonial e anarquivista. Como artista e investigadora portuguesa, com ascendência indiana, e a residir entre Lisboa e Amesterdão, abordo os cinemas coloniais português e holandês enquanto formas de proto-vigilância, com enfoque nas políticas da representação. Investigo de que modo as técnicas cinematográficas contribuíram para a subjectificação dos povos indígenas nas ex-colónias europeias, ao construírem identidades visuais do “outro” que os posicionaram como subalternos e cujos ecos persistem em sistemas de vigilância contemporâneos. A minha prática anarquivista adopta estratégias visuais emancipatórias através da investigação artística, desafiando modos expropriadores de representação colonial.

A moderação será realizada por Luís Trindade.

Para mais informações: oficinahistoriaeimagem@gmail.com

First session of the 2026 edition of ‘O Passado em Cena‘ [The Past on Stage] — discussions on approaches to the past and historical memory through cultural objects outside the academic sphere.

Torrente

Debate em torno da peça

Nesta sessão do ciclo O Passado em Cena discutiremos a peça Torrente, do Teatro do Vestido, em torno da memória do processo revolucionário de 1974-75, e em particular da intensa participação cívica desencadeada pelo 25 de Abril. Escrita e dirigida por Joana Craveiro, a peça servirá de pretexto para uma conversa entre a encenadora, os/as actores/as e historiadores/as sobre as múltiplas narrativas que, do teatro à historiografia, nos têm permitido reconsiderar a memória da Revolução.

A sessão insere-se nas actividades do projecto GRASSROOTS — Memória e Revolução. Um arquivo de história oral da militância de base no processo revolucionário de 1974-75 (2023.10625.25ABR)

Participantes: Joana Craveiro, Elisa Lopes da Silva, Felipe Brandi e Luís Trindade (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Mais informação sobre a peça

ENTRADA LIVRE

Conference dedicated to the work of the historian Fernando Rosas and, consequently, to the historiography of the Estado Novo and fascism in Portugal, seeking to assess its impact on historiography in recent decades.

Reler Fernando Rosas

Nesta conferência, teremos oportunidade de discutir a obra do historiador Fernando Rosas e, assim, a historiografia do Estado Novo e do fascismo em Portugal. A partir de uma selecção de obras centrais no percurso de Rosas, comentadas por especialistas na história do século XX Português, procuraremos avaliar o seu impacto no campo historiográfico das últimas décadas, e apontar caminhos para o futuro da investigação em áreas tão diversas como a história económico-social, a história política do salazarismo, ou a história e ideologia do fascismo.

ENTRADA LIVRE

Programa

9h30 – Abertura e Boas-Vindas
Alexandra Curvelo, Directora da NOVA FCSH: Boas-Vindas
Fernando Rosas: Abertura

10h30 – 1ª Sessão
Álvaro Garrido: “O Estado Novo nos Anos 30”, 1986
Maria Fernanda Rollo: “Portugal entre a Paz e a Guerra”, 1990
Elisa Lopes da Silva: “Salazarismo e Fomento Económico”, 2000

11h45 – Pausa

12h00 – 2ª Sessão
Pedro Aires Oliveira: “O Salazarismo e a Aliança Luso-Britânica”, 1988
Irene Flunser Pimentel: “O Estado Novo”, 1994

13h00 – Almoço

14h30 – 3ª Sessão
Maria Alice Samara: “A Primeira República”, 2018
Mária Inácia Rezola: “Ensaios de Abril”, 2023

15h30 – Pausa

16h00 – 4ª Sessão
Luís Nuno Rodrigues: “O Salazarismo e o Homem Novo”, 2001
Luís Trindade: “Salazar e o Poder: a arte de saber durar”, 2012
Luís Farinha: “Salazar e os Fascismos”, 2019
Manuel Loff: “Direitas velhas, Direitas Novas”, 2024

>> Descarregar o programa e referências bibliográficas (PDF) <<

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)

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

A conference aimed at exploring the potential of the intersection between the social sciences and literature, through a literary work and its role in interpreting social processes. 

Literatura e Sociedade

As ciências sociais podem ser literárias, propôs Ivan Jablonka, com o derrubamento da fronteira entre a literatura e a História. Para explorar essa relação feliz, convidámos um conjunto de pesquisadores/as a examinar as potencialidades do encontro entre as ciências sociais e a literatura, através de uma obra literária, escolhida pelos participantes, e do seu papel na leitura dos processos sociais. A etnografia, a história, a sociologia, a ciência política, os estudos culturais, contribuem com factos e conceitos, a literatura trabalha-os pela escrita, para ultrapassar as fronteiras entre o íntimo e subjetivo, os temas graves e colectivos, os acontecimentos, as sociedades, as instituições, as resistências e os movimentos sociais. Como recordava Maurice Godelier, a ficção contém mais do que o imaginado e imaginário, porque ajusta ao suporte de um livro vários componentes dos mundos, reais e irreais, com personagens, acontecimentos, símbolos, conferindo legibilidade às sociedades e suas dimensões. Quer o passado, cujo conhecimento resulta do trabalho sobre fontes de diversa etiologia, que abrem o campo das possibilidades do conhecimento, quer os futuros em disputa, de modo prospectivo, confrontam quem investiga com campos de possibilidades. Seja pela base documental, seja pelo encadeamento causal, a literatura não é só um mundo de seres imaginários, oposto ao mundo da realidade efectiva. Com Jacques Rancière, consideramos que a ficção é uma estrutura de racionalidade que permite comparar traços esparsos na construção de situações e de personagens identificáveis, designar acontecimentos, estabelecer ligações entre esses acontecimentos e dar-lhes um sentido. É dessa matéria que partimos nesta conferência.

>> Programa (PDF) <<

Organização:

Maria Alice Samara (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Débora Dias (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Elena Freire (USC)
Paula Godinho (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Locais:

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisboa
Casa da Achada — Centro Mário Dionísio, Lisboa
Museu do Neo-Realismo, Vila Franca de Xira

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Conference of the International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humour Studies that underlines the importance of humour as an intellectual and cultural tool capable of restoring complexity to the human experience.

Laughter Strikes Back. Humour in a World Turned Upside Down

XXII Conference of the International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humour Studies (ISLHHS)

Following the conferences of Paris in 2022, with the question Humor in crisis?, and Lille in 2024, under the provocation The end of humour?, the XXII Conference of the ISLHHS proposes a significant inflection in the thematic path of recent years. The 2026 edition aims to assert that humour has not only resisted the multiple crises that have marked contemporary times, but remains active, relevant and in constant renewal. Under the title Laughter Strikes Back. Humour in a World Turned Upside Down, the conference assumes that laughter continues to represent a decisive resource for lucidity and criticism in contexts of instability and disorder. This proposal is configured as an ironic and reflective pause, an attempt to catch one’s breath and reaffirm the vitality of
humor as a form of resistance. Laughter, in this context, is equivalent to a gesture of symbolic resilience in face of the seriousness of the events that are currently taking place.

The event’s program will include contributions from researchers from the most diverse areas of knowledge, such as History, Literature, Linguistics, Graphic Arts, Law, Sociology, Psychology, Education, Anthropology, Philosophy or Communication, with the aim of examining the multiple languages and supports in which humour manifests itself and operates as a force for destabilising hegemonic discourses, challenging fanaticism and reactivating critical thinking. In a global scenario often described as chaotic and fragmented, humour remains an active form of reading and intervention. Considering this, the XXII Conference underlines the importance of humour as an intellectual and cultural tool capable of restoring complexity to the human experience.

Writer and researcher Rui Zink will be a keynote speaker.

The 2026 ISLHHS Conference will be held in the Almada Negreiros College (CAN) of the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, in the centre of Lisbon. The conference will take place over three days (Wednesday, 3 June through Friday, 5 June). The following day, Saturday, 6 June, will be dedicated to a social program to be announced. The conference will include an opening reception, coffee breaks, the conference dinner and comedy night.

Attendance of the conference (live or online) is open to members of the ISLHHS.

At the end of the conference will be announced the mode of publication of a selection of papers presented (selected according to the process of evaluation of double blind peer review)

Contact:
If you need more information on the conference, please send an email to xxiicongressohumor@gmail.com

Organising Committee

João Pedro Ferreira, CHAM, vice-president ISLHHS
Paulo Jorge Fernandes, IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST
Thaís Leão Vieira, UFMT
Dorothée Chouitem, Sorbonne Université

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

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.

Research seminar that seeks to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

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)

Meeting that seeks to open up reflection on a variety of subjects and themes related to the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period. Deadline: 30 April 2026

Between wars and peace:

New Perspectives and Challenges of Portuguese Migration (1914-1945)

This event aims to bring together scholars working on the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period. Its objective is to create a space for dialogue and scientific debate based on a multidirectional and multi-geographical perspective, in order to highlight the contributions and new research approaches toward which the scholarly community has more recently turned.

The nineteenth century and the period of the Trente Glorieuses have been privileged in studies of Portuguese migration. Whether focusing on migration to transatlantic or European countries, some works have addressed the interwar period; however, these remain fragmentary and, in some cases, outdated. It is therefore necessary to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of this migration, its stakes, and its impacts, within a national and international political context marked by profound change.

The interwar period constitutes a key moment in the history of Portuguese migration. It is characterised by a renewal and intensification of international migratory movements in the aftermath of the First World War; by the strong attraction exerted on migrant workers by transatlantic countries such as the United States or Brazil; but also by the opening of new destinations, such as France, which from the 1960s onward would become the main country of settlement for Portuguese migrants. This period also corresponds to a moment when measures aimed at strengthening control over migrants’ entry and presence were implemented, particularly in the context of the 1929 economic crisis and the Great Depression.

The event thus seeks to open up reflection on a variety of subjects and themes related to the history of Portuguese migration, mobilizing both multidisciplinary approaches and perspectives that make it possible to understand and critically examine this phenomenon. It is addressed to researchers working on Portuguese migration in both transatlantic and European contexts

Call for papers

The topics that may be addressed include:

• World Wars and Portuguese migration
• Exile, opposition, and resistance
• Reception and support networks
• Political and trade-union engagement
• Irregular emigration
• Migration, migrants, and police and administrative management
• Emigration and immigration policies
• Policies and practices of exclusion
• Migrant agency
• Community structures
• Health and Portuguese migration
• Migration, voluntary and forced returns
• Migration and the press
• Memory of Portuguese migration
• Any other topic deemed to be of scientific interest for understanding the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period.

Submission of proposals

Paper proposals should include an abstract (up to 250 words), a title, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and a short biographical note (up to 200 words). Proposals in French, English, and Portuguese are accepted.

Proposals should be sent to the email address histmigport@gmail.com by 30 April 2026.

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

Organisation

Cristina Clímaco (Université Paris 8 / LER)
Yvette dos Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Scientific Committee

Alberto Pena Rodriguez (Universidad de Vigo)
Armelle Enders (Université Paris 8 / IFG Lab)
Delphine Diaz (Université de Reims / CERHIC / IUF)
Érica Sarmiento (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
Heloisa Paulo (University of Coimbra)
Irene dos Santos (CNRS / URMIS)
Marcelo Borges (Dickinson College, Carlisle)
Marie-Christine Volovitch Tavares (CERMI)
Philippe Rygiel (ENS Lyon / INRIA)
Sónia Ferreira (CRIA — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Sylvie Aprile (ISP)
Victor Pereira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Meeting that seeks to open up reflection on a variety of subjects and themes related to the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period. Deadline: 30 April 2026

Between wars and peace:

New Perspectives and Challenges of Portuguese Migration (1914-1945)

This event aims to bring together scholars working on the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period. Its objective is to create a space for dialogue and scientific debate based on a multidirectional and multi-geographical perspective, in order to highlight the contributions and new research approaches toward which the scholarly community has more recently turned.

The nineteenth century and the period of the Trente Glorieuses have been privileged in studies of Portuguese migration. Whether focusing on migration to transatlantic or European countries, some works have addressed the interwar period; however, these remain fragmentary and, in some cases, outdated. It is therefore necessary to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of this migration, its stakes, and its impacts, within a national and international political context marked by profound change.

The interwar period constitutes a key moment in the history of Portuguese migration. It is characterised by a renewal and intensification of international migratory movements in the aftermath of the First World War; by the strong attraction exerted on migrant workers by transatlantic countries such as the United States or Brazil; but also by the opening of new destinations, such as France, which from the 1960s onward would become the main country of settlement for Portuguese migrants. This period also corresponds to a moment when measures aimed at strengthening control over migrants’ entry and presence were implemented, particularly in the context of the 1929 economic crisis and the Great Depression.

The event thus seeks to open up reflection on a variety of subjects and themes related to the history of Portuguese migration, mobilizing both multidisciplinary approaches and perspectives that make it possible to understand and critically examine this phenomenon. It is addressed to researchers working on Portuguese migration in both transatlantic and European contexts

Call for papers

The topics that may be addressed include:

• World Wars and Portuguese migration
• Exile, opposition, and resistance
• Reception and support networks
• Political and trade-union engagement
• Irregular emigration
• Migration, migrants, and police and administrative management
• Emigration and immigration policies
• Policies and practices of exclusion
• Migrant agency
• Community structures
• Health and Portuguese migration
• Migration, voluntary and forced returns
• Migration and the press
• Memory of Portuguese migration
• Any other topic deemed to be of scientific interest for understanding the history of Portuguese migration during the interwar period.

Submission of proposals

Paper proposals should include an abstract (up to 250 words), a title, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and a short biographical note (up to 200 words). Proposals in French, English, and Portuguese are accepted.

Proposals should be sent to the email address histmigport@gmail.com by 30 April 2026.

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

Organisation

Cristina Clímaco (Université Paris 8 / LER)
Yvette dos Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Scientific Committee

Alberto Pena Rodriguez (Universidad de Vigo)
Armelle Enders (Université Paris 8 / IFG Lab)
Delphine Diaz (Université de Reims / CERHIC / IUF)
Érica Sarmiento (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
Heloisa Paulo (University of Coimbra)
Irene dos Santos (CNRS / URMIS)
Marcelo Borges (Dickinson College, Carlisle)
Marie-Christine Volovitch Tavares (CERMI)
Philippe Rygiel (ENS Lyon / INRIA)
Sónia Ferreira (CRIA — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Sylvie Aprile (ISP)
Victor Pereira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)