Twenty-Fourth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal
1st to 3rd July 2026
Lisbon, Portugal
--------
CALL FOR PAPERS
Place: NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal and Online
Format: In-Person (Location) and Online (Asynchronous Content)
Dates: 1-3 July 2026
--------
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Luis Duarte de Almeida, Professor of Jurisprudence, Nova School of Law, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal; Honorary Professional Fellow, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Paulo Ferreira de Castro, Associate Professor of Musicology, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Inocencia Mata, Professor of Portuguese language literature and Post-colonial studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Teresa Araujo, Professor of Portuguese Studies, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
--------
SPECIAL FOCUS: Beyond Borders: The Role of the Humanities in Reimagining Communities
In a world marked by deepening divides - national, ideological, economic, and epistemological - the question of how communities are formed, sustained, negotiated, and transformed has become urgent. Beyond Borders: The Role of the Humanities in Reimagining Communities, invites scholars to explore the humanities' critical role in interrogating, challenging, and reshaping notions of belonging and exclusion, of walls and bridges, of the individual and the collective.
The traditional concept of community has long been tied to territorial, linguistic, or cultural boundaries.
Reimagining communities beyond borders means not only envisioning new models of human connection but also critically examining the limits and consequences of inherited frameworks.
As the host city, Lisbon embodies the complexities of community-making across space and time. Over the centuries, it has been a point of both departure and arrival, rupture and reinvention - a fitting metaphor for the role of the humanities in our contemporary world.
This theme invites interdisciplinary engagement across fields such as, but not limited to, literature, history, philosophy, gender studies, musicology, digital humanities, and postcolonial studies. Areas of particular interest include:
- Movement and Travel: imaginative processes of perceiving the Other, at the intersection of observation and projection.
- Gendered and Racialized spaces: communities rendered invisible - through anonymity and
informality, or retrospectively through historiographical erasure.
- Communal Structures: concrete forms of collective life (convents, families, guilds), and abstract communities of shared beliefs or identities (diasporic imaginaries, intellectual movements, etc.).
- Circulation and Exchange: material and immaterial goods shaping inclusion, exclusion, the formation of transregional or transhistorical communities.
- Ethics and Coexistence: philosophical and ethical frameworks within and across communities.
- Political Imaginaries: ideological foundations that sustain or challenge forms of belonging.
- Narrative and Community: how language, literary form, and storytelling construct, contest, and reimagine communities across time and geographies.
We welcome proposals from scholars of all disciplinary backgrounds.
--------
CONFERENCE THEMES
THEME 1: Critical Cultural Studies
THEME 2: Communication and Linguistics Studies
THEME 3: Literary Humanities
THEME 4: Civic, Political, and Community Studies
THEME 5: Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
--------
JOURNAL
The New Directions in the Humanities Journal Collection is brought together by a common interest in established traditions in the humanities while at the same time developing innovative practices and setting a renewed agenda for their future.
The International Journal of Literary Humanities
Collection Founded: 2003
Title Founded: 2013
ISSN: 2327-7912 (Print) ISSN: 2327-8676 (Online)
Publication Frequency: Quarterly
Indexing: H-Index: 3, Scopus / SJR: 0.12 (2023), Literature (ProQuest), Fuente Académica Plus (EBSCO), Scopus (Elsevier), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
The International Journal of Humanities Education
Collection Founded: 2003
Title Founded: 2013
ISSN: 2327-0063 (Print) ISSN: 2327-2457 (Online)
Publication Frequency: Biannual
Indexing: H-Index: 4 (2023), Scopus / SJR: 0.13 (2023), Educational Curriculum and Methods (Cabell's), Educational Psychology and Administration (Cabell's), Education Journals (ProQuest), Scopus (Elsevier), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
The International Journal of Communication and Linguistic Studies
Collection Founded: 2003
Title Founded: 2013
ISSN: 2327-7882 (Print) ISSN: 2327-8617 (Online)
Publication Frequency: Quarterly
Indexing H-Index: 4 (2023), Scopus / SJR: 0.11 (2023), Psychology (Cabell's), Communication Source (EBSCO), Linguistics Database (ProQuest), Scopus (Elsevier), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies
Collection Founded: 2003
Title Founded: 2013
ISSN: 2327-0055 (Print) ISSN: 2327-2376 (Online)
Publication Frequency: Biannual
Indexing H-Index: 4 (2023), Scopus / SJR: 0.11 (2023), Scopus (Elsevier), Social Science Journals (ProQuest), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
--------
ABOUT US
Founded in 2003, the New Directions in the Humanities Research Network is brought together by a common interest in established traditions in the humanities while at the same time developing innovative practices and setting a renewed agenda for their future. We seek to build an epistemic community where we can make linkages across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries.
--------
RELATED CONFERENCES
We also offer related thematic events in our other Research Networks that you might be able to attend in-person. This way we build for our Research Network Members flexible, and at the same time resilient, spaces for communication, engagement, and participation.
View other Common Ground Research Networks conferences:
