Changes and Continuities. Global History, Visual Culture and Itinerancies, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa, September 14–16, 2017

Following the I (2014) and II (2015) International Workshops “Changes and continuities”, the Institute of Medieval Studies, the Portuguese Centre for Global History, the Institute of Contemporary History and the Institute of Art History, will organize the III Workshop entitled “Changes and Continuities. Global History, Visual Culture and Itinerancies”, to be held at the FCSH-UNL (September 14-16, 2017).

The MeC3 will focus on three main research lines. All proposals will be distributed in one of them, under an interdisciplinary and trans-historical frame. Thus, the MeC3 accepts proposals relating to the following topics:

1. Global History - One of the main challenges that History has to face is globalization. National studies have demonstrated their incapability to correctly understand global phenomena, and the way in which they affect societies. This is why new parameters of study are needed. In this thematic line, the methodological and theoretical issues -in addition to the strictly historical one- will be studied n terms of globalization, from its origins, to its development and its present. Proposals may focus on the following subjects (not exclusively): comparative studies, evolution of global phenomena, historical processes in their diachrony, regional studies, changing economies, cultural continuities, methodological questions on globalization, etc.
2. Visual Culture - The insertion of Visual Culture in the theoretical methodology of Global History responds to the need to vindicate interdisciplinary. Through this theoretical approach, it will be possible to build a place of convergence for the different areas of Humanities; with the ultimate aim of creating a space for dialogue between the concepts of “Global History” and “Visual Culture”. Only then we would be authorized to act through a “cultural visuality”. A better knowledge of the mechanisms of cultural interaction -underlining the process- remains an important problem, because the construction and deconstruction of Visual Global History is still taking place today. Therefore, rather than the study of images it is the study of the social life of images that will make sense. Proposals may focus on the following subjects (not exclusively): traveling images, borders and images, social life of images, Visual Culture in Global History, theoretical sources for the study of the itinerant images; aesthetics of migration.
3. Itinerancies - One of the fundamental characteristics of Global History is interconnection. All human beings interact with each other, either passively or actively. In this context, one of the most relevant parameters of change emerges: the itinerancy of culture and knowledge. Therefore, itinerant agents take with them a cultural baggage, transporting and transmitting it to other spaces. In this way, the interconnection begins, producing active changes in Global History and Visual Culture. The relevance of the concept is due to the fact that it covers different areas of action: people who act as itinerant agents; materials that are brought in and taken away (traveling objects); origin and reception places of itinerant elements (anthropology of itinerancy); the visual, artistic or written representation of the phenomenon of itinerancy.

This Workshop aims to bring together researchers from different chronological periods, at different stages of their research, and to work on the themes indicated above.

Proposals may be in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French or Italian. The Workshop includes the payment of a registration fee of € 20 for students and € 30 for researchers who submit a communication.

The organizers of the Workshop foresee the publication of a collective volume in 2018. Full papers will be subjected to a peer-review process and then published.