Call for papers

The abstracts of the proposals might include, but need not be restricted to, the following non-exhaustive list of topics:

1. The choice of grounding the Humanities / human sciences / Geisteswissenschaften in hermeneutics (including the operations of understanding and interpretation) and its specific rationality, as well as the relevance of such choice given the existence of alternative epistemological paradigms; the way in which the hermeneutical paradigm might be successful in tackling contemporary challenges and keep being relevant the future. Meaningful questions in this theme include: how important is a theory of interpretation for the Humanities? should interpretation, in its specificity if compared with information or knowledge (Citton, L’avenir des humanités) be a specific skill to teach students in order to better prepare them to face the challenges of mis- and disinformation and conspiracy theories?
2. The hermeneutical tradition in its multiple forms (philosophical, legal, theological, medical, cultural, political, social, among others) and potentialities: understanding texts, the world, and others; the importance of narratives, in its personal and collective dimensions; critical hermeneutics (including its relation with the Frankfurt school, Feminist philosophy, and other critical traditions) and the hermeneutics of multi- and intercultural dialogue; hermeneutical rationality (and its difference or relation with other types of rationality) and the theme of the critique of universalism;
3. The issue of defining and forming the human in the context of the critiques of anthropocentrism and speciesism, and of valuing animal life and the environment; the role of posthumanism, transhumanism and anti-humanism and of non-essentialist approaches to the human being; the relation between the “Posthuman Humanities” (Braidotti, The Posthuman) and the “Human Humanities” (Drees, What are the Humanities For?); the meaning and possibilities of the human faced with Artificial Intelligence and technology more generally, including gene editing and other technological developments relevant to understanding and defining the human being;
4. The role of the Humanities in society: the tasks of Critical and Public Humanities towards social injustice (e.g. economic issues such as inequality, and epistemic dimensions such as hermeneutical injustice) and the crisis of democracy; the transformation of the University and the challenges of contemporary academic life (productivism, precarity, and so forth);
5. The definition of the Canon and the construction of curricula in the Humanities, taking into account post- and decolonial perspectives; the place of women and of historically marginalized social groups and epistemic traditions in Humanities’ curricula, and the debate on the need to diversify curricula;
6. The diversity of the fields of the Arts and Humanities and of the several paradigms, schools and theoretical orientations of these disciplines (from Languages, Literatures and Cultures to History and the wide array of other disciplines of humanistic tradition) and the future of the inter-, trans- and multidisciplinary dialogue with the sciences and other fields; the potentialities (and risks?) of new areas such as the environmental, digital, medical (including the dialogue with the neurosciences and bioethical issues) Humanities, and other fields recently created or whose future creation is already a felt need.

The Conference will take place in a hybrid format, in person but with the possibility of presenting remotely. We accept individual paper proposals (200-500 words) or panel proposals comprising three paper presentations on the same topic (max. 1000-1500 words). Paper proposals can be written in Portuguese, Spanish, English or French. All proposals must be sent no later than September 27 by filling in the form through the Fourwaves platform, indicating the title and abstract of the proposal, the author’s name and short bio (100-200 words), institutional affiliation with country of origin and e-mail address, as well as the author’s intention to present the paper in-person or remotely. Paper proposals must clearly state the authorship of each communication and the order of the presentation.

Proposals received before the deadline will be notified promptly, before the deadline.