CECS Excellence Award in PhD Thesis in Communications Sciences now public

Communication & Society Research Centre (CECS) has decided to award former PhD students Maria da Luz Correia and Liliana Oliveira with the CECS Excellence Prize in PhD Thesis, considering the doctoral thesis presented in the University of Minho, in the years 2013-2015. Maria da Luz Correia defended her PhD in Communication Sciences under the title “Intermittences in the contemporary visual culture” and Liliana Oliveira “Universities and public participation in science. Perceptions and practices among scientists, communication professionals and Portuguese and Spanish citizens”.

The evaluation committee of this award has also decided to grant a special honour to Lurdes Macedo for her PhD thesis “From the diversity in the world to the diversity in the lusophone space: reinventing a geocultural community in a network society” and to Elsa Costa e Silva for her work “Pluralism and diversity in the media in Portugal – the political blogs in the net”.

Besides of the awardees and honour mentions, the jury also considered the work of Manuel Gama, Pedro Mota Teixeira and Sara Balonas.

In this award, 38 former CECS PhD students were considered, both in Communication Sciences and Cultural Studies. As suggested by the rules, the coordinators of the three research lines – Media and Journalism, Cultural Studies, Communication, Organizations and Social Dynamics – propose the best PhD thesis, thus inviting an evaluation committee an assessment about the quality of those works. The president of the committee is CECS Director Moisés de Lemos Martins, followed by Xosé López García (University of Santiago de Compostela), Filipa Subtil (Polytechninc Institute of Lisbon), Hélder Bastos (University of Porto), Isabel Ferin (University of Coimbra), Paulo Serra (University of Beira Interior), Tito Cardoso e Cunha (University of Beira Interior) and José Bragança de Miranda (New University of Lisbon).

This award intends to highlight the intellectual and scientific production of CECS PhD students, in both doctoral programmes, hence giving them the opportunity to publish and fostering future research in these areas.

The awards will be presented during the upcoming Conference on Cultures – Lusophone Interfaces, to be held in the University of Minho, from 23^th to 25^th November 2017.

Original Text: Vítor de Sousa

Translation and adaptation: Fábio Ribeiro