CECS in 2019

2019 was, for the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), a demanding year, filled with hundreds of Intervention, Research and Education activities, and very productive with regard to Publication. One of the moments that punctuated this year was the visit of the FCT evaluation panel, following which the CECS revalidated the Excellent rating, having obtained the maximum score in all evaluation parameters.

It was also in 2019 that the VII Doctoral Conference in Communication and Cultural Studies were held, which, as usual, seek to give visibility and strengthen the research work carried out in the fields of Communication Sciences and Cultural Studies, as well as provide spaces for dialogue and debate, enable the exchange of experiences and constructive critical assessment.

Communication with and for the community was and is the strategic focus of CECS, which has five Intervention platforms: the Think Tank Communitas, the MILObs and POLObs observatories and the cultural platforms Passeio and Virtual Museum of Lusophony.

In line with the spirit of approximation between the university and the community that characterizes Communitas, this think tank organized debates on various topics such as gender issues, the internationalization of Portuguese culture, associativism, the sharing economy, populism, among many others thematic.

During the year 2019, the Observatory on Media, Information and Literacy (MILObs), assiduously produced the Ouvido Crítico program on Antena 1. The program covered several themes and brought some guests to the studio. In 2019, MILObs also organized a guided tour of the COMUNICAR exhibition.

The Observatory on Communication and Culture Policies (POLObs), which monitors the main actions that mobilize the field of communication and culture in Portugal, received in 2019 several foreign researchers and organized seminars dedicated to the discussion about journalism, cultural policies and economics, and developed research and intervention projects in the field of cultural policies.

In turn, the Virtual Museum of Lusophony organized various activities related to the Lusophone world and directed to the high school students, as well as documentary viewing sessions followed by debate. The team of this CECS cultural platform was also involved in organizing the 5th International Congress on Cultures – What Culture (s) for the 21st Century? and the International Seminar on Memory, Diversity and Identities: Challenges for Intercultural Relations in the 21st Century.

In 2019, Passeio, the CECS urban art and culture platform, developed a set of multimodal micro-essays focusing on everyday themes, recorded in photography and sound. During this period, Passeio also saw its team expand substantially.

With regard to Research, it is worth mentioning the hiring of seven PhD researchers under Decree-Law No. 57/2016 and the approval of three applications under the competition for stimulating individual scientific employment. In 2019, the Permanent Seminar on Postcolonial Studies was created and the work of the remaining Permanent Seminars was continued. There were also five internationally and nationally funded research projects on topics such as Forensic Genetics; Health and aging; the memories, identities and intercultural relations between Portugal and Mozambique; as well as audio memories and festivities.

The year 2019 was also important in terms of organization and participation in congresses. The CECS team was involved in organizing the V International Congress on Cultures – What Culture (s) for the 21st Century ?, the International Seminar on Memory, Diversity and Identities: Challenges to 21st Century Intercultural Relations, the V Congress on Literacy, Media and Citizenship, as well as a strong presence of CECS researchers at the XI Sopcom Congress. 2019 was also marked by the signing of the protocol of understanding on the organization of the 8th ECREA European Communication Conference, which will take place in Braga in 2020.

In the field of Publication, CECS has published three volumes of the Comunicação e Sociedade journal dedicated to the themes “Intercultural Communication and Mediation in Contemporary Societies“, “Time and Media” and “Rescuing Participation“. This CECS journal celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019 with the launch of a new website and the journal’s entry into the OpenEdition platform. Two issues of the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies were also published, one on “Cinema, Migrations and Cultural Diversity” and the other on “Resignifications of festivities and community identities”. The year 2019 was also marked by the number of books published: a dozen publications, including four books of conference proceedings organized by the CECS team.

In 2019, around two dozen doctoral tests were carried out in association with the CECS research team, maintaining the doctoral programs in Communication Sciences, Cultural Studies and Communication Studies: Technology, Culture and Society. One of the new features of the year in terms of Education was the creation of the InOutScience line. In this new space for knowledge sharing, guest researchers comment on current news and their area of expertise.

[Posted: 07-01-2020]