Calls

CALL FOR CREATIVE SUBMISSIONS: ROAM 4 Creative Journal, 2024 Living in the “Here and Below” (Rilke)

Following the Spring/Autumn 2023 edition of ROAM 3 where we looked at shifting notions of home, in our fourth issue we broaden our focus to the self as regards to the
wider world and different forms of alterity. Whether it be an increasing engagement with technology and AI or a critical awareness of our relation to the planet, we find
ourselves amidst new contrasts and positionings that question our place in the world. The African-origin relational concept of Ubuntu, “humanity to others” — “I am because
we are”— and the broader turn to an ethics of care and response-ability seem increasingly compelling, given our present struggle with the urgent concerns of climate
change and war.

In looking at care, our attention is drawn to dailiness and the imperceptible everyday: we engage with our immediate spheres, over which some influence can be exerted.
Small rituals that add structure and meaning can be experienced as vital elements for rebuilding during difficult times. The eco-philosopher Donna Haraway has written about
the need for a new human worlding with animals, geographies, temporalities, of “learning to live and die well with each other in a thick present” taking on
“response-ability for a damaged earth” (2016). Some thinkers draw spiritual perspectives, seeing sacred elements in the everyday, notably in place. In her book
Tender Maps the writer Alice Maddicott explores the Celtic concept of “thin places,” alluding to what, pilot and psychiatrist, Alan McGlashan describes as the “translucent
nature of all things” that transforms the sensible universe and invests all objects with a sharp intensity of being.”

In our upcoming, Spring 2025, issue of ROAM we welcome submissions that address creative contemplations of significant change in our emotional, cultural, geographic
and political habitats. These might draw on:

. rediscovering the local
. the building of new communities/rebuilding of old communities
. the body and the self
. the self and nature
. our new non-human communities (animals and the inorganic world)
. ecology on the micro level
. everyday rituals of the domestic
. virtual imaginaries

Submissions can include unpublished poems, short fiction, memoir, essay, photos or film. Proposals should be brief: prose should not exceed 1500 words, poetry 30 lines
(max 3 poems), film (5 minutes) and photos a maximum of 3 (high resolution, at least 2000 pix)

Please send your submissions by 15 January 2025 to rephome@letras.ulisboa.pt with a subject heading “ROAM 4, 2025”. For additional information please click here.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Jean Page, Mary Fowke, Zuzanna Zarebska
Editors ROAM
Representations of Home Project (RHOME)
University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies (ULICES/CEAUL)

CALL FOR PAPERS Street&City2024: The Street and the City V – Challenges

Call for Papers

Nobody can deny the power of the city to change and reorder all of life.

Inglis, 2000

For many years leaving the countryside to move to urban areas was in itself a challenge.  The unknown that the city unveiled and the mystery in all the hidden corners was, as it is today, a free ride tour. The development of cities and all they encompass face never ending challenges with every generation striving for happiness. The latest United Nations report states that by 2050, two out of every three people are likely to be living in cities – the economic, social and environmental calls rely also on humankind’s ability to reimagine the city. The city, which Miéville describes as “endlessly kind of fecund and inspiring” since “to a certain cast of  mind, which many of us have, many of us who live  in a big city, our surroundings intrude on our lives” (2014) is the central locus of a plethora of challenges such as peace vs war, of the man vs machine, or the greatest challenge of all, urban surviving.

From smart cities to megalopolises, gateway cities to anchor cities or factory cities to green cities, real cities to imaginary cities, this conference aims at approaching the challenges that all of them pose and face. Literature, the visual arts together with the theoretical flow of thought offer multiple possibilities to discuss the prospects of more responsible and fairer cities. Challenges for a better life as far as sustainability is concerned, regarding education and new technologies, freedom and equality, and new approaches to what new cities can teach us.  As in Bansky’s words “Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.” (2005).

Our cities, all across the world, pulse with endless challenges and infinite possibilities. We propose the analysis of the numerous challenges that set the pace of streets and cities of the past, the present and the future. A reflection of how cities are being redefined and renewed, cities in which, like in H.G. Wells words “We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow.” (1912).

We welcome papers, pre-organised panels, and roundtables (20 minutes per speaker) in English or Portuguese responding to the above.

Suggested (merely indicative) topics include:

1. Cultural Challenges in the Street and the City
2. The visual arts: Challenges in the Street and the City
3. Literary Challenges in the Street and the City
4. Architectural Challenges in the Street and the City
5. Landscape Challenges in the Street and the City
6. Political Challenges in the Street and the City
7. Human flows: Challenges in the Street and the City
8. Touristic Challenges in the Street and the City
9. Soundscape Challenges in the Street and the City
10. Gender Challenges in the Street and the City
11. Sustainability Challenges the Street and the City
12. Digital Challenges in the Street and the City

As indicated by the number in its title, this conference is the fifth in a series of academic events based at CEAUL/ULICES

Submissions should be sent by email to: thestreetandthecity@gmail.com     

Please include SC5 in the subject line of your email and organise your proposal into two separate files:

• a file containing the full title and a 250-300 words description of your individual paper; Round tables of up to four speakers plus a chairperson. Please include a 500-word proposal; Panels of three speakers plus a chairperson. Please include a brief description of the panel (300 words) and a 300-word abstract.

• a file containing the author’s data: name, affiliation, contact address, paper title and author’s bio-note (100 words), as well as the preferred method of presentation: in situ or online.

 Please name these two documents as follows:

Surname_Name_Abstract_SC5
Surname_Name_AuthorInfo_SC5

Extended deadline for proposals:  2nd October 2024

All delegates are responsible for their own travel arrangements and accommodation. More information available at https://thestreetandthecitylx5.wordpress.com/

Individual Call for Scientific Employment Stimulus – 7th Edition

The Individual Call for Scientific Employment Stimulus – 7th Edition will open between 30th of September and 11th of December.

The Individual Call is aimed at PhD holders of any nationality or stateless with a background in any scientific area who wish to develop their scientific research or technological development activity in Portugal.

All information about this call is available at the FCT website.

Those interested in having ULICES/CEAUL as the host institution should express their interest by sending an e-mail to gestao.ceaul@letras.ulisboa.pt with the subject “CEEC 2024 – Call” with the information of the level/category of researcher they are applying for, choosing between two levels:

  • Junior Researcher: PhD holders with 5 years or less post-PhD experience by the application deadline, with limited post-doctoral research experience in the relevant scientific area.
  • Auxiliary Researcher: PhD holders by the application deadline with a significant curriculum in the relevant scientific area.

As well as the following documents:

  1. A summarized curriculum vitae;
  2. A copy of the project to be submitted to FCT;

These documents (in pdf format) should be sent by email to gestao.ceaul@letras.ulisboa.pt until October 18th, 2024.

The proposals will be analysed and CEAL-ULICES decision will be communicated to the candidates until the 31th of October 2024.

Call for Papers
Messengers from the Stars: On Science
Fiction and Fantasy
No. 7, 2024

Guest Editor: Ana Daniela Coelho
Co-editor: Diana Marques

Messengers from the Stars is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal, offering academic articles, reviews, and providing an outlet for a wide range of creative work inspired by science fiction and fantasy. The 2023 issue will be dedicated to the following theme:

Adapting Fantasy and Sci-Fi in the Age of Streaming

Adaptation, whether recognized as such or not, has long been a staple in Fantasy and Sci-Fi productions of different media. Given the undeniable importance of streaming and the increasing number of new productions, this tendency has only grown stronger in recent years, as the plethora of available material is joined by multiple-platform strategies, where both narrative and audience engagement are enhanced.

2022 has borne witness to expanding universes – HBO’s House of Dragon or Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power –, as well as to new adaptations – Wheel of Time, Shadow and Bone. Beyond the more usual literature-to-film movement, adaptations from, to or including fewer central media or formats, such as comics – Sandman (Netflix, 2022-) – or videogames – The Witcher (Netflix, 2019-), The Last of Us (2023-) – also made their debut in the last few years.

In addition, transmedia storytelling and expansion of narratives beyond one main story arch are increasingly common, as new productions are brought to light – Arcane (Netflix, 2021-) –, and pioneering projects were remembered and celebrated, as in the case of the recent 10th anniversary of web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012).

Thus, for this issue we are looking for articles that delve deeper into the topics of streaming and adaptation of Fantasy and Sci-Fi works, in particular objects that exploit the new capacities brought about by new platforms, namely transmedia strategies.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Adaptation of fantasy/sci-fi worlds into streaming/new platforms
  • Transmedia storytelling
  • Audience engagement and fandom
  • Issues of fidelity/creative independence to/from source texts
  • Expanding/reimagining fantasy/sci-fi worlds
  • Relevance of streaming platforms in the adaptation of fantasy/sci-fi works


Submissions, between 4000 and 6000 words in English, must be sent to mfts.journal@gmail.com by February 11th, 2024. The authors will be notified by the end of January.

In addition, you can propose a book or film review. We welcome book and film reviews on current science fiction and fantasy research and PhD dissertations. Reviews should be between 500 to 1,000 words. Longer reviews, e.g. dealing with more than one book, should be agreed upon with the Editorial Board. The guideline for book/film reviews is available here.

All submissions must follow the journal’s guidelines available at: http://messengersfromthestars.letras.ulisboa.pt/journal/submission-guidelines