This research group focuses specifically on the area of American Studies, an academic field characterized by interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogues, combining literary and historiographical approaches in its methodology. Our research encompasses the literature, art, music, cinema, and history associated with North America, especially the USA, from its colonial days to the present time. Via ongoing collaborative projects with North-American universities, the group has established a productive exchange of ideas among scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, complemented by outreach programs involving the community at large. While acknowledging the transdisciplinary scope of American Studies, we question the epistemological consequences of its globalizing tendencies past and present, seeking to determine what the primary directions of American Studies should be in today’s world. Our strategic goals include: a) the interdisciplinary study of North-American literatures, cultures and arts; b) the intercultural and intracultural exchanges between Portugal and North-America; c) current trends in American Studies in the domains of film, music, media studies, popular culture, literary short forms, translation and ecocriticism; d) applied research in creative writing and rhetorics.
Our current research axes include:
- Over_Seas: (Re)imagining shared pasts, bridging ecological temporalities: dialogue, reception and projections between the USA, the Americas, and Europe, with a special focus on the imagery associated with the Ocean(s);
- Transit(ion)s, marginalities and the vanguards, mobility and transformations, gender and genres, emerging aesthetics and ethics in literature, music, cinema and visual arts;
- Academic writing and creative writing pedagogies through innovative teaching formats in literary writing and translation.
