IV Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture

Latencies: Europe 1914-2014

Lisbon, June 30 - July 5 2014

Deadline for abstracts: January 30, 2014

Over the past century, Europe has been a site of contradiction. Marked, on the one hand, by the utmost explosions of violence, it has also given rise to the most peaceful post-national political project in modern times. It has been a haven of peace and a locus of disorder and violence, giving vent to experimentation, transgression and creation, while preserving tradition and enforcing normativity.

Developed within the larger context of the European Project Culture@Work, the 2014 Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture addresses artistic latency in Europe. Latency periods are defined as states of transition pre-dating structured change and characterized by indefinition as well as what Freud considered a repression of desire and a return to normativity. These periods of cultural and artistic latency are often accompanied by social and political crisis or violence (Spanish Civil War, WWI and II, Cold War, Yugoslav Wars, austerity crisis, etc.) and despite the limitations of the context, they harbour the seeds of cultural change and revolution. In the contradictory relation of repression and creativity, it is particularly relevant to ask how does latency affect the partition of the sensible? How does a repressive context impact on artistic agency? How does art created as a reaction to the disruption of war and the destruction of life affect communal life?

The Lisbon Consortium and the Project Culture@Work together with the PhDNet in Literary and Cultural Studies (University of Giessen, Catholic University of Portugal, University of Stockholm, University of Bergamo, University of Helsinki and University of Graz) are the 2014 organizers of the Lisbon Summer School and invite work from doctoral students and post-docs working in every field of the humanities and social sciences.

Suggested topics are, amongst others:

Latency as a cultural concept;
War and artistic latency;
Art, repression and change;
European crisis and cultural policies;
Propaganda, censorship, and cultural production;
Latency, transition, translation;
Affect and crisis;
Europe as latency.

Confirmed keynote speakers

- Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford University)

- Samuel Weber (Northwestern University)

- Xavier Antich (Tapiés Foundation, Barcelona)

- Antonio Monegal (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

- Knut Ove Eliassen (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

- José Miguel Sardica (Catholic University of Portugal)


Master classes


- Isabel Capeloa Gil (Catholic University of Portugal) & Frederik Tygstrup (University of Copenhagen)

- Alexandra Lopes (Catholic University of Portugal)

- Pirjo Lyytikäinen (University of Helsinki)


Abstract and paper submissions

Proposals for 15-minute papers should be sent to lxconsortium@fch.lisboa.ucp.pt. Submissions should include paper title, abstract in English (200 words), name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief bio (max. 100 words) mentioning main research interests and ongoing projects.

Full papers must be submitted three weeks before the beginning of the Summer School (date to be announced).

The Organizing Committee will return its decision by March 1st 2014.


Registration fees

Non-Consortium participants - 250€ for the entire week;
Students from the School of Human Sciences - 150€ for the entire week;
Participants without paper - €50 per session/day | 150€ for the entire week

For The Lisbon Consortium students and for the students from Universities affiliated with ESSCS (European Summer School in Cultural Studies) there is no registration fee.


Organizing Committee

Isabel Capeloa Gil
Peter Hanenberg
Alexandra Lopes
Paulo de Campos Pinto
Daniela Agostinho
The IV Lisbon Summer School is co-funded by the Culture programme of the European Union.