XIV Colóquio de Outono: Humanidades: novos paradigmas do conhecimento e da investigação

Abstract

The present volume off ers a selection of the papers presented at the XIV Colóquio de Outono organized by the research unit Centro de Estudos Humanísticos (Universidade do Minho) in November 2012, under the global topic Humanities: New Paradigms of Knowledge and Research (Humanidades: Novos Paradigmas do Conhecimento e da Investigação). It has been the main objective of CEHUM, throughout the various Colóquios de Outono organized in just over a decade, to listen carefully to the “noise of the world” and attempt a global interpretation of the signs of the times issuing from the world around us, as vibrant echoes of many social and cultural pressing issues. This volume gathers the majority of the texts presented in the XIV Colóquio de Outono, which the authors generously off ered us for publication, and which will certainly testify of the important debate around the wide topic proposed for this years analysis and discussion. We hope that this new volume may give evidence of our concern, as a Research Centre within the Humanities which operates in a transdisciplinary structure, of the crucial role played by the Humanities in today’s world and the multidisciplinary dialogue that can be fostered by the diff erent research groups that compose it. Throughout the three days of this XIV Colóquio de Outono we had the privilege to listen to and debate the propositions of a vast number of national and international specialists in the manifold fi elds of inquiry here represented, engaging keynote speakers, project advisors, members of research teams and external researchers attached to the various research projects currently running in CEHUM, in the fi elds of literature, linguistics, philosophy, ethics, visual arts, cultural studies, music and performance. Each specifi c fi eld of studies was however never seen isolated, but always embodied in a geo-cultural context and within the scope of a wide variety of critical debates and current theories of knowledge, as a signal of our understanding of the Humanities as a rich and plural territory which engages us all, scholars, researchers, students. For these lively and thought-provoking three days of the conference we wish to thank each and every one of the colleagues present, our distinguished guests, as well as the research members of CEHUM, who so enthusiastically joined in the debate on the proposed topics of analysis. Special thanks to the Board of Directors and the research team leaders of CEHUM for the precious help provided towards the organization and the setting up of this international event. Last but not least, we wish to thank the Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas, as well as the research assistants and staff of CEHUM for all the precious logistic support. Finally, our gratitude to our main sponsor, Fundação para a Ciênca e a Tecnologia (FCT), for encouraging and fi nancially supporting this yearly event and the present publication.