The Centre for Comparative Studies participates through its research in the main international theoretical, methodological and critical debates in the humanities and social sciences.

The Centre for Comparative Studies’ (CEC)¹ research is situated at the cusp of various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, thus contributing to the emergence of original, cross-disciplinary fields. Departing from a specific geopolitical focus, CEC participates through its research in the main international, theoretical, methodological and critical debates in the humanities and social sciences.

Founded in the late 1990s, CEC is based at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities² at the Universidade de Lisboa³ and brings together scholars from different academic and national backgrounds. Recognised for its vibrant, supportive and well-integrated community, CEC obtained in the most recent evaluation (2014) from the Portuguese Research Agency (FCT) the maximum classification – exceptional – and was described by the panel as ‘an imaginative, clearly focused centre which achieves an excellent blend of the research, skills and methods employed in an extensive range of social science and humanities disciplines’.

Research groups

Contributing regularly to recognised international and national publications, many of CEC’s researchers have been awarded national and European funding, which results from highly competitive applications. CEC has a doctoral programme (PhDComp)⁴ offering advanced international training in comparative studies, building on an innovative articulation between research, mobility and pedagogical activities.

CEC is structured into four research groups:

• CITCOM⁵ – Citizenship, critical cosmopolitanism, modernity/ies, (post)colonialism;
• LOCUS⁶ – Spaces, places, and landscapes;
• MORPHE⁷ – Memory, testimony and forgetfulness; and
• THELEME⁸ – Interart and intermedia studies.

Strategy

CEC’s strategic plan comes under the overarching research line ‘comparatism, reflective cosmopolitanism and critical global studies’. CEC’s approach to comparatism relies on interdisciplinary methods of inquiry to account for the complexities in the relations between the artistic, the cultural, the social and historical, and the textual and contextual. It also explores how language, culture and power are constructed, transformed or contested across space and time.

By putting forward the expression ‘reflective cosmopolitanism’ CEC aims to refocus comparatism, resorting to a critical approach to notions of national and transnational movements and dynamics, considering not only the complex articulations between national and transnational challenges, but also issues related to migration and (im)mobility, multiculturalism, citizenship, human rights and hospitality. By emphasising the notion of ‘critical global studies’, CEC stresses a renewed approach to comparatism focused on the relationship between politics, economy, culture and art in the world at large. This emphasis takes into account the effort to articulate theories and methodologies covering local and global challenges, the need for a reflective approach to issues and definitions of particularity and universality and the will to investigate artistic and cultural practices at the intersection of economic and social processes, considering the impact of globalisation.

Bearing in mind that tendencies favouring both inter and transdisciplinary approaches have become increasingly common all over the world, CEC continues to pay particular attention to the specific paths and trajectories that have shaped these trends in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries as well as in Europe.

In summary, CEC’s strategy unites innovation with established skills; promotes interdisciplinarity as a central feature of a renewed comparatism; articulates bottom-up initiatives with a robust strategic vision; reinforces high standards in research with the dissemination of results at a national and international level; and fosters the association between research and postgraduate training as a necessary requisite for innovation. CEC has clearly positioned itself to address and respond to the societal challenges raised by Horizon 2020’s framework programme for the humanities and social sciences, ‘innovative, inclusive and reflective societies’.

1. http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/
2. http://www.letras.ulisboa.pt/pt/
3. http://www.ulisboa.pt/en/inicio/university/
4. http://phdcomp.net/
5. http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/research-groups/citcom/
6. http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/research-groups/locus/
7. http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/research-groups/morphe/
8. http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/research-groups/theleme/

Professor Manuela Ribeiro Sanches
Centre for Comparative Studies
+351 21 792 0085
msanches@campus.ul.pt
http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/en/

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