15th October 2026
The establishment of HUM-TIC in the press
The University of Madeira has recently established the Humanities Research Group: Texts, Images and Communities (HUM-TIC), which is attached to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. This Group aims to establish itself as a forum for interdisciplinary reflection and research. Between 2026 and 2029, HUM-TIC has identified three key thematic areas for scientific research: (1) body, age and gender; (2) borders, spaces and integration; (3) emotions and (in) representation.
HUM-TIC currently comprises 24 researchers (12 permanent staff and 12 associates) who work on various projects and share a range of perspectives in the field of the Humanities. The creation of this group represents a new contribution towards strengthening scientific research at the University of Madeira, promoting collaboration between lecturers and researchers and integration into research networks.
As part of its activities, HUM-TIC has already begun publicising the 1st International Congress on the Humanities, Body, Age and Gender, to be held on 17 and 18 June 2027; the call for papers has also been published, with the deadline for submitting proposals set for 15 January 2027. All of HUM-TIC’s activities can be viewed here.
With an ambitious research plan and objectives for the period 2026 to 2029, HUM-TIC aims to develop projects, scientific meetings and other initiatives that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of the Humanities, in collaboration with other research centres and civil society organisations.
28th September to 3rd October 2026
Lecturers from the University of Madeira take part in the 7th International Congress on Humanism and the Endurance of the Classical World
Lecturers and researchers Cristina Santos Pinheiro and Joaquim Pinheiro, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Madeira, took part in the conference in honour of Professor José María Maestre Maestre on 30 September and 1 October, presenting papers entitled As fontes clássicas nas quaestiones sobre a anatomia feminina em De philosophia libera de Isaac Cardoso e Séneca y Plutarco: reflexiones sobre la tranquillitas y la orge.
24th and 25th September 2026
Professors from the University of Madeira are taking part in the international seminar "Philology and Medicine: texts, paratexts and contexts from Antiquity to the Modern Age"
On 24 September, lecturers and researchers Cristina Santos Pinheiro, Joaquim Pinheiro and Telmo Reis, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Madeira, presented the following papers, respectively: As fontes clássicas nos prefácios dos tratados de matéria ginecológica dos séculos XVI-XVII, Quaestiones medicinales de Rufo de Éfeso: os conceitos de χρόνος, φύσις e ἐθισμός e Astros de mau agoiro: os cometas e a Casa de Avis no tratado de Francisco F. Rajo.
27th July 2026
Professors from the University of Madeira are taking part in a project funded in Spain in the field of the humanities
With the participation of lecturers and researchers Cristina Santos Pinheiro, Joaquim Pinheiro, Rui Carlos Fonseca and Telmo Reis, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Madeira, the project “New perspectives for the analysis, study and digitisation of preliminary rhetoric manuals in 16th- and 17th-century Europe: Progymnasmata 2.0” (PID2025-168999NB-I00), which will run for three years, has secured funding from the state programme “Knowledge Generation Projects 2025”, part of Spain’s National Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research 2024–2027.
By 2029, the project aims to study and digitally edit António’s humorous commentaries on rhetorical exercises, and to analyse their use in European education during the 16th and 17th centuries. Furthermore, the project seeks to understand their contribution to the dissemination of ideas concerning education, power, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
The project will be carried out at the University Institute of Textual Analysis and Applications (IATEXT) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a research centre accredited as a K-Centre and B-Centre by CLARIN-ERIC (https://www.iatext.ulpgc.es/es) under the supervision of Professor Gregorio Rodriguez Herrera.
24th-25th July 2026
Elena Bollinger, University of Madeira / ULICES (Portugal)
Uncanny Voices: Exploring Meaning through Silence in the Postmodern British Fiction.
17th July 2026
Retórica Podcast
A new podcast dedicated to promoting research in rhetoric and reflecting on the role of persuasive communication in contemporary society, launched by the Rhetoric Working Group of SOPCOM – the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences, coordinated by Joaquim Pinheiro and Samuel Mateus, lecturers at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Madeira.
This project brings this field of knowledge to a wider audience — academics, students and anyone with an interest in the power of argumentation and communication.
In each episode, the programme coordinators welcome a guest from different disciplinary areas within rhetoric for a conversation about their academic journey, the questions that guide their research, and the role that rhetoric plays in their work.
The first episode features António Fidalgo, a retired professor and former vice-chancellor of the University of Beira Interior, and the author of the ‘Rhetorical Square’ theoretical model.
- Listen to the first episode now:
https://sopcom.pt/podcast-retorica
18th June 2026
MARIO FRANCO BARROS (UMa) was a member of the organising committee, alongside Meike Meliss (University of Santiago de Compostela), Manuel Fernandes Méndez (University of Santiago de Compostela) and Alexander Gahr (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), for the colloquium “Verb Classes in Professional - und Fachsprachen: KI und korpusbasierte Annäherung im Forschungs- und Lehrkontext des Deutschen als Fremdsprache” [“Verb Classes in Professional and Specialised Languages: AI and a Corpus-Based Approach in the Context of Research and Teaching German as a Foreign Language”].
The symposium was organised as part of the research project “Verbklassen im (halb)akademischen und beruflichen Diskurs: Multidisziplinäre Perspektiven auf den Fachwortschatz des Deutschen und Spanischen” [“Verb Classes in (Semi-)Academic and Professional Discourse: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Lexicon of German and Spanish”] (CLAVDAP-MULTLEX), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and co-funded by the European Union. https://clavdap0.webnode.es
The symposium took place at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), from 18 to 19 June 2026.
At this symposium, MARIO FRANCO BARROS presented a paper entitled “Kommunikationsverben aus textsortenspezifischer Perspektive im Sprachvergleich: Deutsch-Spanisch-Portugiesisch” [“Communication Verbs from a Text-Type-Specific Perspective in a Linguistic Comparison: German–Spanish–Portuguese”].
