II Colloquium on Island Literatures and Cultures The Island as a Crossroads: Mobility, Domination, and Hybridism
University of the Azores - Portugal
Organization: CHAM
II Colloquium on Island Literatures and Cultures
The Island as a Crossroads: Mobility, Domination, and Hybridism
29–30 October 2026
University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada (São Miguel)
Long conceived as isolated or peripheral spaces, islands are today understood as strategic sites of travel, contact, and interconnection. Located at the intersection of commercial, migratory, and tourist routes, island territories function both as spaces of circulation and of anchorage, as points of departure and arrival for migrations, exiles, diasporas, and tourist flows. At the same time, climate change is placing a large proportion of the world’s islands at risk as a result of rising sea levels. To this environmental threat is added the legacy of the fundamental role that certain islands played in the histories of colonization — a legacy that continues today to shape the unequal distribution of environmental risk experienced in some archipelagic and insular territories.
This colloquium — an initiative associated with the PhD program in Island Literatures and Cultures (University of the Azores, University of Madeira, University of Corsica, INALCO) and with CHAM Açores – Centre for the Humanities (FCSH NOVA/UAc) —aims to examine this conception of the island as a space of circulation, conflict, cultural reconfiguration, and vulnerability, taking the Azores archipelago as its point of departure.
Within the field of Island Studies, scholars such as Godfrey Baldacchino (2013) and Pete Hay (2006) have emphasized insularity as a specific historical, political, economic, and cultural condition, while also highlighting that it is simultaneously shaped by relationships of dependence, circulation, and negotiation with continental and transnational spaces.
The strategic position of many islands has made them privileged sites of dynamics of domination, conflict, and tension, as well as laboratories of ecological transformation—processes that literature and culture help to problematize. By thematizing relations between center and periphery, domination and resistance, memory and reappropriation—as illustrated by the works of Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant, and Homi Bhabha—literary and artistic representations turn the island into a site for negotiating the traces of the past, symbolic and material violence, and struggles for cultural and political emancipation.
These dynamics have contributed to the formation of island societies marked by linguistic, cultural, and identity-based plurality. From this perspective, the island can be conceived as a “third space” (Bhabha, 1994), that is, an in-between space of cultural translation and negotiation, in which hybrid forms of identity, language, and artistic expression emerge, challenging essentialist conceptions of culture and belonging. Numerous scholars have examined how literature and culture reflect these processes across different periods and geographical contexts (Fougère, 1995, 2004, 2024; Bernardie-Tahir, 2011; Fletcher, 2011; McMahon, 2016; McMahon & André, 2018; Crane & Fletcher, 2017), both from perspectives rooted in insular contexts themselves and from continental viewpoints. Other scholars have likewise focused on the Portuguese Atlantic context, shaped by the historical and cultural specificities of the Azores and Madeira archipelagos (Almeida, 1983, 1989, 2011; Carneiro et al., 2016; Espínola et al., 2014; Freitas, 2013; Nemésio, 1932, 2023; Pires, 2013; Santos, 2013; Vieira, 2009, 2010).
We invite papers and perspectives that examine the ways in which literatures and cultures think about, construct/deconstruct, and/or propose alternatives to insular identities and cultures.
The following thematic axes are proposed on an indicative basis. Proposals that, from other theoretical, disciplinary, or geographical perspectives, engage in dialogue with the general theme of the colloquium will also be welcome.
Axis 1 – Island Literatures and Cultures: Mobility, Memory, and Refuge
• Narratives of migration, exile, and transoceanic circulation
• Insularity, identity, and cultural belonging
Axis 2 – Hybridisms, Translation, and the Circulation of Knowledge
• Plurilingualism and languages in contact in insular contexts
• Transnational circulation of insular works and authors
Axis 3 – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Insularity
• Mobility, tourism, and globalization
• Ecology, environment, toxicity and insular environmental risk
Bibliographical references
Almeida, O. T. (1983). A questão da literatura açoriana. Angra do Heroísmo: Secretaria Regional de Educação e Cultura.
Almeida, O. T. (1989). Açores, açorianos, autonomia – Um espaço cultural. Ponta Delgada: Marinho Matos Brumarte Editor.
Almeida, O. T. (2011). Açores, açorianos, açorianidade: Um espaço cultural (2.ª ed.). Angra do Heroísmo: Instituto Açoriano de Cultura.
André, B. (2016). Iléité : Perspectives littéraires sur le vécu insulaire. Paris: Éditions Petra.
Baldacchino, G. (2004). The coming of age of island studies. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 95(3), 272–283.
Baldacchino, G. (2013). Island landscapes and European culture: An “island studies” perspective. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 2(1), 13–19.
Baldacchino, G., & Clark, E. (2013). Guest editorial introduction: Islanding cultural geographies. Cultural Geographies, 20(2), 129–134.
Bernardie-Tahir, N. (2011). L’Usage de l’Île. Paris: Éditions Petra.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Carneiro, R., Almeida, O. T., & Matos, A. T. de (Coords.). (2016). A condição de ilhéu. Lisboa: Centro de Estudos dos Povos e Culturas de Expressão Portuguesa – Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
Césaire, A. (1950). Discours sur le colonialisme. Paris: Présence Africaine.
Crane, R., & Fletcher, L. (2017). Island Genres, Genre Islands: Conceptualisation and Representation in Popular Fiction. London & New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Espínola, P., & Cravidão, F. (2014). A ciência das ilhas e os estudos insulares: Breves reflexões sobre o contributo da geografia. Sociedade & Natureza, 26(3), 433–444.
Fletcher, L. (2011). “. . . some distance to go”: A critical survey of island studies. New Literatures Review, 47–48, 17–34.
Fougère, É. (1995). Les Voyages et l’ancrage : Représentations de l’espace insulaire à l’Âge classique et aux Lumières (1615–1797). Paris: L’Harmattan.
Fougère, É. (2004). Escales en littérature insulaire : îles et balises. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Fougère, É. (2024). Des îles en littérature. Une bibliothèque ouverte à tous les vents. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
Freitas, V. (2013). O imaginário dos escritores açorianos (2.ª ed.). Ponta Delgada: Letras Lavadas.
Glissant, É. (1981). Le Discours antillais. Paris: Gallimard.
Glissant, É. (1990). Poétique de la Relation. Paris: Gallimard.
Glissant, É. (1997). Traité du Tout-Monde. Paris: Gallimard.
Hay, P. (2006). A phenomenology of islands. Island Studies Journal, 1(1), 19–42.
Kennedy, M., & Calleja, P. F. (2023). Introduction: Island narratives of persistence and resistance. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 25(1), 1–10.
Lestringant, F. (2019). Bribes d’îles : La littérature en archipel de Benedetto Bordone à Nicolas Bouvier. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
Marimotou, J.-C., & Racault, J.-M. (Eds.). (1995). L’Insularité. Thématique et représentations. Paris: L’Harmattan.
McMahon, E. (2016). Islands, Identity and the Literary Imagination. New York: Anthem Press.
McMahon, E., & André, B. (2018). Literature and the literary gaze. In G. Baldacchino (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Island Studies (pp. 296–311). London & New York: Routledge.
Nemésio, V. (1932). Açorianidade. Insula, (7–8), julho–agosto.
Nemésio, V. (2023) Corsário das Ilhas. In Obra Completa – Crónica II. Lisboa, Lajes do Pico: Imprensa Nacional, Companhia das Ilhas.
Pires, A. M. B. M. (2013). Páginas de açorianidade. Ponta Delgada: Letras Lavadas.
Racault, J.-M. (2010). Robinson et Compagnie : Aspects de l’insularité politique de Thomas More à Michel Tournier. Paris: Éditions Petra.
Santos, M. R. G. R. (2013). Da Insula à insularidade: os espaços da «açorianidade». In RUA-L. Revista da Universidade de Aveiro | n.º 2 (II. série) 2013/14, p. 231-250.
Vieira, A. (2009). Repensar os Estudos Insulares Hoje. In Anuário do CEHA, n.º 1 (pp. 16-71).
Vieira, A. (2010). As ilhas: Da nissologia à nesologia. Anuário do Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico, 2, 16–21.
Important Information
Paper proposals must include:
the name(s) of the author(s), with institutional affiliation;
an indication of the thematic axis;
the title;
an abstract (up to 300 words);
keywords (maximum of 6).
A short biographical note (up to 250 words) must be sent as an attachment.
All proposals should be sent to the following email address: cham.secretariado@uac.pt, with the subject line: II Colloquium on Island Literatures and Cultures.
Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes.
Although the colloquium will be held in person, a limited number of remote presentations may be accepted, with priority given to doctoral candidates.
Schedule
31 May 2026 – Submission deadline for proposals
30 June 2026 – Notification of acceptance
29–30 October 2026 – Colloquium
Publication
The publication of a selection of papers from the colloquium is planned. Articles will be subject to a double-blind peer-review process.
Final versions of the papers must be submitted by 31 January 2027.
Registration Fees
Speakers holding a doctoral degree – €85
Doctoral candidates and grant holders – €20
Members of CHAM and faculty from the Universities of the Azores, Madeira, Corsica, and INALCO – exempt from registration fees.
Travel, accommodation, and meals are the responsibility of the participants.
Organizing Committee
Ana Cristina Gil - CHAM Açores – Centro de Humanidades (NOVA/UAc)
Dominique Faria - CHAM Açores – Centro de Humanidades (NOVA/UAc)
Kathleen Gomes (Universidade dos Açores - Doutoranda)
Leonor Sampaio da Silva - CHAM Açores – Centro de Humanidades (NOVA/UAc)
Maria Madalena Silva - CHAM Açores – Centro de Humanidades (NOVA/UAc)
Nuno Marques - CHAM Açores – Centro de Humanidades (NOVA/UAc)
Telmo Nunes (Universidade dos Açores - Doutorando)
Scientific Committee
Ana Isabel Moniz – Un. da Madeira (Portugal)
Catarina Rodrigues – Un. Açores (Portugal)
Diniz Borges – California State University, Fresno (EUA)
Dominique Verdoni – Un. de Corse (França)
Eugène Gherardi – Un. de Corse (França)
Joana Maria Seguí Pons Un. Ilhas Baleares (Espanha)
Leonor Coelho – Un. da Madeira (Portugal)
Luísa Paolinelli – Un. da Madeira (Portugal)
Maria da Luz Correia – Un. Açores (Portugal)
Miguel Carranza Guasch – Un. Ilhas Baleares (Espanha)
Odete Jubilado – Un. de Évora (Portugal)
Onésimo Teotónio Almeida – Brown University (EUA)
Pilar Damião – Un. dos Açores (Portugal)
Stéphane Sawas – INALCO (França)
Susana Serpa Silva – Un. Açores (Portugal)
Urbano Bettencourt – Açores (Portugal)
Dominique Faria