The Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies — ACIS holds an international, multidisciplinary conference in early September every year. The conference circulates between host universities in Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and papers and panels focus on nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century socio-cultural, economic, and political issues with a particular focus on the Iberian Peninsula and its relations with the wider Lusophone and Hispanic worlds. The atmosphere is a positive and supportive one and established academics, early career academics and postgraduates are all equally welcome.

Call For Papers

The Association will hold its 46th Annual Conference, which will take place at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, from 3-5 September 2025. It will be hosted by Rede Galabra / USC coordinated by Prof Elias Torres Feijó. The conference will be held in a hybrid format, in person and online. In this last case, a video recording of your presentation will be requested in due time.

You are cordially invited to offer a paper or panel presentation. Proposals for individual papers as well as panels on specific themes (max. four papers per panel) are encouraged. Any proposed panel should be organised by one convenor, who will be responsible for inviting the speakers and chairing the session. You are also invited to suggest any speakers you think would be willing to offer a paper, but please note that ACIS does not normally offer a fee or expenses for speakers.

ACIS encourages proposals from postgraduate students and a small number of partial conference fee bursaries are available – please see application process details below and encourage your students to consider this.

Below are the suggested thematic areas for papers and panels, which must advance understanding of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century socio-cultural, economic and political issues and realities and relate primarily to Spain and/or Portugal and transnational issues and processes relating to the Iberian Peninsula within the wider Lusophone and Hispanic worlds. Both single-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged and the themes listed below are not exclusive.

• Politics, Government, International Relations, the EU, Nationalism, Regionalisms, Transnational issues and processes
• Economics, Business, Labour, Social and Welfare issues
• Cultural Production in all its forms (e.g. film, television, journalism, literature, media, advertising, digital communication & social networking)
• Social and Cultural Studies (e.g. identity, gender, ethnicity, popular culture)
• Leisure, Tourism, Sport
• Contemporary History
• Language, Linguistics, Language Policy
• Education and Pedagogy
• Relationships between narratives, communities, territories

The selection of panels/papers will be made by the Conference programme convenors in consultation with the Executive Committee and these decisions will be final. Papers will be allocated 30 minutes on the programme (20 mins for the paper and 10 mins for discussion).

If you wish to offer a paper, please send your proposal by FRIDAY, 16th MAY 2025. Informal enquiries concerning papers and topics are welcome before the deadlines, at the email address: 46acis@usc.gal.

Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers in previous years have included novelist Use Lahoz, journalists and writers Elvira Lindo and Martín Caparrós, historian and diplomat Professor Angel Viñas, political science expert Professor António Costa Pinto, Professor Robert Newcomb, and the Association’s honorary President, historian Professor Paul Preston.

Keynote speakers for ACIS 2025

Registration

Conference booking can be made by accessing the event management system (available here) and there is more information about the Association at https://www.iberianstudies.net/conferences.

Conference Fees

In person

Student – ACIS members	Early Bird	60€
Student – non-members	Early Bird	85€
Members ACIS	Early Bird	85€
Non-members	Early Bird	100€
Student – ACIS members	Standard	85€
Student – non-members	Standard	90€
Members ACIS	Standard	100€
Non-members	Standard	120€

Institutional membership

Researchers affiliated with the Galabra Group, an Institutional Member of ACIS, should register based on their status: Student or Member (non-student). They are eligible for all registration modalities, including: Early Bird/ Standard.

Online

Virtual: 70€

For online presenters, a video of the presentation will be requested at the appropriate time. This ensures smooth delivery and technical preparation for the conference.

Deadlines

Early bird payments are accepted until the deadline, SATURDAY, 7th JUNE 2025*

Standard payments are accepted until the deadline, SUNDAY, 29th JUNE 2025

*by 7 June for those who received an acceptance notice before the end of May or within the week following the notification of their proposal’s “Accepted” status.

Accommodation

16 double rooms/ 33 single rooms are available at the Student Residences in Santiago de Compostela. These rooms are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, prioritizing those who register early for the congress. Features and prices can be found here.

After receiving proposal acceptance, please fill the accommodation form to secure your accommodation. Room booking can be made by accessing the event management system (available here).

Informal enquiries concerning accommodation are welcome at the email address: 46acis@usc.gal.

Guidance for papers ACIS Conference 2025

Please include the following information for your paper/panel proposal. Please note that proposals will be accepted in any of the following languages: English, Spanish, Galician/Portuguese or Catalan.

• NAME OF APPLICANT (including title – e.g. Dr, Prof, …)
• INSTITUTION
• ADDRESS
• Tel:
• E-mail:
• Please indicate if you are proposing a Paper or a Panel:
  • IF PROPOSING A PANEL, Please state Panel title, list papers and provide an abstract for each paper (max. 4 papers per panel).
  • TITLE AND ABSTRACT OF PAPER (approx. 150 words):

Please send your proposal by FRIDAY, 16th MAY 2025 here.

About ACIS

The Constitution briefly describes the general aims of the Association as the promotion and advancement of “study and understanding of contemporary socio-cultural, economic and political issues and realities relating primarily to Spain and/or Portugal and transnational issues and processes relating to the Iberian Peninsula within the wider Lusophone and Hispanic worlds”.

Geographical limits: Spain and Portugal, their dependent territories and their relations with the wider Lusophone and Hispanic worlds. Broader international relations involving either state are also included.

Historical period: from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. This is not meant to exclude references to an earlier period, where appropriate.

Language: All the languages of the Iberian Peninsula and their varieties, especially in their contemporary social and political context.

If you have published a book on a subject of potential interest to ACIS members in the course of the past year, we also invite you to take the opportunity to use our web pages to publicise it. Please send details to https://www.iberianstudies.net/publications/

ACIS Conference 2025 Postgraduate Bursaries

The Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies is offering four postgraduate student bursaries for those who participate only in-person.

Successful applicants will have the conference fee waived for the forthcoming ACIS Conference at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 3-5 September 2025.

These bursaries are available to postgraduate students whose research is related to an area of interest to ACIS members (see above Guidelines for Papers), and who are willing to offer a paper at the 2025 Conference. ACIS aims in this way to encourage postgraduate students to participate in the Association, which is concerned with the study of social, political and economic aspects of the Iberian area, as well as its languages and cultures.

N.B. These bursaries are intended for postgraduate students who are not in full-time or fractional academic posts; students who are employed to undertake small amounts of part-time teaching (less than 0.5 FTE timetable) will be eligible.

Applications should be made to the ACIS 2025 Conference Convenor Prof. Elias Torres Feijó using the form here.

The completed application form must be accompanied by a supporting reference from the applicant’s supervisor; the reference is needed to help the Conference Convenor and ACIS Executive Committee decide which applications will be of most interest and value, and of sufficient quality to be included in the Conference programme.

Successful applicants will receive a conference fee waiver but please note that travel expenses and accommodation will not be covered by the bursary.

Successful applicants will also be invited to submit papers for consideration for publication in the International Journal of Iberian Studies (IJIS), on the understanding that publication is not guaranteed, as this is a refereed journal.

Final date for applications will be FRIDAY, 16th MAY 2025.

Committee

Organizing committee:

Susana Rocha Relvas
Elias J. Torres Feijó
M. Felisa Rodríguez Prado

Scientific committee

Antón Corbacho Quintela (Universidade Federal de Goiás)
Blanca Gomez Garcia (University College London)
Carlos Pazos-Justo (Universidade do Minho)
César Domínguez Prieto (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Deirdre Kelly (Technological University Dublin)
Elias Torres Feijó (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Emilio Carral Vilariño (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Esther Gimeno Ugalde (Universitat Pompeu i Fabra)
M. Encarnación Carrillo García (Universidad de Murcia)
Sara Torres Outón (Universidade de Vigo)
Susana Rocha Relvas (Instituto Politécnico de Viseu)
Zósimo López Pena (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)

Executive committee

M. Felisa Rodríguez Prado (coord.)
Mariana Killner
Helena González Doval
Irene López Batalla
Sarah Vidal Horta
Mirza Tanveer Ahmed Beg

Venue

Faculdade de Filologia — USC
Santiago de Compostela
Campus Norte, Av. de Castelao, s/n, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, A Corunha, Galiza

Contacts

Photo credit: Catedral de Santiago by Noel Feans (CC BY 2.0)