LPAZ FORUM
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
SPACE FOR ISLANDS
7 – 9 September 2026 | Santa Maria Island, Azores, Portugal
Sunday, September 6th | dimanche 6 septembre
Hotel Santa Maria
19h00 – Welcome Session | Accueil
20h00 – Dinner | Dîner
Monday, September 7th | lundi 7 septembre
Vila do Porto’s Municipal Library | Bibliothèque municipale de Vila do Porto
09h00 – Opening Session | Ouverture
09h15 – Keynote Lecture: Godfrey Baldacchino
Moderator | Modération: António Monteiro, CEI-Iscte; LPAZ.
10h15 – Session 1 – Island Governance, Power and Agency
Moderator | Modération: Licínia Simão, FEUC, Universidade de Coimbra.
Enzo de Oliveira Feliciano, «Man Overboard»: How Small Island States Navigate the Uncertainties of An Exhausted Multilateralism.
University of Brasília, Brazil.
Aleida Borges, Hillary Briffa, Linganaden Murday and Sefa Nyarko, Peripheral Voices, Central Policies: Justice and Equity for Non-Sovereign Small Islands in Climate Governance.
King’s College London.
11h00 – Coffee Break | Pause-café
11h30 – Session 2 – Les imaginaires insulaires : utopies, dystopies et représentations
Moderator | Modération: Dominique Faria, Universidade Açores; CHAM.
Ana Maria Binet, L’île entre utopie et dystopie, un espace pour imaginer le futur.
Université Bordeaux Montaigne.
Melissa Melodias, De l’île et de son image.
Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle.
José Domingues de Almeida, Le syndrome de la Sentinelle. L’île comme figuration des tensions civilisationnelles dans Surchauffe de Nathan Devers (2025).
Université de Porto, Institut de Littérature Comparée Margarida Losa, Association Portugaise d’Études Françaises.
Mokhtar Belarbi, Symbolique de l’espace insulaire dans Le Royaume de Kensuké, Seul sur une mer immense et Le Naufrage du Zanzibar de Michael Morpurgo.
Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah-Fès.
12h45 – Lunch | Déjeuner
14h00 – Session 3 – Islands as Laboratories: Science, Innovation and Sustainability
Moderator | Modération: Ana Monica Fonseca, CEI-Iscte.
Cláudio Gomes, The Island: Laboratory of Science, or Space(s) of the Imaginary?
Universidade dos Açores.
Alessio Rocci, Islands of Knowledge during the First Quantum Revolution.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and International Solvay Institutes, Belgium.
Orfeu Bertolami, Helping to Boost the Natural Capital.
Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
Tom Greenwood & Rosanna Vitiello, Forever Island: Towards a Model of Ecological Re-inhabitation for Santa Maria, Azores.
The Place Bureau and Meander.
15h30 – Coffee Break | Pause-café
15h45 – Session 4 – Reading the Azores: Literature, Translation and Cultural Memory
Moderator | Modération: José Domingues de Almeida, Universidade do Porto; APEF; ILCML.
Maria de Fátima Outeirinho, Sur les traces de Raul Brandão : les enjeux insulaires chez Jean-Yves Loude.
Université de Porto, Portugal.
Ana Catarina Silveira Brasil, Translating the Azores: A Look at Mau Tempo no Canal and Its Translations
Universidade dos Açores, Portugal.
Dominique Faria, Traduire l’ultrapériphérie : circulation et médiation de la culture açorienne dans Des gens heureux parmi les larmes de João de Melo.
Universidade dos Açores, Portugal.
Yu Sasaki, Redefining "Islands" through the Social Distribution of Knowledge in Folk Performing Arts.
Tohoku University, Japan.
19h15 – Dinner | Dîner
Tuesday, September 8th | mardi 8 septembre
09h30 – Session 5 – Island Networks, Governance and Connectivity
Moderator | Modération: Ana Monica Fonseca, CEI-Iscte.
Beniamino Peruzzi Castellani, Networking Islands: Infrastructures of Insular Governance in Italy, Portugal, South Korea, and Japan.
Scuola Normale Superiore / Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy.
Marlene Payva Almonte, Establishing Interconnectedness between the Arctic and Small Island States through Climate.
University of Lapland, Finland.
Gianmario Demuro, Constitution and islanders: a written constitution new perspective.
Department of Law, University of Cagliari, Italy.
10h30 – Coffee Break | Pause-café
11h00 – Session 6 – Island Communities: Identity, Heritage and Cultural Practices
Moderator | Modération: Leonor Simas-Almeida, Brown University.
Estelle Amilien, Critique du régime et contre-modèles possibles dans le roman Jaasa Liz'u y sus amigos en el país del gigante du Guinéoéquatorien Francisco Ballovera Estrada (2022).
Université Grenoble Alpes, France.
Anna Baldacchino, Godfrey Baldacchino, A Taste of Islands.
University of Malta; University of Malta.
Cristina Maria Paulino, Local Identity and Politics Through Taste: The First Collection of Traditional Cape Verdean Recipes.
Universidade dos Açores, Portugal.
Rita Albuquerque, On Another Plate – An Ethnography of the Paths of Flores Island.
Iscte-Iul.
12h30 – Lunch | Déjeuner
14h00 – Session 7 – The Azores in the Atlantic: History, Geopolitics and Future
Moderator | Modération: Pedro Parreira, Governo dos Açores – Estrutura de Missão para as Comemorações dos 600 Anos
da Descoberta e Povoamento dos Açores
Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, The Control of the Atlantic at the End of the 16th Century: Revisiting the Obsession of Philip II.
Brown University, USA.
Alexandre Monteiro, Steam, Shipwrecks and Island Connectivity: Maritime Transport and the Transformation of the Azores.
HTC/UNL & UNIDCOM/IADE.
Sarah Carreira da Mota, Between Imaginary and Agency: A Critical Approach to Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Democracy and Island Agency in Portuguese Space Governance.
FE-EC, CEIS20, Portugal.
19h30 – Closing Dinner | Dîner de clôture
Dark Skies, by Godfrey Baldacchino
Wednesday, September 9th | mercredi 9 septembre
10h00 - 18h00 - Santa Maria Strategic Roadmap | Santa Maria - Feuille de route stratégique
10h00 – Session 8 – New Space cluster in Santa Maria Island
Susana Cabral, Agência Espacial Portuguesa.
Abel García, Estação RAEGE de Santa Maria.
Rui Chaves, Thales Portugal – Teleporto de Santa Maria
Mara Pourré, ASC – Atlantic Space Consortium.
Visit to Portuguese Space Agency; the Santa Maria Teleport, Santa Maria RAEGE Station; Pico Alto; Santa Maria Oceanic Air Traffic Control Centre; cultural classified site “Lugar do Aeroporto”, and INCUBA+. Open to public, under inscription until September 5th at forumlpaz@gmail.com.
Visite de l’Agence spatiale portugaise ; de le téléport de Santa Maria ; de la station RAEGE de Santa Maria ; des bunkers de Pico Alto ; du centre de contrôle océanique de Santa Maria ; de la propriété classée d'intérêt public « Lugar do Aeroporto » et d'INCUBA+. Ouvert au public, l'inscription est obligatoire jusqu'au 5 septembre à forumlpaz@gmail.com.
13h30 – Lunch | Déjeuner
19h30 – Dinner | Dîner
