The Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies (PLCS) journal has announced a call for papers on the theme of  “A música popular no mundo lusófono: política, história e mudança social” or “Popular Music in the Lusophone World: Politics, History, and Social Change”.  

From protests against military dictatorships and the denunciation of various social issues, popular music in the Lusophone world has historically served as a powerful instrument of protest, thus becoming an essential tool for the understanding of the societies that have Portuguese as their official language.

This dossier will gather articles about popular music from any Portuguese-speaking country, from any period, and from any musical genre, which approach political and historical processes in the countries in question. Articles that focus on questions of gender, race, and social class will be especially welcome.

Articles from various disciplines will be considered, including but not limited to ethnomusicology, sociology, history, linguistics, and cultural studies, as well as articles that deal with the use of popular music in the teaching of the Portuguese language, whether as a mother tongue, a heritage, or a foreign language. Articles may be written in Portuguese or in English.

Guest Editors: Lígia Bezerra (Arizona State University), Maria das Dores Nogueira Mendes (Universidade Federal do Ceará), Mylene Mizrahi (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), and José Peixoto Coelho de Souza (University of Manchester).

Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Tagus Press in the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, a multidisciplinary international studies and outreach unit dedicated to the study of the language, literatures and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Its predecessor, the Center for Portuguese-speaking World, was approved by the SMU Board of Trustees in April of 1975.