Past Activities

When the new projects on Irish Studies and Utopian Studies ("Mapping Dreams") were launched in interconnection with the Shakespeare project, the unit was seeking a defining framework in a broad-ranging understanding of translation which over the past two decades has allowed it to be repeatedly theorised and called upon as a model for all intercultural and intertextual relations.

The research unit thus attempted to open up new vistas and alternative perspectives in a way which should allow for an harmonisation of its initial course of action with the recommendation issued in 2002 by the international evaluation panel in its report, when it stated that the lines of research to be developed within the unit should be built "into a common research direction based on an ongoing redefinition of ‘culture'".

The integration of the unit's research work within this common research direction was conceived as a unifying platform for a diversity of objects and goals (such as the study of Utopian texts, or of Irish literature) and was guided by a particular attention to "relational" designs - the intercultural, the intertextual, besides translation stricto sensu. History, Geography and Sociology are inter-related disciplines in the "Mapping Dreams" research group, as Word-and-Image Studies are part of the "Irish Studies" group, (continuing the "Writing and Seeing" FCT project developed between 2003 and 2005).

The rationale described above has provided a framework for all the research activities developed within the unit. It has also determined the shape and direction of the outreach activities promoted by the unit, as itemised below:

• The Complete Translation of Shakespeare's Dramatic Works:

1. publication of edited and annotated translations with a non-academic publisher; this ensures the texts' circulation for a general audience; book launches of some of the texts;

2. participation in international programmes; one of them of an educational nature: the Intensive Programme European Shakespeares: Towards an Integrated Curriculum (Ferrara, 2004/06), with staff and students of four European universities;

3. launch of the programme of public readings/lectures on Shakespeare, publicising the unit's research and translation work to audiences in public libraries, civic fora, etc.

• Mapping Dreams: British and North-American Utopianism:

1. conferences for a non-specialized public: Livraria Ler Devagar, Lisbon, October 2004; Ateneu Comercial do Porto, June 2007; Círculo Literário do Porto, July 2007;

2. presentation of the project at the 4th (2005) and 5th (2006) annual exhibition of Universidade do Porto, ensuring the link with secondary schools;

3. publication of volumes by a non-academic publisher, guaranteeing a wide circulation of the group's work;

4. publication of an electronic journal, Spaces of Utopia.

• Irish Writing and Translation:

Each of its 3 annual conferences included round-table discussions to which cultural agents from outside academia were invited; these were aimed at broader, non-academic audiences, and were duly publicised as such.

• Writing and Seeing (POCTI/43425/ELT/2001)

In 2003 the major eponymous initiative of this project included a visual arts exhibition on show for several months at an art gallery in Oporto; it appealed to a much broader audience than its strictly academic activities.