The beginning of 2018 sees a new cycle of periodical seminars launched by the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM), the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University (NOVA FCSH), entitled: “Seminar in Medieval Studies” (SEM), coordinated by researchers Catarina Fernandes Barreira, Mário Farelo, Paulo Catarino Lopes and Gonçalo Melo da Silva.

Integrated into the IEM training plan, the periodic “Conversations on the City” and “Methodologies in Medieval Studies” seminars have become a reference activity within the “Territories and Powers” Research Group, with more than 50 presentations given since 2010. Aimed essentially at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree students, these were designed to foster the exchange of ideas and knowledge on a topic of urban history or of methodologies used in Medieval Studies within an informal environment.

As a result of the growing dynamics of the activities carried out in common by the two IEM Research Groups, this new cycle of seminars aims at perpetuating, on the one hand, the heritage of informal knowledge sharing and discussion that characterised the previous seminars and, on the other hand, to enable greater convergence in the collaborative work ongoing within this Research Unit as well as promoting Medieval Studies in the broadest sense.

With a flexible structure (individual presentations or one-afternoon meetings around a specific theme), the SEM is open to all researchers and to the general public, constituting a privileged space for the presentation of individual or collective research and for the dialogue and debate of ideas around issues related to History, History of Art, Archaeology, Literature, Archivistics, among others.