The Call for Abstracts is now open for Portugal: Heritages 2027 – UNESCO Perspectives: Cultural Pasts – Urban Futures, taking place at the University of Porto from 6 to 8 July 2027.
Marking the 55th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the conference takes the Convention as a starting point for examining how the concept of heritage has expanded and transformed over the past five decades.
Today, heritage encompasses not only artistic, architectural, natural and cultural histories, but also questions surrounding communities, tourism, technologies, media, cultural industries, local economies and emerging practices in digital culture. As these fields increasingly intersect, heritage research calls for approaches that are equally interdisciplinary, bringing together artistic, architectural, historical, social and technological perspectives.
Portugal: Heritages 2027 invites researchers and practitioners to critically examine this evolving landscape, from established approaches in art and architectural history to contemporary questions surrounding digital heritage, the decolonisation of museums and archives, contested histories, tourism, sustainability and the changing cultural economy.
Research areas include Art & Architectural History & Theory; Digital Art, Design & Mediated Heritages; Museology, Archives & Collections; Socio-Cultural History; and Conservation, Preservation & Sustainability.
Themes of particular interest include Museums & Archives; Technology & Digital Art; Cultural & Material Heritage; the Politics of Memory; Sustainability; Global Histories; Societies & Cultures; and Art & Design.
Hosted in Porto, the conference also draws on the city itself as a particularly meaningful context for these discussions: one of Europe’s oldest urban centres, shaped by multiple historical layers and recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
The conference offers several participation formats, including in-person presentations, online presentations via Zoom, pre-recorded contributions and optional written papers.
Written papers submitted for publication are subject to double-blind peer review for the AMPS Conference Proceedings Series. Selected authors may also be invited to further develop their work for publication in the journal Architecture_MPS or in conference-related books.
Abstract submission deadline: 10 December 2026
Conference: 6-8 July 2027
Location: University of Porto, Portugal
Further information and abstract submission:
https://amps-research.com/conference/porto-heritages/
