The fields of research in the social sciences, the arts and the humanities have, over recent decades, undergone multiple and significant transformations, associated with the development of new or renewed epistemologies and with the affirmation of ontologies that challenge boundaries — between theory and practice, art and science, research and action — as ways of intervening in the world and of questioning narratives, imaginaries and representations.

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Crossing boundaries means blurring them, but also remaining within them in order to enable confluences — following the insights of Antônio Bispo dos Santos, known as Nêgo Bispo — with bodies of knowledge, practices, dreams and worldviews in motion. From this process emerges a complex web of critical, decolonial and intersectional knowledges that challenge multiple expressions of dominant structures of power, being and knowledge.

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This mobility, which often follows a path from academia to the street, but also in the opposite direction, finds in artistic practices a privileged space for the elaboration of forms of struggle and existence. Within the entanglement of art, research, pedagogy and action, embodied and insurgent knowledges emerge, capable of confronting the complex articulation of everyday and structural oppressions, such as class, gender, race and territory.

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From artistic research to art-based methodologies and cross-disciplinary approaches, including action research and other participatory frameworks, modes of doing and thinking proliferate that interconnect these dimensions. These approaches not only demonstrate the transformative potential of such practices as tools for research and intervention towards social justice, but also show that the production of scientific knowledge can be simultaneously rigorous and socially committed.

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From the spheres of art, science, technology and activism thus emerge constellations of critical knowledges and perspectives that challenge the hegemony of Western thought and contribute to redefining what constitutes valid knowledge and who is entitled to produce it. In this way, space is opened for voices, worldviews and practices that have been historically subalternised within academic, artistic and political contexts.

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The focus of the VI COMBART International Conference lies in the multiple intersections between knowledge, art and social justice. In this call for proposals, we seek to deepen dialogue between different ways of knowing, exploring how the intersections between artistic practices, the social sciences and the humanities can contribute to the development of transformative forms of knowledge capable of subverting structures and mechanisms of oppression and the production of asymmetries.

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Over recent years, the COMBART International Conference has established itself as a forum for discussion around socially engaged creative and artistic practices. We understand that art and culture, as well as a range of other creative practices not strictly encompassed by these categories, can constitute expressive fields that play a relevant role in the construction of citizenship in contemporary societies.

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The VI COMBART International Conference is a collaboration between several institutions, including the Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences at NOVA University of Lisbon (CICS.NOVA, NOVA FCSH and CICS.NOVA.IPLeiria); the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (IS-UP); the Institute of Art History (IHA/IN2PAST) and the Institute of Communication (ICNOVA) of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at NOVA University of Lisbon; the Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory» (CITCEM); and LabEA — the Research Laboratory in Art Education/FBAUP.

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Partners of this event also include the Luso-Brazilian Network Todas as Artes (TAA) and the Luso-Brazilian Research Network in Arts and Urban Interventions (RAIU). The conference aims to bring together a diverse range of knowledges, disciplines and arts, opening the call for proposals to researchers from fields such as sociology, anthropology, history, art history, the cultural and creative industries, participatory artistic practices and artistic research, cultural economics, cultural and social geography, urban planning, cultural studies, communication sciences and related disciplines, including illustration, music, cinema, visual arts, performance and the performing arts, as well as their intersections with new technologies.