Fortieth Anniversary Issue of Portuguese Studies
In 2025, the journal Portuguese Studies marked forty years of publication. The journal was first edited by the Department of Portuguese at King's College London, from 1985 to 2002, and has been edited since 2003 by the Modern Humanities Research Association. This important milestone is being celebrated in a commemorative Fortieth Anniversary Special Issue, published as Volume 41, Number 2 of the journal.
The Special Issue combines a preface from the journal's editor (Jane-Marie Collins), reflection pieces on the origins and history of the journal from its founding editor, Helder Macedo, and a second long-standing editor, Juliet Perkins, as well as wider reflections on the field of Portuguese and Luso-Afro-Brazilian studies, especially in the UK, from David Treece and David Brookshaw. It also features contributions from Carmen Ramos Villar (as past president of ABIL - Association of British and Irish Lusitanists) and Sara Brandellero, Stephanie Dennison, and Tori Holmes (as founders and coordinators of REBRAC - European Network of Brazilianists Working in Cultural Analysis).
The issue additionally presents seven research articles selected via a call for papers, by Shruti Rajgopal, Alexandra Lourenço Dias, Maria Inês Castro e Silva, Maria Vitória de Rezende Grisi, Pedro Daher, Mário Sequeira, and Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva. As noted in the Preface, these articles 'represent the journal's breadth of interests and its global relevance'. The full table of contents is available at Project MUSE or on here on our website.
There are two other important aspects of the Special Issue which merit a highlight here. Firstly, as noted by editor Jane-Marie Collins in the Preface, it 'also marks the end of an almost two-decade tenure of [the journal's] editorial assistant, Richard Correll, who is retiring from his extensive career in academic publishing life'. His 'editorial expertise, experience and utter professionalism' as well as his 'extensive knowledge of all matters Portuguese' will be much missed. We wish him a happy and fulfilling retirement.
Secondly, readers with an eagle eye might spot that the Special Issue's cover design pays homage to the journal's history as well. Prior to 2005, when the cover turned its distinctive blue colour, maroon was the colour associated with the journal. Until 2010, the front of the journal also featured a list of contents on the front of each issue rather than a thematic cover image as used today. With thanks to Graham Nelson at MHRA for the clever design, the cover of the commemorative Fortieth Anniversary Special Issue thus commemorates the maroon 'look' of past editions.
On 15 January 2026, a small and informal gathering was held to celebrate the launch of the Anniversary Special Issue. Appropriately, this took place at King's College London, the institution that birthed the journal and edited it for its first seventeen years, and in the context of the 10th anniversary conference of REBRAC, the Brazilian cultural studies network referenced in two of the reflection pieces included in the commemorative issue. (As well as the contribution from REBRAC's co-founders Sara Brandellero, Stephanie Dennison and Tori Holmes, the reflection piece by David Treece, 'A Special Case? Exceptionalism and Interdisciplinarity in Brazilian Cultural Studies' was originally drafted as the keynote lecture for REBRAC's inaugural conference at Senate House in London in September 2015.)
The journal's current editor Jane-Marie Collins said a few words to mark the occasion, as did former editor Juliet Perkins, who noted the particular contributions of Suzanne Jones and then Toni Huberman as production editors for the journal in its early days. Retiring editorial assistant Richard Correll was in attendance, as were other current members of the Editorial Board, Claire Williams and Tori Holmes, special issue contributor Stephanie Dennison, and REBRAC conference participants. King's was represented by Felipe Botelho Correa, who co-organised the REBRAC 10th anniversary conference together with Stephanie Dennison and Tori Holmes.
A toast was raised to the journal, and copies of the Fortieth Anniversary Special Issue and previous issues of the journal were on display.
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