New Editor-in-Chief of Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies July 29, 2011– North Dartmouth, MA.

Starting this month, Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies will have a new editor-in-chief, João Cezar de Castro Rocha, professor of Comparative Literature at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and author or editor of over twenty-five books, including three published by Tagus Press since 2001. In the fall 2009 he was Hélio and Amélia Pedroso/Luso-American Foundation Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies at UMass Dartmouth. Prof. Castro Rocha will replace Prof. Victor K. Mendes, who is stepping down at the end of this year, after thirteen years of dedicated service and leadership that resulted in the publication of 17 volumes/24 issues of the journal.

As well as continuing to publish thematically-based scholarly articles, PLCS will contain three other permanent sections as part of the journal’s new profile, as follows:
Essays: In this section, relevant essays will be published, even if not directly related to the theme of the specific volume.
Reviews: The purpose of this section is to maintain an up-to-date record of recent and relevant publications from the Portuguese-speaking world, in both essay (monograph) and creative writing. Works from and about Portuguese-speaking countries (and their diasporas) will be considered.
Unpublished work: Unpublished creative writing will be published and, once again, all corners of the Portuguese-speaking world will be represented. The main condition is that the texts—poetry, crônica (journalistic column or chronicle), short stories, chapters of novels, etc.—be previously unpublished.
Structural features of PLCS can be summarized as follows: The first two sections (scholarly articles and essays) will be devoted to relevant new or established topics, while the other two sections (reviews and unpublished works) will entail a more forward-looking purpose. In this way, the content and structure of Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies are brought into balance.
Topics for forthcoming volumes (whose submissions will be accepted through blind peer review): June 2012: Lusofonia and Its Futures December 2012: Literary Histories in Portuguese June 2013: This volume will have an invited editor, the historian Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, and will deal with transnational relations in the configuration of the Lusophone world. December 2013: The topic of this volume will be proposed by an invited guest editor. Proposals may be submitted until January 2012.
Under Prof. Castro Rocha’s leadership, PLCS will appear semiannually in June and December. A new Editorial Board will be created, and the current Advisory Board will be restructured. Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies is published by Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth, a partner of the University Press of New England, which promotes and distributes the four imprints of Tagus Press.