The LPAZ 2025 Forum, with the theme “Atlantic Bridges: Culture, Politics, and Knowledge,” will take place in Santa Maria from September 1 to 3.

The event is organized by the LPAZ Association, which states that it will take a “holistic approach to Atlantic issues, through disciplines ranging from literature to geopolitics, oceanography, climate, and space technologies.”

The first two days will be an academic conference held in the auditorium of the Municipal Library of Vila do Porto, open to the public and broadcast online, with English and French as the working languages.

A second event will be the Geostrategic Roadmap on September 3, which “will take participants on a tour of the sites of greatest geostrategic value in the past, present, and future on the island of Santa Maria,” according to the organization.

The program includes the launch of the book “One Atlantic, many perspectives – valuing diversity in the age of competition,” coordinated by Licínia Simão, António Monteiro, Ana Mónica Fonseca, José Domingues Almeida, and Diniz Borges, and published by Bruma Publications and the LPAZ Association, through Letras Lavadas. The book is the result of papers presented at the 2024 edition of the LPAZ Forum.

The sixth edition of the event, which is expected to attract around 30 speakers, is being organized in partnership with the Center for International Studies of Iscte-Lisbon University Institute (CEI-Iscte), the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (FEUC), the Center for Humanistic Studies of the University of the Azores (CEHu), CHAM – Center for Humanities (UAc/NOVA), the Atlantic Center, the Portuguese Association of French Studies (APEF), the Margarida Losa Institute of Comparative Literature (ILCML), and the Transatlantic Studies Association.

The LPAZ 2025 Forum is supported by the Regional Government, the Municipality of Vila do Porto, and FLAD-Luso-American Development Foundation.

Santa Maria is in the media spotlight. It was reported last week that the Portuguese consortium Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC) has been granted a five-year license to launch rockets from the island.

Following the approval of the application submitted in December, the first flight is scheduled for May 2026.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADE.