The birth of Atlantic Studies, as our institution understands them, is relatively recent with its origin localized mainly in the anglo-saxon world. Even though a multiplicity of approximations exists (from the Artic Inuit to the African slaves in Brazil, from the Scotish Highlands to the Caribean islands), and even possible denominations (Trans-Atlantic Studies, North Atlantic Studies, ...), most initiatives and research centres have made multidisciplinarity, or even a new circum-atlantic disciplinary matrix, their main line of research, creating discussion groups on historic, economic, cultural, literary, linguistic, sociological, among other matters, and encouraging transcultural dialogue and understanding in a vast and diverse field as that of the shores of this great Ocean.
From this point of view, Galiza seemed to be a privileged point of observation and analysis, as it keeps strong ties with all of America, due to its many and consecutive migrations, as with Portugal and the rest of the eminently Atlantic Lusophone world (Brazil, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Angola, Guiné-Bissau). The country’s own experience facilitates the approach to the study of transoceanic population flows, providing a important key to deal not only with the culture and history but also with other areas as international politics, economy, etc, of the field of analysis.
In this sense, after the establishment of the Atlantic Studies Postgraduate Program, the Atlantic Studies Work Group (Núcleo de Estudos Atlânticos) of the Galizan Institute for International Security and Peace Studies (IGESIP) conceives the idea of organizing an International Conference that on the one hand managed to introduce Atlantic Studies in Galiza (and Galiza in Atlantic Studies) and simultaneously put together specialists from around the world to carry out a much needed debate and discussion on the problems and possibilities of this field of studies.

Panels: History and Stories of the Atlantic; Comparative Atlantic Literatures; Peace and Conflict in the Atlantic World; Trans-Atlantic Migrations; Media and Information.