_{© UC/Ana Zayara}

Maria Irene Ramalho, Full Professor Emerita at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC) and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, is the winner of the 2024 edition of the Vergílio Ferreira Award, annually granted by the University of Évora (UE).

“This award is a great honour, and I am delighted. I am very happy to be in the company of all those who have received this honour before me,” Maria Irene Ramalho told Agência Lusa.

The jury decided to award this distinction to Maria Irene Ramalho “for her contribution to increasing the dialogue between Portuguese literature and Anglo-Saxon literature and overall for the internationalisation of Portuguese literature”. Chaired by University of Évora professor Antonio Sáez Delgado and accompanied by university professors Joana Matos Frias, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, António Apolinário Lourenço, from the University of Coimbra, Elisa Nunes Esteves, from the School of Social Sciences of the University of Évora, and literary critic Ricardo Viel, the jury unanimously awarded the honour.

Established by the EU in 1996 to honour the author after whom it is named, the Vergílio Ferreira Literary Award is intended to honour the literary work of a relevant Portuguese-language author in the fields of fiction and/or essays.
The award ceremony is scheduled for 1 March, which marks the anniversary of the death of its patron. _{[Source: LUSA]}

_{About the winner}

_{Maria Irene Ramalho is Full Professor Emerita at the Anglo-American Studies Section of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, where she was the scientific coordinator of the doctoral programmes in American Studies and Feminist Studies until September 2012. Since 1999, she has been an International Affiliate of the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she has lectured regularly as a visiting professor. She has published extensively, in Portuguese and English, on English-language literature and culture (with a particular focus on poetry from the United States), American studies, comparative literature, poetic theory, cultural studies and feminist studies. Her current areas of interest include studies on Modernism and Modernity, comparative studies on poetry, poetics and philosophy, theories of American studies and theories of feminism. She is on the editorial board of several literature and culture journals.}