Organized by the PhD Program in Communication Studies at the Faculty of Human Sciences and the Center for Media@Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania), in partnership with the Center for Media@Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication and in collaboration with the Annenberg Schools of the University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania, the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Helsinki, and the Europaeum network, the Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication provides students with the opportunity to discuss key issues in communication within a truly international environment.

The 6th edition of the Lisbon Winter School, in 2025/2026, was dedicated to the theme “Media and Courage” and featured the following speakers:

• Jacques Chevalier (Carleton University)
• Cherian George (Hong Kong Baptist University)
• Ejvind Hansen (Danish School of Media & Journalism)
• Ola Hnatiuk (Kyiv Mohyla Academy)
• Sarah Jackson (University of Pennsylvania)
• Patricia Kingori (University of Oxford)
• Jessica Roberts (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
• Catherine A. Sanderson (Amherst College)

The 5th edition of the Lisbon Winter School, in 2024/2025, was dedicated to the theme “Media and Fear” and featured the following keynote speakers:

• David Altheide (Arizona State University)
• Carlo Bordoni (Mercatorum University)
• Isabel Capella Gil (Portuguese Catholic University)
• István Rev (Central European University)
• Johanna Sumiala (University of Helsinki) 
• Frank Furei (University of Kent)
• Nelson Ribeiro (Portuguese Catholic University)
• Barbie Zelizer (University of Pennsylvania) 

 
The 4th Lisbon Winter School, in 2023/2024, took a comparative and global approach to the study of media and ambivalence featuring the following keynote speakers:
 

• Dimitria Gatzia (University of Akron)
• Francis Lee (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Guobin Yang (University of Pennsylvania)
• Juliane Prade-Weiss (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich)
• Larry Gross (Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California)
• Patrícia Dias, (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
• Shani Orgad (London School of Economics & Political Science)
• Valerie Traub (University of Michigan)
   

In 2022/23 the Winter School theme was “Media and Propaganda” and featured the following keynote speakers:
 

• Sarah Banet-Weiser (University of Southern California)
• Kecheng Fang (Chinese Univeristy of Hong Kong)
• Ciara Greene (University  College Dublin)
• Admire Mare ((University of Johannesburg)
• Nina L. Khrushcheva (The New School)
• Courtney C. Radsch (UCLA)
• Nelson Ribeiro (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
• Francesca Tripodi (University of North Carolina)
• David Welch (University of Kent)

 
In 2019/20, the Winter School theme was “Media and Uncertainty” and featured the following keynote speakers:
 

• Teresa Ashe (The Open University)
• Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics & Political Science)
• Fathali Moghaddam (Georgetown University)
• Victor Pickard (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)
• James Painter (University of Oxford)
• Saskia Witteborn (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Barbie Zelizer (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)
• Carla Ganito (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)

 
In 2018/19, the Winter School theme was “Media and Populism” and featured the following keynote speakers:
 

• Barbie Zelizer (Annenberg School for Communication)
• Francis Lee (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (Cardiff University
• Nelson Ribeiro (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
• Risto Kunelius (University of Tampere)
• Rolien Hoyng (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Ruth Wodak (LAncaster University)
• Sarah Banet-Weiser (London School of Economics and Political Sciences)
• Silvio Waisbord (George Washington University)