DN32 - Discourse across cultures

DN32 - DISCOURSE ACROSS CULTURES (2025)

Call For Papers

The two key concepts of this event are discourse and culture. Showcasing multifarious attributes, culture has been defined by Samovar& Porter as:

‘the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies, religions, notions of time, roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving’ (Samovar and Porter, 2003: 8)

Despite variation in defining the concept, scholars concur that culture is a multi-layered construct, characterised by patterned routines/behaviours. As a research topic, culture has been approached from various vantage points: anthropology – Levi-Straus (1985), sociology – Geertz (1986), Kottak (2015), linguistics – Kaplan (1996), Halliday (1973), language learning – Scollon & Scollon (1995), child language acquisition – Berman & Slobin (1994), or translation studies – Bassnett (1980), to mention just a few. Discourse, defined as language in use (Brown & Yule 1983), has become “common currency in a variety of disciplines: critical theory, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, social psychology and many other fields” (Mills 2004: 1).

Now, more than ever, globalization encourages communication among people from various cultures. In this context, as Shi-xu contends, “culturally divergent discourses possess the moral-rational force to reflect upon themselves and others (…) and to produce progressive change” (2005: 44).

The aim of this event is to bring together the two strands in this increasingly interconnected world, providing the opportunity to use language comparisons

between/among cultures in order to get a deeper insight into the language phenomena around us (Moder 2004: 3). The focus is on cross-cultural discourse patterns, as well as on specific communicative practices within cultures.

We invite discourse scholars from all disciplines, as well as other scholars in humanities and social sciences to contribute with studies that cover, but are not limited to, the following areas:

· Linguistics

· Cultural studies

· Social development

· Translation studies

· Bilingualism/multilingualism

· Culture and language

· Rhetoric

· Sociolinguistics

· Narrative studies

· Discourse and pedagogy

The event encourages scholars to participate in person, but also offers the opportunity of virtual or hybrid presentations. The conference is envisaged as a platform for engaging in a meaningful dialogue that could lead to new interdisciplinary collaborations or practical applications. At the same time, by attending this event, participants can benefit from network opportunities, publication potential or contributions to emerging trends.

Important dates

Conference date: 21/03 – 22/03/2025

Deadline for abstract submission: 05/01/2025

Notification of acceptance/rejection: 15/01/2025

Registration deadline for presenters: 28/02/2025

Venue: Transilvania University of Brasov

“Sergiu T. Chiriacescu” Aula Magna, U-Building, 41 A, Iuliu Maniu St., Brasov, Romania

Fees (for on-site participation)

Full registration: € 100/500 Lei

Students: € 50/250 lei

DiscourseNet (DN) members are exempted from the fees. To join DN, please click on the link or check out the DiscourseNet website

Abstracts should be sent to

Elena Buja: elena.buja@unitbv.ro

Cristina Vâlcea: cristina.valcea@unitbv.ro

References

Bassnett, Susan. 2002. Translation Studies (3rd. edition). London & New York: Routledge.

Berman, Ruth & Dan Slobin. 1994. Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.

Brown, Gillian & George Yule. 1983. Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Geerts, Clifford. 1986. “The uses of diversity”. Michigan Quarterly Review 25: 105-123.

Halliday, Michael A. K. 1973. Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold.

Kaplan, Robert B. 1966. “Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education”. Language Learning 16: 1-20.

Kottak, Conrad P. 2015. Cultural anthropology: Appreciating Cultural diversity. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Levi-Straus, Claude. 1985. The View from Afar. New York: Basic Books.

Mills, Sara. 2004. Discourse: The New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge.

Moder, Carol Lynn. 2004. “Discourse across cultures, across disciplines. An overview. In Moder, Carol Lynn & Aida Martinovic-Zic (eds.), Discourse Across Languages and Cultures. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Samovar, Lary & Porter, Richard (eds.). 2003. Intercultural Communication: A reader. Australia, Canada: Thomson Wadsworth.

Shi-xu. 2005. A Cultural Approach to Discourse. London & New York: Palgrave.