DI14: Diskurs – discourse – diskurssi – discours. Bringing discourse studies into translingual dialogue

14th instalment of the conference series “Diskurs – interdisziplinär”
Åbo Akademi University, Åbo/Turku, Finland, 22nd and 23rd of October 2026
in cooperation with U Bremen, TU Dresden, IDS Mannheim and U Warsaw

A Foucauldian concept of discourse is and remains widely used in many disciplines, not least in cultural studies and linguistics. Although Foucault’s own work is a common denominator and provides a common theoretical ground for understanding discourse as a socially and culturally situated practice, partly coinciding and parallel, partly different traditions have developed in different languages and disciplines. Anglo-Saxon branches of discourse studies, published in English and distributed by international, influential publishing houses naturally belong to the most widely read and therefore hegemonic traditions in an international academic community in which English has become the unquestioned lingua franca. In French and German – both still widely used and comparatively large academic languages in the humanities – strong and independent traditions have developed (Keller 2007; Landwehr 2008; Maingueneau 2014; Spitzmüller & Warnke 2011). But also, in less widely used academic languages like Finnish (Jokinen, Juhila & Suoninen 2016; Pietikäinen & Mäntynen 2019), Swedish (Boréus & Bergström 2018; Boréus & Seiler Brylla 2018; Idevall Hagren & Westberg 2024; Seiler Brylla et al. 2018; Svensson 2019) and Danish (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 1999) discourse studies were adapted and own branches and understandings were established. Despite language barriers, these different traditions have always been interconnected through individuals who have exchanged their thoughts in person or by reading and writing in more than one language.

In this context, we are interested in discussing which understandings and methodological applications of discourse are and have become hegemonic in which linguistic academic communities. Which ideologies of discourse or which Denkstile (Ludwig Fleck’s thought styles) have shaped the different linguistic academic communities? How have research and publication language impacted which understandings and methodological applications of discourse have become prominent at which points in time and in which contexts?

The conference organisers wish to invite discourse researchers from all linguistic traditions and all disciplines of the humanities to familiarise themselves with and critically discuss each other’s understandings and methodological applications of discourse. Goals of the conference are thus:

• understanding each other’s theoretical positionings and their historical and linguistic trajectories,
• discussing how these influence methodological choices and
• developing new ways of understanding discourse and doing discourse studies.

We especially invite contributions on

• theoretical understandings of discourse as well as their methodological impacts,
• applications of these understandings in current research projects and
• the development and history of these understandings in different linguistic and disciplinary contexts.

The conference will partly be held in a workshop fashion where researchers work in interdisciplinary and disciplinary groups within and beyond linguistic traditions. By bringing together scholars from both linguistics and all areas of cultural studies and the humanities, the conference seeks to create a productive space for interdisciplinary, translingual dialogue and theoretical and methodological exchange.

How to apply

Please send an abstract (max. 300 words + references) to hanna.acke@abo.fi no later than 30th of April 2026.

The conference proceedings (short papers of max. 10 pages) will be published Open Access as part of the series “Diskurs – interdisziplinär” at IDSopen (https://idsopen.de/). Manuscripts should be submitted by 31st of January 2027.

Due to administrative reasons a small conference fee of 30€ (reduced fee for students and doctoral students: 20€) covering coffee breaks will apply.