Conference

DN33 - Discourse, Sustainability, and Education: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate and Communication

ThomasJacobs — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 10:49:39 +0000

DN33 - Discourse, Sustainability, and Education: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate and Communication Thomas Jacobs Tue, 09/09/2025 - 12:49

Category

Conference

Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT), Via Cristoforo Colombo 200, 00147
00147 Rome RM
Italy

Date

Thursday, 26 March 2026 - Friday, 27 March 2026

Registration deadline

Thursday, 15 January 2026

Call for papers ending on

Sunday, 15 November 2026

Call for Papers DN33 - Discourse, Sustainability, and Education: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate and Communication

26-27 March 2026, University of International Studies (UNINT) in Rome, Italy

In recent decades, the discourse surrounding sustainability and climate change has become central to global public debates, policy-making, activism, education, and everyday life. Discourses on the environment frame not only what is perceived as the climate crisis but also what solutions, responsibilities, and futures are imaginable or excluded (Hajer, 1995; Dryzek, 2013; Stibbe, 2021). This framing takes shape through media narratives, political communication, and institutional discourses that both reflect and influence public engagement (Carvalho & Burgess, 2005; Boykoff, 2008; Cox & Pezzullo, 2019; Moser, 2010).

Education has also emerged as a key arena for cultivating sustainable mindsets and practices, where language, texts, and multimodal communication play crucial roles in influencing knowledge, instilling values, and guiding actions at all levels—from higher education curricula to narrative design in climate change education (UNESCO, 2020, 2021; Sonetti, 2020; Deriu, 2024; D’Orto, 2025). At the same time, discourse-oriented research has shown how pedagogical strategies, framing devices, and communicative practices affect learners’ agency, identity, and capacity for transformative change (Sterling, 2011; Russo & Bevitori, 2023, 2024).

This conference invites scholars to critically examine how sustainability and climate issues are communicated, contested, and enacted through discourse in diverse social, institutional, and technological contexts. We seek to explore how discourse contributes to constructing environmental problems, mobilising collective action, and framing pedagogical approaches to sustainability education. Contributions that interrogate how discursive practices may reinforce inequities, marginalise certain voices, or limit transformative change (Fairclough, 2015; Whyte, 2017; Wodak, 2021; Sultana, 2022) are also welcome.

We invite papers from across the full spectrum of discourse studies—including but not limited to critical, multimodal, narrative, ethnographic, interactional, corpus-based, and practice-oriented approaches—and encourage interdisciplinary perspectives drawing from linguistics, education, media and communication studies, sociology, environmental humanities, and political science (van Dijk, 2008; Charteris-Black, 2018; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2021).

Possible topics and questions include (but are not limited to):

How are climate change and sustainability represented in media, policy, and public discourse?
What discursive strategies seem to encourage or hinder sustainable behaviour and collective action?
How do the ways we talk and write about climate issues in educational settings influence learners’ attitudes, knowledge, and sense of agency?
How are ideas of climate responsibility and justice constructed across institutional, corporate, and activist discourses?
What part do digital media, AI-generated content, and algorithmic systems play in shaping environmental narratives?
How can discourse analysis contribute to interdisciplinary dialogue and inspire meaningful action for sustainability?

We hope the conference will foster theoretical, methodological, and ethical reflection on how discourse studies can contribute to more sustainable, inclusive futures.

Topics and Panels
We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations (followed by 10 minutes of discussion) that align with the conference theme and fit into one of the broad panels. Proposals on related topics are also welcome.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts should be 250 words (excluding title and references) and anonymous.
Include the title of your paper, your name, affiliation, and email address in a separate title page (.doc or .docx format).
Use APA 7th edition style for references.
Submit your abstract via email to dn33rome2026@gmail.com.
Presentations are expected to be in English. Multilingual panels may be considered if sufficient interest arises.

Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 15 November 2025
Notification of acceptance: 28 November 2025
Registration deadline: 15 January 2026

Fees & Registration
Please use the following link to register for the conference: https://forms.gle/BDU6gPxwKhFLLbG18

Participants are required to hold an active DiscourseNet membership (€60 for 2 years) and pay a €60 participation fee which additionally covers:

Catering (refreshments, lunches)
Social dinner

You can obtain a valid DN membership via this link. More information can be found here. The participation fee is to be paid directly via the DiscourseNet website. Payment instructions will be sent along with the acceptance notification, and can also found in the form linked above. Participants will be considered registered once DN membership and the participation fee have been paid.

The DN33 is open to non-presenting participants on condition that they hold an active DiscourseNet membership.

An exception concerning the DN membership fee is made for non-presenting participants of the host institution (UNINT).

Venue & Practical Information
The conference will take place in person at Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT), Via Cristoforo Colombo 200, 00147 Rome, Italy.

Further details about the venue, travel, accommodation, and the conference programme will be published on the conference webpage hosted on the DiscourseNet portal and on the UNINT website (Events section).

Audience & Participation

We welcome participation from early-career researchers, established scholars, and professionals interested in the interdisciplinary intersections of discourse, education, and climate communication.

Publication Opportunities

Selected contributions may be considered for publication in the DiscourseNet Work-in-Progress Series, the Palgrave Book Series, or UNINT’s forthcoming interdisciplinary journal on climate and discourse.

Committees and Organisation

Local Organising Committee (UNINT): Marina Brancaccio and Cristina Benicchi

International Organising Committee: Thomas Jacobs and Benno Herzog

Scientific Committee: Cinzia Bevitori (UNIBO); Cristina Benicchi (UNINT); Maria Bortoluzzi (UNIUD); Michael S. Boyd (ROMA TRE); Marina Brancaccio (UNINT); Maria Cristina Caimotto (UNITO); Manuela Frontera (UNINT); Kim Grego (UNIMI); Benno Herzog (UV.ES); Thomas Jacobs (UCLouvain); Denise Milizia (UNIBA); Laura Mori (UNINT); Salvatore Patera (UNINT); Anna Re (IULM); Katherine E. Russo (UNIOR); Laura Tommaso (UNIUPO); Franco Zappettini (SAPIENZA)

Keynotes

Katherine E. Russo, PhD University of New South Wales (Sydney), is Full Professor in English Language, Linguistics and Translation at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. She is the Director of the Interuniversity Research Centre Dis4Change: Studies on Climate Change and Environmental Discourse. Her interest in Climate Change discourse dates back to 2011 when she began a project on “Chaos, Affect and Climate-induced Migration Discourse”. Soon after she participated as a Member of the Managing Committee in the European Programme - COST Action IS1101 “Climate change and migration: knowledge, law and policy, and theory”. Her research in the field of Climate Change Discourse includes the following publications: “The Representation of Exceptional Migrants in Media Discourse: The Case of Climate-induced Migration”(2017) with Ruth Wodak; The Evaluation of Risk in Institutional and Newspaper Discourse: The Case of Climate Change and Migration (2018); “Floating Signifiers, Transnational Affect Flows: Climate-induced Migrants in Australian News Discourse”(2017); “Living Well, Within the Limits of Our Planet: Terms in EU Press” (2017); “Climate-Induced Migration: The Evaluation of Terms in a European Commission Institutional Genre Network”(2018); “Stop Adani: Risk Communication and Legal Mining Conflicts in Australian Media Discourse”(2018); “Speculations about the Future: Populism and Climate Change in News Discourse” (2019); “Environment, Climate and Health at the Crossroads: A Critical Analysis of Public Policy and Political Communication Discourse in the EU” with Cinzia Bevitori (2023); “The Language of Crisis in the ‘Virocene’ A Critical Corpus-informed Analysis of Covid-19 and Climate Change Discourse in the EU” (2024) with Cinzia Bevitori; “Because climate change is the crisis that will stay with us”: From Permacrisis to Polycrisis in the EU Discursive space” (2025) with Cinzia Bevitori; Decolonizing Resilience: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Indigenous Australian Social Media Activism (forthcoming); “Negative Solidarities in Environmental Crisis Contexts: A Corpus-based Online News and Social Media Critical Discourse Analysis of the Australian Black Summer” (forthcoming); “Climate Change and Common Sense” (forthcoming).

Antonio López is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at John Cabot University in Rome. His research focuses on ecomedia literacy, bridging media education with environmental communication. López has authored several books, including Ecomedia Literacy: Integrating Ecology into Media Education (Routledge, 2021), and co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies (2024). He has published extensively on climate communication and media literacy and developed courses such as “Media and the Environment" and "Ecocinema.” López is the creator of ecomedialiteracy.org, an open educational resource for teaching about environmental issues through media literacy. He received the 2022 Marieli Rowe Innovation in Media Literacy Education Award. López has given keynote speeches at numerous international conferences and is currently developing a Liberal Arts and Sciences Strengthening Guide on Ecomedia Literacy and Sustainable Development Goals, supported by the Global Liberal Arts Alliance. His work aims to advance understanding of how media shapes perceptions of climate change and empower critical engagement with environmental media.

Program and Book of Abstract

The program can be found here; the book of abstracts can be found here.

Contact

For questions, please contact the organising team at: dn33rome2026@gmail.com

Selected References

Bortoluzzi, M., & Zurru, E. (Eds.). (2024). Ecological communication and ecoliteracy: Discourses of awareness and action for the lifescape. Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350335851
Boykoff, M. T. (2008). Media and scientific communication: A case of climate change. In D. G. E. Liverman, C. P. G. Pereira, & B. Marker (Eds.), Communicating environmental geoscience (pp. 11–18). Geological Society of London. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP305.3
Carvalho, A. (2007). Ideological cultures and media discourses on scientific knowledge: Re-reading news on climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 16(2), 223-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662506066775
Carvalho, A. (2010). Media(ted) discourses and climate change: A focus on political subjectivity and (dis)engagement. WIREs Climate Change, 1(2), 172-179.
Carvalho, A., & Burgess, J. (2005). Cultural circuits of climate change in UK broadsheet newspapers, 1985–2003. Risk Analysis, 25(6), 1457–1469. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2005.00692.x
Carvalho, A., & Peterson, T. R. (Eds.). (2012). Climate Change Politics: Communication and Public Engagement. Cambria Press.
Carvalho, A., van Wessel, M., & Maeseele, P. (2017). Communicating the Environment: Challenges and Futures for Environmental Media and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan.
Catenaccio, P., Garzone, G., & Reisigl, M. (2023). Introduction. Dimensions of framing: Representation, cognition, interaction [Editorial]. Textus, 1(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.7370/108616
Charteris‑Black, J. (2018). Analysing political speeches: Rhetoric, discourse and metaphor (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Charteris-Black, J. (2021). Crisis and Coronavirus: Metaphor, Symbol and Schema. Cambridge University Press.
Corner, A., Whitmarsh, L., & Xenias, D. (2012). Uncertainty, scepticism and attitudes towards climate change: Biased assimilation and attitude polarisation. Climatic Change, 114(3-4), 463-478.
Cox, R., & Pezzullo, P. C. (2019). Environmental communication and the public sphere (5th ed.). Sage.
Demata, M. (2017). Representations of climate change refugees in The Guardian and The New York Times. Anglistica AION, 21(2), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.19231/angl‑aion.201722
Deriu, F. (2024). Sustainable green educational paths in the Italian higher education landscape: An analysis of green degree programmes. Sustainability, 16(13), 5497. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135497
D’Orto, E. (2025). Narrativity and climate change education: Design of an operable narrative framework. Sustainability, 17(4), 1587. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041587
Dryzek, J. S. (2013). The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Entman, R. M. (2004). Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy. University of Chicago Press.
Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and Power (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.
Hajer, M. A. (1995). The politics of environmental discourse: Ecological modernization and the policy process. Oxford University Press.
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2019). Media and Communication Research Methods (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Hulme, M. (2009). Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511841200
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2021). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Lakoff, G. (2010). Why it matters how we frame the environment. Environmental Communication, 4(1), 70-81.
Lorenzoni, I., Nicholson-Cole, S., & Whitmarsh, L. (2007). Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environmental Change, 17(3–4), 445–459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.01.004
Machin, D. (2013). What is multimodal critical discourse analysis? Critical Discourse Studies, 10(4), 347-355.
Moser, S. C. (2010). Communicating climate change: History, challenges, process and future directions. WIREs Climate Change, 1(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.11
Nerlich, B., Koteyko, N., & Brown, B. (2010). Theory and language of climate change communication. WIREs Climate Change, 1(1), 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.2
Pearce, W., Holmberg, K., Hellsten, I., & Nerlich, B. (2014). Climate change on Twitter: Topics, communities and conversations about the 2013 IPCC Working Group 1 report. PLOS ONE, 9(2), e87431.
Pink, S., Horst, H., Postill, J., Hjorth, L., Lewis, T., & Tacchi, J. (2016). Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice. Sage.
Russo, K. E., & Bevitori, C. (2023). Environment, climate and health at the crossroads: A critical analysis of public policy and political communication discourse in the EU. In P. Cap (Ed.), Handbook of Political Discourse (pp. 328–344). Edward Elgar.
Russo, K. E., & Bevitori, C. (2024). The language of crisis in the “virocene”: A critical corpus-informed analysis of COVID-19 and climate change discourse in the EU. Iperstoria, (23). https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2024.i231444
Sonetti, G. (2020). A review of current strategies within Italian universities’ education for sustainability initiatives (2016–2019). Sustainability, 12(13), Article 5246. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135246
Sterling, S. (2011). Transformative learning and sustainability: Sketching the conceptual ground. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 17-33.
Stibbe, A. (2021). Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Sultana, F. (2022). Critical climate justice. The Geographical Journal, 188(1), 118-124.
UNESCO. (2020). Education for sustainable development: A roadmap. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374802
UNESCO. (2021). Getting every school climate-ready: How countries are integrating climate change issues in education. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379566
van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and power. Palgrave Macmillan.
Whyte, K. (2017). The Dakota Access Pipeline, environmental injustice, and U.S. colonialism. Red Ink, 19(1), 154-169.
Wodak, R. (2021). The Politics of Fear: The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse. Sage.

We look forward to welcoming you to Rome!

Organizer

Marina Brancaccio and Cristina Benicchi

Institution

Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT)

Contact person

Marina Brancaccio

Contact person email address

dn33rome2026@gmail.com

Network

DiscourseNet

Internet address

https://discourseanalysis.net/DN33

ALED-DN2026 - Panoramas discursivos: voces, perspectivas, retos y desafíos en sociedades de crisis globales

jangermuller — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 15:46:37 +0000

ALED-DN2026 - Discursive panoramas: voices, perspectives, challenges in societies of global crisis Johannes Angermuller Sat, 08/30/2025 - 11:02

Category

Conference

Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
BUAP
Puebla, Pue.
Mexico

Date

Tuesday, 25 August 2026 - Friday, 28 August 2026

Call for papers ending on

Sunday, 15 March 2026

Poster

Home · Announcements · Contributions · Tourist Information · Keynote Speakers

OBJECTIVE

This congress aims at bringing together research and reflections that critically analyze discourses that emerge, circulate, and transform in contexts of global crises. Through interdisciplinary approaches, it seeks to explore how different voices—whether institutional, media, academic, artistic, or community-based—shape meanings, construct realities, and dispute narratives about the challenges faced by contemporary societies. The event proposes a space to make diverse perspectives visible, including those traditionally silenced, in order to understand the discursive dynamics that accompany processes of conflict, resistance, exclusion, or social transformation in a world marked by uncertainty and change.

PROPOSAL REGISTRATION:

ALED-DN 2026 - ConfTool Pro

THEMATIC AXES

Discursive configurations of crisis in political, social, health, or climate contexts
Discursive genres in times of crisis
Ideology and meaning-making in crisis discourses
Mediatized discourses
Reception, appropriation, and resignification of crisis discourses
Institutional narratives and counter-discourses in digital networks
Affect, trauma, and emotionality in crisis discourses
Discourse, memory, and agency in the face of crisis

Official languajes: spanish, english, portuguese and french

Organizer

Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios del Discurso (ALED); DiscursoNet. Associação Internacional de Estudos do Discurso (DN); Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP)

Contact person email address

aleddn2026@gmail.com

Report

ALED-DN_Panoramas_Convocatoria_THIRDCALL_EN.pdf597.6 KB

ALED-DN_Panoramas_Convocatoria_SECONDCALL_EN.pdf553.1 KB

ALED-DN_Panoramas_Convocatoria_ENGLISH.pdf533.67 KB

DN Congress - Discursive Imaginaries of Change: Heterotopias, Power, Knowledge, and the "Great Transformation"

ThomasJacobs — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:47:32 +0000

DN Congress - Discursive Imaginaries of Change: Heterotopias, Power, Knowledge, and the "Great Transformation" Thomas Jacobs Fri, 04/10/2026 - 16:47

Category

Conference

Philipps-Universität Marburg
Marburg
Germany

Date

Monday, 19 July 2027 - Thursday, 22 July 2027

II International Symposium of the Centre of Discourse Studies: Discourses of Power, Resistance, and Reaction in the Global Era

Lucia de la Presa — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:48:18 +0000

II International Symposium of the Centre of Discourse Studies: Discourses of Power, Resistance, and Reaction in the Global Era Lucia de la Presa Tue, 03/31/2026 - 15:48

Category

Conference

Date

Tuesday, 19 May 2026 - Thursday, 21 May 2026

Registration deadline

Sunday, 17 May 2026

Poster

General registration is now open for the II International Symposium: Discourses of Power, Resistance and Reaction in the Global Era. This event will take place online, from May 19th to the 21st, 2026. The purpose of the symposium is to offer an interdisciplinary and international platform for dialogue and exchange on the ideological and discursive tensions shaping today’s polarized world.

The symposium will be structured in the following three thematic days:

"Discourses of far-right political groups and reactionary movements: construction of the enemy, victimization, and radicalization"
"Social movement discourses: strategies of resistance, rearticulation, and construction of the commons"
"Human rights as a discursive field in dispute: resignifications, appropriations, and exclusions"

The program includes daily keynote lectures, roundtable discussions, and sessions featuring selected paper presentations. The official languages of the event are English and Spanish.

Confirmed Keynote and Roundtable Speakers:

Ariadna Estévez (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Daniel N. Silva (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina)
Karina Ochoa (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco)
Manuela Caiani (Centre on Social Movement Studies, Università di Firenze)
Manuela Romano (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
María Martínez Lirola (Universidad de Alicante)
Michal Krzyzanowski (Uppsala)
Michelle Lazar (National University of Singapore)
Mirta Antonelli (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)
Óscar García Agustín (Aalborg University)
Paolo Gerbaudo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Ruth Wodak (Lancaster University)
Simon Goodman (De Montfort University)

Registration open until May 17th: https://forms.gle/zpgYPQwa4n86zdvy6

Registration prices:

€30 for general public
Free for CentreDS Global or Local Members

More information about the symposium, including the full program, can be found on the following webpage: https://www.discoursestudies.org/iisymposium

Centre of Discourse Studies

Institution

Centre of Discourse Studies

Contact person

Lucía de la Presa

Contact person email address

delapresa@discoursestudies.org

Flyer

2nd Circular_II Symposium of the CentreDS.docx.pdf1.01 MB

Program

2nd Circular_II Symposium of the CentreDS.docx_0.pdf1.01 MB

Report

2ª Circular_II Simposium del CentreDS.docx.pdf1.02 MB

Internet address

https://www.discoursestudies.org/iisymposium

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

mdanganh — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:40:38 +0000

DI14: Diskurs – discourse – diskurssi – discours. Bringing discourse studies into translingual dialogue Mark Dang-Anh Tue, 03/24/2026 - 15:40

Category

Conference

Turku
Finland

Date

Thursday, 22 October 2026 - Friday, 23 October 2026

Registration deadline

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Call for papers ending on

Thursday, 30 April 2026

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.

Hanna Acke (Åbo Akademi University)
Silvia Bonacchi (U Warschau)
Mark Dang-Anh (IDS Mannheim)
Simon Meier-Vieracker (TU Dresden)
Ingo H. Warnke (U Bremen)

Institution

Åbo Akademi University

Contact person

Hanna Acke

Contact person email address

hanna.acke@abo.fi

Network

Diskurs – interdisziplinär

Cfp Call for papers

CfP - DI 14 Åbo_Turku_final.pdf180.35 KB

Internet address

https://www.ids-mannheim.de/diskurs-interdisziplinaer/

20th International Pragmatics Conference

Jef Verschueren — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:00:55 +0000

20th International Pragmatics Conference Jef Verschueren Wed, 03/18/2026 - 23:00

Category

Conference

The University of Helsinki
Fabianinkatu 33
00014 Helsinki
Finland

Date

Sunday, 27 June 2027 - Friday, 2 July 2027

Registration deadline

Sunday, 20 June 2027

Call for papers ending on

Friday, 5 June 2026

The Call for Papers is now open for panel proposals, posters and lectures at the 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA2027), held at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, from 27 June to 2 July 2027.

Deadlines

-Deadline for panel proposals: 5 June 2026 (midnight CEST)

- Contributions to accepted panels, and submissions for posters and lectures must be sent in by 15 October 2026 (midnight CEST)

See https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027 for all details regarding the submission procedure

As usual, the conference will be open to all topics relevant to the field of linguistic pragmatics in its widest sense. In addition, the following special theme will be focused upon:

Building Bridges

In recent years, antagonism, conflict, and polarisation have been on the rise, in societies as well as in language use. Divisive language use occurs across contexts, but this trend is particularly evident on social media platforms, where polarising language practices are rampant. The field of pragmatics is uniquely positioned to understand these issues, raise awareness, and explore ways to mitigate their effects.

We invite researchers to engage in discussions on how antagonism, conflict, and polarisation can be addressed through pragmatic approaches. How can we use our understanding of language and communication to foster more harmonious interactions and reduce societal divides? What role do intercultural and multilingual practices play in seeking common ground and mutual understanding?

Additionally, the metaphor of "building bridges" extends to fostering connections between pragmatics and other linguistic fields, such as applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics. The conference organizers also hope to strengthen interdisciplinary ties with other scientific disciplines, including sociology, social psychology, and political science.

Please visit https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027 for all details about the IPRA2027 conference and the submission procedure

International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)

Institution

University of Antwerp

Contact person

Olga Krasnoukhova

Contact person email address

olga.krasnoukhova@pragmatics.international

Cfp Call for papers

Call for Papers.docx18.94 KB

Program

Program overview.docx19.06 KB

Internet address

https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki

CfP - Online Discourse of Gender-Based Violence International Conference

ofoubert — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 13:11:00 +0000

CfP - Online Discourse of Gender-Based Violence International Conference Océane Foubert Tue, 03/17/2026 - 14:11

Category

Conference

Amiens
France

Date

Wednesday, 13 January 2027 - Friday, 15 January 2027

Call for papers ending on

Thursday, 30 April 2026

Call for papers

The very first days of 2026 have witnessed the proliferation of Grok AI-generated deepfakes on X. Over the past decade, institutional reports have constantly reported the presence of gender-based violence online (e.g. Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2016; UN Human Rights Council 2018; Amnesty International 2020; Haut Conseil à l’Égalité 2024). In 2017, the European Institute for Gender Equality estimated that one in ten women had already experienced a form of cyber violence since the age of 15 (EIGE 2017: 1), encompassing cyber stalking, cyber harassment, gender-based hate speech, and non-consensual intimate image abuse (EIGE 2022).

Online gender-based violence is a widespread, cross-cultural issue. Social media platforms enable the rapid spread of harmful discourse and the emergence of online communities united by hostility toward particular social groups, such as women and LGBTIQ+ people. A notable example of this phenomenon is the (neo-)manosphere (Gerrand et al. 2025), which has received growing interest from linguistics researchers in recent years . This rich literature has focused particularly on English-speaking communities (see Czerwinsky, 2023 for an overview), where researchers have examined discursive representations of masculinity, femininity (Heritage & Koller 2020; Iveson & Formato 2022; Krendel et al. 2022), and feminism (Aiston 2024;), as well as the lexicon (e.g. Ging et al. 2020; Gothard et al. 2021; Bogetić 2023).

While there is research on these discourses outside the English-speaking world, such as in Turkey (Denir & Tiryaki 2024) or Spain (Fernández et al. 2023), it is not always conducted within the field of linguistics. Notable exceptions include Huang (2023) and Bao (2024), who observed the expression of anti-feminism on Chinese social media. Applying critical discourse analysis, Huang (2023) identified strategies demonising feminists, such as representing feminists as deviant women. More specifically looking at metaphors used to represent feminism, Bao (2024) found that war metaphors were the most frequent, thereby presenting it as a threat to be eliminated. Within this still limited body of linguistic research outside the English-speaking world, a few additional studies can be noted. From a comparative and intercultural perspective, Anastasi et al. (2023) analysed the dynamics of interactions within online Incel communities in Italian and English. Adopting an approach that combines natural language processing and feminist studies, their thematic exploration highlights variations both in the topics discussed and in the targets of hateful content. Incel discourse has also been characterised, among other features, by a neoliberal market logic extended to the domain of sexuality (Scarcelli 2021). In this context, Anastasi and Fragalà (2025), examined how dating applications such as Tinder are discursively constructed within the Italian incel community.

Even within the field of linguistics, most research has focused on lexical cues of gender-based violence, highlighting how antifeminist ideology is constructed through specific terminology among incels (Bogetić 2023), or made visible through collocation patterns (Krendel et al. 2023). Nevertheless, as Kwarteng et al. (2022) concluded in their study of online misogynoir, automated hate speech detection through lexical items is insufficient to address covert or intersectional forms of misogyny, emphasising the need for contextualised pragmatic analyses. Krendel (2023), through an analysis of speech acts in alleged self-help posts from the manosphere group r/TheRedPill, aptly showed how the frequency of face-threatening speech acts made the community less supportive than the overt lexicon of self-help and personal improvement might otherwise suggest.

As noted by Colliver (2024), little attention has been paid to the discourse and experience of online violence against trans people. While research in this area remains limited, two key aspects of online discourse can be mentioned: the role of algorithmic recommendations and the impact of content moderation. Focusing on algorithmic recommender functions, Baker et al. (2024) demonstrated that transphobic content is frequently recommended to boys and young men on Youtube and TikTok. Regarding content moderation, Are & Gerrard (2024) argued that TikTok’s policies toward trans users’ content can perpetuate harm through censoring and flagging trans’ users posts as potentially offensive, effectively constituting an act of violence.

While originally rooted in the grievances of "angry white men" (Kimmel 2013), the (neo-)manosphere and its anti-gender ideology are now conveyed and promoted by diverse audiences: white incels represent a minority of the incel.is users (Gerrand et al. 2025), while researchers also note the emerging "black manosphere" (Awwal 2024; Procope Bell 2024) and promotion of misogyny and hegemonic masculinity within online gay spaces (Leeder 2024). Women themselves, either as "tradwives" influencers, ‘pink pilled’ anti-feminist activists or femcels can also engage with and produce misogynistic discourses (Bauer 2024; Anastasi 2022). This diversity requires researchers to pay close attention to the specific characteristics of the group under discussion - including their linguistic characteristics, preferred topics, and intended audiences - and consider how these elements contribute to diverse manifestations of online gender-based violence.

As mentioned above, recent developments in technology are also leading to other forms of gender-based violence discourse online, particularly through the use of AI (Copley et al. 2025) and, more specifically, the creation of deepfakes (Karagianni & Doh 2024). A discourse analysis of online misogyny was carried out by Lee (2025), with a focus on mass and social media discourses surrounding the 2024 'deepfake porn' scandal in South Korea. Results showed that male-dominated online communities were responsible for the construction of narratives that place a strong emphasis on instances of male victimisation and the subsequent attribution of blame to women.

Building on this literature, this international conference aims to bring together linguists working on the interplay between online discourse and gender-based violence, with a particular focus on the latest developments in technology, transphobic discourse, and discourse outside English-speaking communities, among other topics.

We invite papers on, but not limited to, the following themes:

non-English speaking communities
diversification of the participants
transphobic discourse
latest developments in technology
antifeminism
intersections in hate speech

In addition to paper presentations (20-minute presentation + 10-minute Q&A), there will be a round table discussion dedicated to young researchers working on these topics. A workshop will also be organised to give those who wish to do so the opportunity to discuss the emotional work that can arise from this type of research.

Practical information

Submission is to be done via a login on the conference website: https://odgbv27.sciencesconf.org/
deadline: April 30th
format: Abstracts must be no longer than 500 words (excluding references) and must be anonymous.
languages: English and French (if you decide to present in French, we encourage you to have support material in English)

Océane Foubert (UPJV)

Natacha Marjanović (UPJV)

Jessica Aiston (Queen Mary University of London)

Laure Lansari (UPJV)

Ariane Robert (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

Noémie Trovato (Université Paris Cité)

Institution

University of Picardy Jules Verne

Contact person

Océane Foubert

Contact person email address

oceane.foubert@u-picardie.fr

Internet address

https://odgbv27.sciencesconf.org/

Beware of the Stereotype: Categories, Generalizations and Clichés in Journalistic Language and Journalism Practice

martina.temmerman — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:07:08 +0000

Beware of the Stereotype: Categories, Generalizations and Clichés in Journalistic Language and Journalism Practice Martina Temmerman Mon, 02/23/2026 - 11:07

Category

Conference

Brussels, The AfricaMuseum
Leuvensesteenweg 13
3080 Tervuren
Belgium

Date

Thursday, 3 December 2026 - Friday, 4 December 2026

Registration deadline

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Call for papers ending on

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Building on its longstanding engagement with journalism theory and practice, the Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies (BIJU) launches its sixth international conference, devoted to the study of categories, generalizations and clichés in journalistic language and journalism practice. The conference is explicitly multidisciplinary and welcomes contributors from, among others, communication and media studies, discourse and conversation analysis, (cognitive) linguistics, corpus linguistics, translation studies, epistemology, social psychology, and the political and social sciences to share their insights with us on the way stereotypical representations, generalizations, and clichés occur in journalistic language and practice, and on how they are reproduced.

For a linguistic approach of categorization and generalization, the use of generic language will be worth examining. From a linguistic perspective, categorization and generalization are fundamental to meaning making. Generic language enables speakers and writers to refer to categories, formulate general claims and abstract from individual cases. This naturally entails the risk of overgeneralization and stereotyping, or drawing inferences based on overly limited observation, experience or evidence.

This conference aims to critically examine how journalistic language contributes to the formation, circulation and contestation of stereotypes and overgeneralizations, as well as how such processes shape journalistic knowledge production and public discourse.

Stereotypical or biased language in journalism, in connection with gender, religion, nationality, the generic use of pronouns like you and we, the way presuppositions and inferences are conveyed, these are just a few examples of what a linguistic approach to the topic of our conference can focus on.

We welcome submissions from all relevant disciplinary backgrounds approaching the central theme of ‘stereotypes in the news’ from a conceptual, empirical or methodological perspective; using quantitative and qualitative methods, or a mixed-methods design; and looking into journalism practices, products, or audiences. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Generic language use in journalism
Presuppositions and inferences in journalistic language
The linguistic expression of stereotypes and generalizations in journalism
Possible stereotyping effects of LLMs on language use
Stereotypes in relation to epistemology and journalistic truth claims
Critical approaches to stereotyping, disinformation and social or epistemic justice
Standardization, professional routines, and efficiency as drivers of stereotyping
Stereotyping in digital news environments characterized by speed, automation, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic curation
(Visual and multimodal) stereotyping in coverage of gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, culture, and class
The effect of stereotyping on audience attitudes (perceptions of social groups, reinforcing prejudice) Resonance, identification, and resistance among news audiences
Stereotypes within newsroom cultures and professional environments (homogeneity of staff and (epistemic) blind spots, diversity policies and inclusive storytelling)
Stereotypes about journalism and their impact on trust, legitimacy, and democratic engagement

Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies

Institution

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Contact person

Martina Temmerman

Contact person email address

martina.temmerman@vub.be

Cfp Call for papers

cfp Beware of the stereotype.pdf108.13 KB

Internet address

https://www.vub.be/en/event/beware-stereotype

International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language (FTL9)

sofiazakhir — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:28:43 +0000

International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language (FTL9) Sofía Zakhir Puig Fri, 02/13/2026 - 21:28

Category

Conference

Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication, University of Valencia
32 Blasco Ibáñez Avenue
46010 Valencia
Spain

Date

Wednesday, 9 September 2026 - Friday, 11 September 2026

Call for papers ending on

Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to circulate the Second Call for Papers for the 9th International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language (FTL9), which will take place at the University of Valencia (Spain), 9–11 September 2026.

FTL9 continues a long-standing tradition of international forums on figurative thought and language, following previous editions in Thessaloniki, Pavia, Osijek, Braga, Sofia, Poznań, Genoa, and Klagenfurt.

The theme of FTL9 is Blending Minds and Machines: Figurative Language, Creativity, AI, and Computational Linguistics.

While this edition highlights the intersection of figurative language and artificial intelligence, we of course welcome submissions addressing figuration more broadly, across linguistic structure (morphology, lexis, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), discourse domains (e.g. politics, media, science, education, law, literature, healthcare), multimodal communication (gesture, image, digital media), humour and rhetoric, cognitive development and pedagogy, corpus-based and experimental approaches, cross-linguistic and sociocultural perspectives, and theoretical accounts of metaphor, blending, persuasion, ideology, and creativity.

We warmly invite proposals for individual papers and themed sessions from a wide range of theoretical, empirical, and applied perspectives, including cognitive linguistics, AI and computational linguistics, translation, multimodal communication, cognitive science, and related fields.

📌 Deadlines
– Theme session proposals: 15 February 2026
– Abstract submission (general and themed sessions): 31 March 2026

📌 Languages of the conference: English, French, Spanish, or Catalan.

📌 Publication opportunities:
A selection of conference papers will be published in:

An international edited volume (Q1 SPI)
A special issue of an international peer-reviewed journal

All submissions will undergo external peer review. Participation in publication is optional.

Further information and submission details can be found here:
https://cogclare.com/call-for-papers-ftl9/

We very much hope this call will be of interest and look forward to welcoming many of you to Valencia.

With best regards,
FTL9 Organising Committee

Convenor: Andreea Rosca
Organizing committee: Maria-Josep Cuenca, Inmaculada Garnes Tarazona, Montserrat Esbrí Blasco & Sofía Zakhir Puig

Institution

Research group on Applied Cognitive Linguistics (CLaRe), Department of English and German-University of València, IULMA, John Benjamins Publishing, Generalitat Valenciana

Contact person email address

clarecog@uv.es

Digital Humanities: (In)convenient Practices, Limits, and Perspectives

Elena M. Vercelli — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:38:24 +0000

Digital Humanities: (In)convenient Practices, Limits, and Perspectives Elena Margherita Vercelli Sun, 02/08/2026 - 15:38

Category

Conference

Genova GE
Italy

Date

Monday, 25 May 2026 - Tuesday, 26 May 2026

Call for papers ending on

Monday, 2 March 2026

The conference Digital Humanities: (In)convenient Practices, Limits, and Perspectives aims to explore the potential, challenges, and implications of digital technologies in various fields of the arts, linguistics, literature, and education. The initiative aims to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and promote new connections between PhD students from different research backgrounds, in a manner fully consistent with the vocation of Digital Humanities.  

The programme includes four thematic panels that reflect the doctoral curricula, described below. There will also be keynote speakers of national and international renown.

The Call for Abstracts is available at this link.

All proposals must be sent in .docx and .pdf format to the following email address: giornatadh@unige.it.

Deadline for submitting long abstracts (1000–1500 words): 2 March 2026.

The conference will be held in person and is especially aimed at PhD students and early-career postdoctoral researchers.

Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Selected authors will be invited to present their contributions in thematic sessions.  The maximum duration for each presentation will be 15 minutes. Each block of thematic presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.

Contributions will be reviewed and, if accepted by the scientific committee, presented during the conference and subsequently published in a volume edited by Genova University Press.

Art, performing arts and heritage

Immersive Experiences and Virtual Museums;
Digital technologies for archiving and documentary heritage; 
Digitisation and analysis of artistic and architectural heritage;  
Performing and multimedia arts;

Linguistics, translation and language technologies

Technological impact on translator's training;
Linguistic variation;
Between past and present for an analysis of the territory;
Hybrid workflows MT+LLM;
Troubleshooting in research processes.

Literary and cultural research

Computational analysis and interpretative models;
Hybrid narratives, between literature, media and interactivity;
Bias in corpora and digital editions;
Teaching literature in a digital environment;
Bias in algorithms and computational tools;

Teaching technologies and new learning environments

Teaching and Artificial Intelligence;
Digital Skills and Active Citizenship;
‘A Game-Changing Factor’: gaming as an educational tool;
Digit‘ALL’ inclusive: digital technologies for inclusive teaching;
Digital Subjects and Cultures

Contact person email address

giornatadh@unige.it

Internet address

https://digitalhumanities.phd.unige.it/en/node/1313