Call for papers: Towards Culture(s) of Dialogue? Communicating Unity in/and Diversity through Language and Discourse, 22-25 September 2020, Warsaw, Poland. Deadline: 29 February 2020.
Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, and the International Association for Dialogue Analysis (IADA) jointly invite submissions to the international conference on dialogue: “Towards Culture(s) of Dialogue? Communicating Unity in/and Diversity through Language and Discourse,” to be held in Warsaw, Poland, 22-25 September 2020.
Intercultural exchange and integration that are now observed in many regions of the world contribute to an ongoing merger of different fields of socio-political life. The aspirations for tighter and maturer trans-national/trans-regional cooperation, fostered by the focus on pluralistic and democratic procedures, are often paralleled with sustained or growing cultural divisions. They are manifest in various discourse-mediated acts of segregation, marginalization and exclusion. Despite the efforts at orderliness, lawfulness and partnership in the public realm, the latter frequently becomes an arena of communicative chaos, misunderstanding, violence and aggression. In the light of the growing cultural and interactive dissonance in different parts of the world, questions arise as to the role of linguistics, dialogue studies, discourse analysis as well as other related humanities in confronting the various forms of communicative antagonism that penetrates both public and private domains.
The aim of this conference is to approach the observed dynamics in global intercultural communication by tracing discourse strategies of modern institutions. Are there any alternatives to oppressive styles and exclusionary rhetoric, as well as to polarised and confrontational stances emerging from them in public and private spheres? Can the ‘closed’ interactive positions be transformed into substantial, efficient and constructive dialogue? How can the ‘unity’-oriented discourse activities compromise, dismiss or accommodate expressive ‘diversity’ in the interaction game? The above problems pose questions as to speakers’ critical language awareness, communicative competence and responsibility in selecting, rejecting, modifying and creating local and global discourse practices. Reflective choices and modelling of these strategies may be constitutive of ‘culture(s) of dialogue’.
Organizers invite linguists, discourse analysts, sociologists, psychologists, political and media scientists, law experts, philosophers, anthropologists, culture mediators (translators, teachers, etc.), as well as other researchers from related disciplines to the multidisciplinary discussion of prospects and limits of mediating human culture(s) through dialogue.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 