CFP Re-imagining Cultural Histories of the Middle East & North Africa (UK)

ConferencesCFP: Re-Imagining Cultural Histories of The Middle East and North Africa. A conference organised by the Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster; The Centre for Global Media and Communications, SOAS; Goldsmiths College, University of London; Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House. 28 June 2018. Deadlines for abstracts: 29 January 2018.

To celebrate 10 years of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication.

Venue: SOAS, University of London

The Arab uprisings of 2011 have awakened interest in studies of cultural creativity and transformations across different historical epochs in the Middle East and North Africa region. However, despite the expanding scholarship, there is a significant gap in knowledge about the diverse cultural histories of the region. The little work there is remains trapped within the narrow Western-centric premise of liberal and modernisation theories that presuppose linear models of cultural, creative and political innovation.

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CFP Widening the Lens: Beyond the Orient & Occident (Dubai)

ConferencesCall for Abstracts: Widening the Lens: Beyond the Orient and Occident in Narrative Perspectives of the East and West. The American University in Dubai, April 5-7, 2018.

We live in an age in which mass media representations of the Middle East have done much to influence Western attitudes toward the region’s peoples and cultures.  Similarly, Middle Easterners’ views of the West have also been affected.  That these representations have so consistently advanced disparaging stereotypes has resulted in an unfortunate legacy of cultural misunderstanding that demands investigation and redress. The literary arts, from the Middle Ages to Modernity have all too often represented cultural differences in ways that have aided in the construction and/or perpetuation of an antagonistic East/West divide.  While the exploration of this divide has been valuable, what is now needed is an exploration of how literature has also engaged in productively complex, nuanced intercultural dialogues that complicate, fracture, and ultimately widen the narrow lens used to frame the relationships between East and West. The conference, Widening the Lens: Beyond the Orient and Occident in Narrative Perspectives of the East and West, seeks to explore how the dialogue between literatures of the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and North America approach, inspire, challenge, and ultimately benefit each other. In other words, this conference intends to consider that literature can help correct the divisions caused by entrenched cultural stereotypes, and that this help can take a myriad of forms.

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CFP Public Relations in a Global Context (Greece)

ConferencesCall for Abstracts: Public Relations in a Global Context, The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), 16th Annual International Conference on Communication and Media Studies, May 14-17, 2018

The Academic Committee of the Athens Institute for Education and research invites scholars to submit paper abstracts for presentation and the 16th Annual International Conference on Communication and Media Studies in Athens, Greece, May 14-17, 2018. The research stream, Public Relations in a Global Context, will allow professors from around the world to address the status of public relations on a global scale by discussing contemporary tops. Specific topic areas may include corporate social responsibility, cross-cultural collaboration, reputation management, crisis communications, citizen diplomacy, global public relations measurement, global media management, technological innovations, freedom of information, professional ethics, and the evolution of the professional on a global scale. The conference is organized by the Mass Media & Communications Unit of ATINER. Prior to January 15, submit 400-word abstracts using the form found at https://www.atiner.gr/med-streams.

You may participate as presenter of one paper, chair or/and organizer of a session, or observer.

CFP Cultural Linguistics (Germany)

ConferencesCFP Cultural Linguistics: Current and Emerging Trends in Research on Language and Cultural Conceptualisations, July 23-26, 2018.  University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany. Deadline: 15 December 2017 (NOTE: extended deadline)

Cultural Linguistics: Current and Emerging Trends in Research on Language and Cultural Conceptualisations is a joint conference co-organised by the 38th International LAUD Symposium
and The Second Cultural Linguistics International Conference.

Cultural Linguistics is an emerging field of research with multidisciplinary origins that explores the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations. Cultural Linguistics draws on and expands the theoretical and analytical advancements in several disciplines and sub-disciplines, such as cognitive psychology, Complexity Science, Distributed Cognition, and anthropology.

Applications of Cultural Linguistics have enabled fruitful investigations of the cultural grounding of language in several domains such as World Englishes, intercultural communication, Teaching of English as an International Language (TEIL), and political discourse analysis. Research carried out within these applied areas has shed significant light on the nature of the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations.

The present conference has the aim to provide a forum for researchers engaging in Cultural Linguistics to present and discuss current studies on the link between linguistic patterns and underlying cultural conceptualisations, the role of cultural conceptualisations in language development and education, as well as interdisciplinary research in the field of critical discourse analysis. It also explicitly encourages a (critical) reflection of emerging trajectories of methodological innovation in more recent empirical research.

We invite submissions to our three parallel thematic sessions:
A) Cultural conceptualisation and the structure of language
B) Applied Cultural Linguistics
C) Cultural Linguistics, Ideologies and Critical Discourse Studies

Proposals are to be submitted via email no later than December 15, 2017 to: laud2018@uni-landau.de

 

CFP SALSA: Culture, Space & Identity

ConferencesCall for Papers: SALSA XXVI: Language in Society: Culture, Space, and Identity, April 20-21, 2018, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Symposium About Language and Society, Austin (SALSA) is an annual symposium promoting the study of language and its intersection with society. Originally created through the joint efforts of students from the Linguistics, Anthropology, and Communication Studies Departments at The University of Texas, SALSA has developed into an interdisciplinary conference with contributions from various fields, including foreign language education, educational psychology, media studies, and language departments, including French & Italian, Spanish & Portuguese, German, and English. Our conference annual proceedings appear in special editions of Texas Linguistic Forum. The deadline for abstract submission is January 14, 2018.

Language is a distinctly human characteristic, central to all human social organization. It is the medium through which humans shape their identities, relate to one another, and construct social realities. The conference will focus on the ways speakers from diverse sociohistorical and cultural backgrounds use language to negotiate their identities in particular spaces. We welcome both diachronic and synchronic perspectives for the study of language in society.

CFP Language Policy Forum 2018 (UK)

ConferencesCall for papers: Language Policy Forum 2018, 31 May – 1 June 2018, at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Deadline extended to 15 January 2018.

The Language Policy Forum 2018 invites scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders to take stock of what language policy means in times of growing diversity. We are especially interested in presentations that discuss dilemmas (language-related problems in the world) and hopes (possible solutions, perhaps as a result of applying research findings).

Language policy permeates all domains of life, from the workplace, to the home and family, to schools, government, and other institutional settings. It materialises as something that enables some people to participate in these domains of life, and constrains others. The BAAL Language Policy group exists to enable dialogue on all areas of language policy research. We therefore encourage theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions from fields such as (but by no means limited to): sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, political philosophy, economics, education, globalisation, and migration. As well as examining diversity within human populations, we encourage discussions of our own diversity of research practices: topics and data, methodologies, and practical applications. We also encourage pedagogical submissions, exploring innovative approaches to the teaching of language policy in higher education.

CFP Europe as a Space for Intercultural Dialogue (Portugal)

ConferencesInternational Congress: Europe as a space for intercultural dialogue and mediation will take place on 26 and 27 April 2018, at the University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.

The II International Colloquium on Social Mediation will be held at the University of Minho in association with the II International Congress of RESMI and the European Mediation for Social Inclusion Colloquium. This event will take place on 26 and 27 April 2018 and addressing the theme “Europe as a space for intercultural dialogue and mediation.” It will be a moment of interdisciplinary debate on the challenges of contemporary society, addressing issues such as migration, diversity, intercultural communication and mediation, with the aim to deepening the construction of more welcoming, inclusive and peaceful societies.

The organizing committee invites all those interested in the theme of the congress to participate with the presentation of papers. Proposals for oral communications and posters  may be submitted.

CFP Global Approaches to Multilingualism (UK)

ConferencesCall for papers for the conference on Global approaches to multilingualism and standardisationMurray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, 16-18 April 2018. Deadline: 30 November 2017.

Proposals are welcomed from Early Career Researchers on any of the conference themes, or anything else that relates to standard languages and language standardization. Proposals are particularly encouraged regarding linguistic contexts which comparatively have received little attention from work on language standardization, or which consider theoretical or methodological issues.

This conference is being organised as part of the AHRC-funded project Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS).

Thanks to the generosity of the Historical Sociolinguistics Research and Training Program, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), we hope to make four awards of up to €375 per person to cover accommodation and travel expenses.

CFP IAICS 2018 Communication & Dialogue: Integrating Global Communities

ConferencesThe International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) is now accepting submissions for the 24th international conference, to be held at DePaul University in Chicago, IL, USA, July 5-8, 2018. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2017.

Conference Theme: Communication and Dialogue: Integrating Global Communities

There are two opposing perspectives that have resulted from today’s globalized world: One that promotes diversity, interconnectedness, and interdependence through open borders and intercultural collaboration as the antidote to the global problems of inequality, terrorism, and climate change. But not all subscribe to this notion, as another, more harmful view is characterized by ethnocentrism, prejudice, xenophobia, and implicit biases, which cause fear, exclusion, alienation, divisiveness, and violence. As intercultural communication scholars, it is our ethical responsibility to identify, analyze, and provide strategies and solutions to these problems and to create inclusive and integrated global communities through engaging intercultural and international dialogues. Integration of communities requires humanity to come together through compassion, empathy, shared values, common interests, and full participation of all people while acknowledging and respecting cultural differences. By sharing research from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives on intercultural and international issues, we can generate new ideas, new ways of thinking, and collective wisdom toward a brighter future.

CFP Our (Digital) Humanity

ConferencesOur (Digital) Humanity: Storytelling, Media Organizing, and Social Justice, 20-22 Apr. 2018, Lehigh University.  Deadline for CFP 15 Nov. 2017.

We are calling on scholars, media makers, public historians, artists, designers, technologists, and social justice activists to submit a session proposal for the Our (Digital) Humanity: Storytelling, Media Organizing and Social Justice conference in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania  April 20-22, 2018.

Submit your session online by filling out this form.  The deadline is November 15, 2017.

Sessions may be proposed under one of the conference’s six tracks.  A track is a series of sessions connected by a shared theme; in this case,