Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Call for Papers
ESTIDIA (European Society for Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Dialogue)
Dialogue as Global Action: Interacting Voices and Visions across Cultures
25-26 September 2015
Department of Modern Languages for Specific Purposes and Communication Sciences
‘Ovidius’ University, Constanţa, Romania
in partnership with: University of Cyprus, Nicosia; Zayed University, UAE; University of Bucharest, Romania (Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences); ISA (International Sociological Association); AISLF (Association Internationale des Sociologue de Langue Française)

Ovidius University (Constanţa, Romania), a modern and vibrant research university on the Black Sea coast, welcomes dialogue-oriented researchers and practitioners to the 3rd ESTIDIA conference, to be held on 25-26 September, 2015. The conference serves as a discussion forum for researchers and practitioners to showcase their dialogue-oriented work on current societal and community-related issues, and on methodological approaches to dialogue analysis. The aim is to bring together senior and junior scholars and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and professional orientations to critically explore, through dialogue, different perspectives on human thinking, communication strategies, interpersonal relations, socio-cultural traditions, political processes and business interactions by means of theory-based and practice-driven investigations.

Conference Theme
Due to its engaging, emulating and exploratory nature, dialogue is an essential form of human communication, action and interaction. According to Vygotsky (1978), any true understanding is dialogic in nature. As social human beings, we participate in a wide range of dialogues in various contexts and at different levels, in a shared search for increased understanding of issues and phenomena, for questioning ideas and actions, for joint problem-solving. These multi-layered dialogues have dramatically increased with the widespread use of social media, which now enable members of any social, gender, ethnic, racial or cultural group to raise and make their voices heard while articulating current concerns and addressing critical issues of inequality, discrimination, socio-political underrepresentation and misrepresentation. The aim of this conference is to take the local and global dialogue to a higher level by extending its scope and empowering role as a springboard for critical reflection and self-reflection, for in-depth issue problematisation, for multi-voiced interpersonal resonance, for constructive polyphony of intersecting, contradictory and complementary voices. In the Bakhtinian (1981) theoretical tradition, these social voices not only represent the world, they also convey societal norms and moral values. In other words, multiple voices express not only how people see the world, but also how they feel about it.

For a better understanding of how meaning is created through the mechanisms and strategies of dialogue, it is important to investigate how voices are woven in discourse, how themes and voices intermingle in a polyphonic way. One way of understanding the shifting qualities of individual voices as multiple agencies or roles is provided by Goffman’s (1981) concept of participation framework (based on the distinction between author, animator and principal). At the same time, as has been pointed out by Couldry (2010), having a voice is not enough: we need to know that our voice matters, i.e. it has legitimacy. Hence, following Wertsch (1991), we need to realize that in internalizing forms of social interaction, the individual takes on and interrelates with the voices of others, which accounts for the complexity of ‘multivoiced’ dialogues. While joining in a dialogic polyphony of voices, each voice shares a particular experience, viewpoint, or sets of attitudes to reality, all of which are instrumental in shaping actions, interactions and relationships. As a result, dialogue is the locus where different beliefs, commitments, ideologies come into contact and confront each other through the intermediary of intersecting voices.

Authors are invited to present papers on a broad spectrum of research topics (both discipline-specific and multi-disciplinary) that include, but are not restricted to the following:
– Glocal voices in inclusive or exclusive dialogues
– Multiple voices crisscrossing in online dialogue
– Voicing viewpoints in multimodal communication
– Dialogue genres in multi-party interactions (debates, disputes, controversies)
– Voices in dialogue across time and space
– Converging vs. diverging voices in dialogue
– Gendering voices in public and/or private dialogue
– Voices shaping inter-ethnic dialogue
– Voices interacting in cross-cultural dialogue
– Voices that clash, dialogues that break down
– Voices in institutional and non-institutional dialogue
– Inclusive vs. non-inclusive dialogue across cultures and continents
– Public and private voices in sustained dialogue
– Face-to-face and/or virtual trust-building dialogues
– Speaker roles vs. listener roles in dialogic interactions
– Competing and collaborative voices in dialogue
– Legitimizing and delegitimizing voices in dialogue
– Polyphony of voices in harmonious or disharmonious dialogue
– Intertextuality in multi-voiced dialogue

We welcome contributions from diverse fields of enquiry, including linguistics, media studies, journalism, cultural studies, psychology, rhetoric, political science, sociology, pedagogy, philosophy and anthropology.

Keynote speakers
-Prof. Cornelia Ilie, Zayed University, UAE
-Prof. Jonathan Clifton, Université de Valenciennes, France

Thematic Workshops
One thematic workshop has already been set up:
Workshop on “Multiple Visuals, Multiple Visions: Dialogue of signs and sign systems; Multimodality” (presentations in both English and French)
Chair: Prof. Daniela Rovenţa-Frumușani (University of Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract Submission
We invite submissions of abstracts for paper presentations (20 minutes for presentation, to be followed by 10 minutes for questions) to be scheduled in parallel sessions. The abstract should include the name, institutional affiliation and email address of the author(s), the paper title, and four-five keywords. The abstract should be approximately 500 words in length. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by the conference scientific committee according to the following criteria: originality and/or importance of topic; clarity of research question and purpose; data sources; theoretical approach; analytical focus; relevance of findings if already available.

Workshop Proposal Submissions
In addition to paper presentations, thematic workshops are being planned within the framework of the ESTIDIA 2015 conference. Proposals for workshops are invited. They should cover a topic of relevance to the theme of the conference. Proposals should contain relevant information to enable evaluation on the basis of importance, quality, and expected output. Each workshop should have one or more designated organizers. Proposals should be 1-2 pages long and include at least the following information:
– The workshop topic and goals, their significance, and their appropriateness for ESTIDIA 2015
– The intended audience, including the research areas from which participants may come, the likely number of participants (with some of their names, if known)
– Organizers’ details: a description of the main organizers’ research and publication background in the proposed topic; and complete addresses including webpages of the organizers

Important Dates
– Submission of abstracts      March 29, 2015
– Submission of workshop proposals    April 10, 2015
– Notification of acceptance     April 26, 2015
– Registration (early bird)    July 31, 2015

Email submission to:
–Ana Maria Munteanu
–Olivia Chirobocea

Registration fee
The early bird registration fee (by 31 July 2015) is 70 EUR, late registration fee (after 31 July 2015) is 80 EUR. The ESTIDIA membership fee (10 EUR) will be paid at the conference venue. The conference fee includes the book of abstracts, the published conference proceedings, a conference bag, a welcome cocktail, refreshments/coffee breaks and a guided sightseeing tour of Constanţa.

Account holder: ‘Ovidius’ University of Constanța
Bank: BCR Sucursala CONSTANȚA, Train, 68, Constanţa, Romania
SWIFT Code: RNCBROBU
IBAN Code:
RO28RNCB0114032053160001/ EUR
RO71RNCB0114032053160003/ USD

Publication procedure
All accepted papers (following editorial review) will be included in the conference proceedings published in International Journal of Cross-cultural Studies and Environmental Communication (ISSN 2285 – 3324). Authors of selected high quality papers will be invited to submit their papers for publication in Special Issues and regular issues of relevant high-impact international academic journals.