Time and Temporalities. Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives
We are pleased to announce that the 2026 AIA Seminar “Time and Temporalities: Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives” will be held on May 14-15, 2026, at the University of Genoa.
In contemporary theoretical discourse, time is an increasingly central category which conceives of the present as a complex cultural matrix where multiple intersecting temporalities interact and vie for attention. Our two-day seminar on “Time and Temporalities” aims to explore aspects of time as it relates to cultural, literary and linguistic contexts, both historical and contemporary, and from theoretical, applied and experimental approaches. We invite 15-minute papers that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Linguistics
- temporal framing in media discourse;
- new temporal markers in digital communication;
- temporal deixis from the perspective of historical pragmatics;
- the role of pragmatic anchoring of time in discourse;
- temporal cohesive devices in English for Academic and Specialised Purposes;
- temporal adverbs as deictic anchors in written discourse;
- emergent grammar and temporality in interactional linguistics;
- diachronic change of temporal markers;
- conceptual metaphors of time ;
- time as a metonymy of causality;
- diachronic shifts in temporal metaphors;
- time and temporalities in intercultural communication, professional discourse, and ecolinguistics;
- time and temporalities in transmediality;
- translation as temporal mediation: synchrony, diachrony, and recontextualization.
- multimodal conceptualizations of time;
- multilingualism/translingualism in a diachronic perspective.
Literature/Culture
- different conceptualisations of time (cyclical vs linear; religious vs secularised; socio-cultural vs naturalised; deep time vs shallow time…) and the ways they are captured/articulated/reflected upon in literature and other media (early-modern, modern, and contemporary);
- leisure time vs work time;
- time and biopolitical control;
- the denial of the Other’s coevalness as a discursive trope;
- old age and aging;
- issues of periodisation;
- narratological time issues and their cultural implications: analepsis and prolepsis, “meanwhile time”, “time loops”, etc.;
- the manipulation of time; the uses of (deliberate) anachronism;
- non-hegemonic understandings of temporality and temporal organisation;
- the role of affect in perceiving and organising time; the memory boom and its affective and cognitive after-effects;
- subjective experiences of histories (in the digital age);
- the role of institutions, platforms, and individuals in shaping memory;
- algorithmic and automated remembrance;
- creative and speculative approaches to memory;
- temporalities of crisis; acceleration; immediacy; urgency; our ongoing state of hyper-employment;
- future thinking; writing for posterity.
Contributions from established scholars, early-career researchers, and PhD students are welcome.
The oral presentations will be 15 minutes long, followed by 5 minutes for discussion.
Proposals must be uploaded here. It should be of no more than 500 words including references, clearly indicating the research question, data, methods, and major contributions of the study.
In case of problems in the procedure, please refer to Laura Colombino (laura.colombino@unige.it) for the Literature and Culture sessions and to Annalisa Baicchi (annalisa.baicchi@unige.it) for the Linguistics part.
The deadline for submission is 30 March 2026. Acceptance notification will be sent by 15 April 2026.
REGISTRATION FEES
Eur. 90,00 (standard); Eur. 75,00 (PhD students only)
Details on the registration procedures will follow.
We look forward to welcoming you to Genoa and having a productive and enriching conference.
Keynote speakers:
Linguistics: Prof. Martin Hilpert (Università di Neuchâtel) and Prof.ssa Roberta Facchinetti (Università di Verona).
Literature: Prof. Andrew Bennett (University of Bristol)
Cultural Studies: Prof. Fabio Cleto (Università di Bergamo)