CALL FOR PAPERS Performing Identity: Semiotic Representation(s) and the Making of Meaning University of Naples Federico II 3-4 December 2026
Identity is not something we have, it is something we do. It emerges in discourse, takes shape through interaction and becomes legible through the semiotic resources we bring into play across contexts. From everyday conversation to institutional communication, from digital platforms to embodied practices, identity is continuously performed, negotiated and contested. In contemporary societies marked by mobility, digital mediation and ecological crisis, identity is increasingly fluid, relational and multimodal. Language is no longer the sole site of meaning-making: images, sounds, spaces, algorithms and bodies all participate in the production of identities. These processes are never neutral. They are embedded in relations of power, shaping who can speak, how they are represented and whose voices are legitimised or marginalised. At the same time, identities are constituted through intersecting and shifting dimensions, including gender, sexuality, race, class, age and ability, which are not fixed categories but positions continuously reconfigured in discourse. In this sense, identity is always situated: it is produced within specific socio-cultural, political and ecological conditions, and it remains open to transformation, resistance and re-articulation. This conference invites contributions that explore how identities are constructed, performed and reimagined in and through English, across a wide range of contexts and modalities. We are particularly interested in work that pushes beyond established frameworks, interrogates dominant assumption and engages critically with the relationship between language, meaning and power. Rather than treating identity as a stable object of analysis, we encourage approaches that foreground its processual, performative and semiotic nature, as well as its entanglement with material, digital and ecological realities.Possible areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to: discourse and the construction of self and other in media, institutional and public communication gender, sexuality and intersectional identities as discursive and embodied practices multimodal and visual representations of identity across digital and non-digital environments identity work in English language teaching and learning contexts translation, subtitling and dubbing as sites of identity mediation and transformation language variation, attitudes and ideologies in relation to belonging and social positioning corpus-based approaches to identity in authentic and digitally mediated data online identities and digital practices across social media, gaming and virtual spaces ecocritical discourse analysis and ecolinguistic perspectives on identity and the more-than-human world Conference venue and date: The conference will be hosted by the University of Naples Federico II and will take place on 3–4 December 2026. The exact venue will be communicated in the coming weeks. Abstract submission: To contribute to the conference as a speaker, please submit an abstract to the following email addresses: fcavalie@unina.it; aureliana.natale@unina.it; fabio.cangero@unina.it; and performid2026@gmail.com. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should include a maximum of 5 references in APA style. The deadline for abstract submission is 15 July 2026. Conference fee and social dinner:€100 for senior scholars (RTDB, RTT, Associate Professor and Full Professor)€80 for junior scholars (PhD student, Research Fellow, Adjunct Professor and RTDA)€45 for participation in the social dinner.The conference fee should be paid using the following link: https://www.frcongressi.it/pay/user/areapersonale.php?token=5c23b24205a6acf83e2915485bd4226dPayment for the social dinner will instead be made on site. Keynote Speakers:Giuseppe BALIRANO (University of Naples L’Orientale)Encarnación HIDALGO TENORIO (University of Granada) Scientific Committee:Giuseppe BALIRANO (University of Naples L’Orientale)Fabio CANGERO (University of Naples Federico II)Flavia CAVALIERE (University of Naples Federico II)Paolo DONADIO (University of Naples Federico II)Antonio FRUTTALDO (University of Sannio)Encarnación HIDALGO TENORIO (University of Granada)Aureliana NATALE (University of Naples Federico II)Katherine E. RUSSO (University of Naples L’Orientale) Organising Committee:Fabio CANGERO (University of Naples Federico II)Flavia CAVALIERE (University of Naples Federico II)Paolo DONADIO (University of Naples Federico II)Aureliana NATALE (University of Naples Federico II)
