In this video of the AIA Interviews series, Federica Campaiola sits down with Elena Mattei to discuss her latest book, “The Language of Persuasion on Instagram: A Systemic Functional Approach to Multimodal Tourism Discourse”. You can watch this interview here and you can find all the series on our youtube channel
Special Issue of Victoriographies: A Journal of the Long Nineteenth Century Guest Edited by Paolo D’Indinosante and Federica Perazzini Games play a significant role in shaping contemporary understandings of the Victorian age across different generations. Yet, although research on Victorian-inspired games has expanded considerably in recent years (see, e.g., Napolitano 2019; Folléa 2020; Crofts 2023; Esser 2024; Beyvers 2025; Beyvers and Faber 2025; Bispo 2026; D’Indinosante 2026), gaming remains peripheral to the field of neo-Victorian studies, which is still predominantly concerned with literature, cinema, and television. This special issue of Victoriographies seeks to redress the imbalance and advance the field by bringing it into sustained dialogue with game studies through a collection of essays on neo-Victorian game and game-related adaptations, appropriations, and transmedia storytelling (Flanagan 2017; Stobbart 2018; Elleström 2019; Fehrle and Schäfke-Zell 2019; Sanders 2026). Building on recent scholarly work exploring the relationship between gaming and the long nineteenth century, including Cameron and Young (2024; 2025) and Pereira (2025), this special issue will constitute the first collective effort to adopt the neo-Victorian as its primary theoretical and analytical lens for examining the diverse intersections and interactions between contemporary global gaming and the Victorian past. It will also be the first collection of essays on Victorian-related games to foreground adaptations, appropriations, and transmedia storytelling as its primary objects of investigation. We invite scholarly contributions that explore and map the relatively uncharted region at the intersection of neo-Victorian studies and game studies. We particularly encourage contributions that examine forms underrepresented in the area of inquiry at the intersection of neo-Victorian and game studies, including analogue games, indie digital games, and (graphic) novelisations of popular Victorian-inspired video games, such as Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft Quebec 2015) and the Dishonored games (Arkane Studios 2012; Arkane Lyon 2016; 2017). We are especially interested in contributions that offer new theoretical and methodological perspectives for analysing and teaching a wider range of previously overlooked neo-Victorian games and related cultural artefacts. We also welcome contributions that foster productive exchanges with recent developments in the field of game studies, particularly feminist, historical, postcolonial, queer, trans, and ecocritical game studies (Shaw 2014; Chapman 2016; Mukherjee 2017; Ruberg and Shaw 2017; Ruberg 2022; op de Beke et al. 2024). Topics may include, but are not limited to: Submission Guidelines We invite abstracts of approximately 300 words, accompanied by a list of works cited and a brief biographical sketch (about 100 words). Abstracts should be submitted as a PDF file to paolo.dindinosante@uniroma1.it by 4th September 2026. Authors will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 21st September 2026. Accepted authors will then be invited to submit full articles by 13th December 2026, which should be 7,000–8,000 words (including endnotes) and prepared according to the journal’s style guide. Accepted authors will also be asked to read the journal’s submission guidelines carefully and to provide an abstract of about 200 words, 5–7 keywords (preferably not all words used in the title) for online searches, and a brief biographical sketch (about 50–100 words). If you have any questions, please write to paolo.dindinosante@uniroma1.it. Timeline For further info, check here
Call for Abstracts ‘Neo-Victorianism and Gaming’ Read More »
This work is a study of current migration narratives within the disciplines of Anglophone Postcolonial Literature and Digital Humanities. Global culture, the proliferation and pervasiveness of telecommunications technologies and new media, particularly the Internet, have substantially affected the act of narrating. The replacement of traditional written language as the primary means of conveying narrative and storytelling is a distinctive feature in: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013); Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (2017); Warsan Shire’s “Home” (2011, 2016, 2017, 2022) and the narratives produced within the “Refugee Tales” project. These literary and digital projects might well be considered avant-garde manifestos against racism, in favour of gender equality, female empowerment and a humanitarian plea for the compassionate treatment of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Maria Festa is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Torino, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Modern Cultures. Her current research focuses on the “Other” in current Western societies through the lens of the Humanities disciplines: English and Anglophone postcolonial literature and its applications in cultural studies, visual studies and digital humanities. Her publications include History and Race in Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood (2020). Foreword by Bénédicte Ledent Cover: PaperbackISBN: 9788869775093Pages: 296Date: 2025Price: $ 33.99 / £ 28.99 / € 27,00
Mariaconcetta Costantini, Ruth Heholt, Gothic Masculinities in the Victorian Age, Cambridge Elements, Cambridge University Press, July 2026 Gothic Masculinities in the Victorian Age explores masculinity and the Gothic in the literature of the long nineteenth century. In recent criticism masculinity in the Gothic is most usually discussed as being fractured, unstable, and threatened. Gothic Masculinities examines this fragmentation of gendered identity, but it also considers other types of arguments and representations of men in Gothic literature. The Gothic (genre and mode) is multiple, shifting, changing, multifaceted, and intertextual, and there are significant differences in the types of masculinity depicted. This Element examines the myth and deconstruction of an idealised conception of one whole, unified, hegemonically powerful masculinity, but it also examines some of the many other identities available within the practices of masculinity. The Gothic has always allowed space for subversion and the unconventional and Gothic Masculinities explores and celebrates some unexpected representations of men and their many different and sometimes surprising forms of masculine identity. https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/gothic-masculinities-in-the-victorian-age/47C0EC66D371DEF1FC08A9686BDA1244
We are pleased to announce that Issue 4 (2026) of the international double-blind peer-reviwed accademic journal Cross-Media Languages. Applied Research, Digital Tools and Methodologies (E-ISSN:2974-8933) is now online: https://ojs.uniba.it/index.php/cml/issue/view/229. The journal explores the intersections between research, critical reflection, and pedagogical experimentation concerning the application of digital tools and methodologies in language education. It adopts a multilingual perspective, welcoming contributions focused on English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, and Polish.Recognizesd by ANVUR in 2025 as a scientific journal, CML also publishes research findings on the use of non-verbal and visual language across different linguistic and cultural contexts, through a variety of genres and text types. The call for papers for the 2027 issue is now open. Details can be found at: https://ojs.uniba.it/index.php/cml/callpapersThe deadline for the submission of abstract proposals is 12th July 2026.Issue 5 (2027) will be published in Spring 2027.
AIA INTERVIEWS In this video of the AIA Interviews series, Caterina Daolio sits down with Sabrina Fusari, University of Bologna, to discuss her latest book, A Corpus Linguistic Approach to Analyzing ‘Empathy’, available in OPEN ACCESS at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003632399
17-18 marzo Università degli studi di Palermo
Cultural Studies from Birmingham to Palermo Read More »
Nicola Pelizzari, Pharmaceutical Discourse in English and Italian: A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 291. ISBN: 1-0364-6224-2 This monograph investigates how language shapes patient understanding in pharmaceutical communication, focusing on patient information leaflets (PILs) in the UK and Italy. Through a corpus-based comparative analysis of over-the-counter and prescription PILs, the book systematically examines key linguistic features – including modality, passive constructions, sentence length, and specialised terminology – and evaluates their potential implications on readability and accessibility. Combining quantitative frequency analysis with close qualitative examination, the study highlights significant cross-linguistic differences in the structure and presentation of medical information. It also explores how national regulatory frameworks influence linguistic choices and how these, in turn, affect patient comprehension. At a methodological level, the book illustrates how corpus-based approaches can be used to investigate complex specialised genres systematically. It also demonstrates how shared communicative aims are realised through different lexico-grammatical configurations across languages and sub-genres, highlighting the interplay between regulatory conventions, medical register, and accessibility concerns. By bringing applied linguistics into dialogue with health communication, the book exposes the communicative tensions between legal compliance and patient-centredness. It argues for more linguistically informed policies and advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration in the production of public-facing medical texts. This work will be of interest to researchers in corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and medical communication, as well as to professionals involved in pharmaceutical writing, public health, and health policy development.
AIA INTERVIEWS SERIES January 2026 In this video of the AIA Interviews series, Carolina Celeste Granini speaks with Daniela Cesiri about her latest book, Communicating Food to Children: Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Perspectives. You can find Daniela Cesiri’s book here
AIA Interviews Series – Carolina Celeste Granini interviews Daniela Cesiri Read More »
Guest editors: Tomasz Kalaga (Kujawy and Pomorze University in Bydgoszcz), Tiziana Ingravallo (University of Foggia), Loredana Salis (University of Sassari) The realities of conflict, including violations of human rights and the struggle for peace, provide rich thematic material for literary works. Literature can serve as a powerful tool for social change by denouncing injustices, fostering empathy, and engaging with injustices via its negotiation of the concepts of truth, reconciliation, and transitional justice. Writers can challenge official narratives surrounding conflict by giving voice to marginalised perspectives, exposing human rights abuses to a wider audience, and making invisible suffering visible. Literature, as an advocate for social change and human rights, raises awareness of ongoing conflicts and offers alternative understandings of historical events and their consequences. Operating through its innate symbolic quality and the power of telling and retelling myths, it can be approached as a dynamic arena capable of unsettling dominant epistemologies, reconfiguring what could be collectively claimed as justice. As a counter-discourse to official histories, literature has the potential to offer new ways of restoring a sense of humanity and shared responsibility by condemning all forms of imperialism and totalitarianism. This issue will reflect on and explore ways in which conflict can be narrated and the extent to which texts of literature contribute to defending or violating human rights. It also reflects on how language can justify and/or ignore human rights transgressions. The issue takes an interest in articles that investigate the ability of literary texts to interrogate and explore the legacies of political and civil conflict around the world as well as creating and (unwittingly) reinforcing hegemonic narratives. We welcome essays on a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, drama, memoir, testimony, speculative and activist writing, as well as works in translation, adaptation, journalism, and visual or digital storytelling. Although articles can address any topic related to literature and human rights, we are keen to receive proposals on five interrelated areas of literary engagement: a) literary depictions of experiences of war, displacement, surveillance, disenfranchisement, or environmental destruction; b) the role of literature in defining and articulating the concept of justice, documenting abuses, bearing witness to trauma, and narrating resistance and reconciliation; c) literary negotiations of power dynamics in conflict settings, including propaganda literature, translation and adaptation of conflict narratives, portrayals of nationalism and resistance movements, and the symbolic language of conflict and resolution; d) the concept of literature as magistra vitae in which historical insight is intertwined with visions of a more just future; e) narrative forms shaped by conflict, including fragmented storytelling and genre innovation, as well as activist literature addressing the intersections of human rights, environmental destruction, and the more-than-human world. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): ● Activist literature: from human rights violations to environmental destruction ● Activist role of literature: models for socio-cultural transformations, inclusive societies, transnational belongings ● Beyond the anthropocentric: rights of species, rivers, forests ● Censorship and dissent: literature as subversion and alternative standpoint ● Entanglements of ecology and power: resource wars, extractivism, forced displacement ● Individual freedom and human dignity vs human rights violations, surveillance, oppression, disenfranchisement ● Journalism, conflict and human rights ● Literature and justice: shaping and reshaping the notion of what is or can be just ● Literary depictions of ecological trauma and conflict: decolonial and indigenous perspectives, ● Literature as an archive of environmental injustice: resistance narratives, testimonies and speculative fiction and non-fiction. ● Magistra vitae: when history and hope rhyme ● Narrating nationalism, nationalists and nationalist causes ● Postcolonial and decolonial perspectives: alternative epistemologies of justice, restitution, and ecological interconnectedness ● Post-traumatic memory ● Propaganda literature ● The language of conflict and conflict resolution: myths and symbols retold ● The role of human rights in research on law and literature ● Translation and adaptation Detailed proposals (up to 1,000 words) for full essays (6,000-8,000 words) as well as a short biography (max. 100 words) should be sent to the editors by 15 January 2026: Tomasz Kalaga (t.kalaga @kpsw. edu. pl), Tiziana Ingravallo (tiziana. ingravallo @unifg. it), and Loredana Salis (lsalis@uniss.it). Selected authors should be able to submit a full-length draft by the end of May 2026, and a final version by mid-September. This issue will be part of volume 31 (2027). All inquiries regarding this issue can be sent to the three guest editors.