On the occasion of this conference, also sponsored by AIA, the three plenary speakers have agreed to make their lectures freely available via a zoom webinar. This is the link: EASA 2025 Padova plenary lectures: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/81857360208
Faculty of Political Sciences, Communication and Sociology Organisers: Samuel Bennett, Sofia Lampropoulou, Franco Zappettini CDS literature has long scrutinised how migration is discursively constructed and to what societal effect. Research foci have extensively ranged from discrimination and racialisation to the increasing politicization and mediatization of moral panic and resentment towards migrant groups or individuals (van Dijk, Wodak, Krzyzanowski). These different strands of scholarship have provided extremely valuable insights into the discourses of top-down, institutional actors (e.g. government, politicians and mass media) but have focused only to a lesser degree on bottom-up perspectives whether by the civil society, advocate organisations (Lampropoulou, Giaxoglou and Johnson. 2024), or by people with lived experience of migration (Krzyzanowski and Wodak 2010; Bennett 2015). In their close attention to top-down exclusion and racism, then, in some respects at least the predominant research streams in CDS seem to have inadvertently excluded migrant voices and/ or have opted to advocate on their behalf. Moreover, the exclusive attention to dominance and power within CDS has resulted in the neglect of voices of resistance resulting in CDS failing to engage with the very communities, such as migrant communities it seeks to advocate for. As worldwide migratory patterns increase – sustained by economic, social, and environmental pushes – and migration (management) continues to be a highly mobilised topic in public discourses, issues of (political) representation and (lack of) migrants’ agency remain key concerns warranting close scrutiny of the interplay between discourses and social hierarchies. This one-day workshop aims to broaden understanding of migration in discourse with two distinct aims that address gaps in previous research: 1) To offer bottom-up perspectives and highlight discursive affordances for migrant voices and narratives (Hymes, 1996) of their situated subjectivity to be heard, departing from mainstream top-down approaches in CDS. 2) To account for exclusion dynamics and power asymmetries between actors engendered by and reflected in discursive practices on migration. Methodologically we privilege affective and ethnographic approaches to discourse, welcoming interdisciplinary contributions (including from the civil society and outside academia) that take a critical perspective to the issues outlined above. Rather than focusing on one single geographical context, we try to capture the overarching dynamics of different transnational and transcultural realities of migration including but not limited to the effect of diasporas on migrants’ political awareness and the political mobilisation of their social capital, the racialisation and/ or bordering practices in representations of migration mobility, the (mediated) lived experiences of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on the issues outlined above. We welcome all contributions, including working papers. If you would like to join us please send a 300-word abstract to franco.zappettini@uniroma1.it by 20th September. CALL FOR PAPERS Migrants’ voices in discourse: bottom-up perspectives on migration Workshop Faculty of Political Sciences, Communication and Sociology La Sapienza University in Rome, 4th November 2025 Organisers: Samuel Bennett, Sofia Lampropoulou, Franco Zappettini CDS literature has long scrutinised how migration is discursively constructed and to what societal effect. Research foci have extensively ranged from discrimination and racialisation to the increasing politicization and mediatization of moral panic and resentment towards migrant groups or individuals (van Dijk, Wodak, Krzyzanowski). These different strands of scholarship have provided extremely valuable insights into the discourses of top-down, institutional actors (e.g. government, politicians and mass media) but have focused only to a lesser degree on bottom-up perspectives whether by the civil society, advocate organisations (Lampropoulou, Giaxoglou and Johnson. 2024), or by people with lived experience of migration (Krzyzanowski and Wodak 2010; Bennett 2015). In their close attention to top-down exclusion and racism, then, in some respects at least the predominant research streams in CDS seem to have inadvertently excluded migrant voices and/ or have opted to advocate on their behalf. Moreover, the exclusive attention to dominance and power within CDS has resulted in the neglect of voices of resistance resulting in CDS failing to engage with the very communities, such as migrant communities it seeks to advocate for. As worldwide migratory patterns increase – sustained by economic, social, and environmental pushes – and migration (management) continues to be a highly mobilised topic in public discourses, issues of (political) representation and (lack of) migrants’ agency remain key concerns warranting close scrutiny of the interplay between discourses and social hierarchies. This one-day workshop aims to broaden understanding of migration in discourse with two distinct aims that address gaps in previous research: 1) To offer bottom-up perspectives and highlight discursive affordances for migrant voices and narratives (Hymes, 1996) of their situated subjectivity to be heard, departing from mainstream top-down approaches in CDS. 2) To account for exclusion dynamics and power asymmetries between actors engendered by and reflected in discursive practices on migration. Methodologically we privilege affective and ethnographic approaches to discourse, welcoming interdisciplinary contributions (including from the civil society and outside academia) that take a critical perspective to the issues outlined above. Rather than focusing on one single geographical context, we try to capture the overarching dynamics of different transnational and transcultural realities of migration including but not limited to the effect of diasporas on migrants’ political awareness and the political mobilisation of their social capital, the racialisation and/ or bordering practices in representations of migration mobility, the (mediated) lived experiences of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on the issues outlined above. We welcome all contributions, including working papers. If you would like to join us please send a 300-word abstract to franco.zappettini@uniroma1.it by 20th September.
Organizers: Lucio De Capitani & Alessandro Cabiati This conference aims to explore the concept of nature/natural in Robert Louis Stevenson’s work, broadly understood as to intersect with several of Stevenson’s intellectual, ethical and artistic engagements: reflections on literary criticism/style, conceptions of gender and sexuality, visions of science, anthropological and psychological notions of the human, and ecological/ecocritical considerations. It suggests the possibility that the Stevensonian ‘natural’ may also, as a matter of course, evoke its other – the ‘unnatural’ – either to uphold the boundary between the two or, perhaps more intriguingly, to cross it. Connected to this, the conference aims to investigate Stevenson both as a writer of dichotomies/dualisms and of their wild transgressions. Topics include but are not limited to: Proposals (200-300 words) for twenty-minute papers should be sent to the organisers by November 30, 2025 (alessandro.cabiati@unive.it, lucio.decapitani@unive.it). Please include your email address, institutional affiliation, and a short bionote (100 words) Please find the FULL TEXT of the call for papers at: https://www.cfplist.com/CFP/45365
Treviso Campus of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice 28-29 October 2025 The international conference on “Resilience and Adaptation in Intercultural and Educational Mediation: Rethinking Practices in the Era of AI” will be held at the Treviso Campus of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice on 28-29 October 2025. Due to a number of requests, the deadline to submit paper proposals has been extended to 10th September 2025; abstracts of maximum 300 words including references must be sent to mediation@unive.it for evaluation. More details are available on the official conference website: https://www.unive.it/web/en/15642/home The conference intends to explore both professional and non-professional practices in intercultural and educational mediation, with a particular emphasis on community interpreting and educational mediation in academic settings. Discussions will encompass innovative research approaches, adaptation strategies in connection to technological advancements, including AI-powered translation tools, and the evolving role of interpreters as both linguistic and social mediators.
AIA newsletter n. 119 Summer 2025
AIA Newsletter n. 119 Summer 2025 Read More »
CALL FOR PAPERS Workshop: Literature and Sport – Genre and Gender10 December 2025 University of Aosta Valley/onlineThe University of Aosta Valley is happy to announce a hybrid workshop on Literature and Sport – Genre and Gender to be held on 10 December 2025. KeynotesDr. Roberta Grandi, University of Aosta Valley, ItalyProf. Armela Panajoti, University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali”, AlbaniaProf. Angelika Reichmann, Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary Fuelled by such critically acclaimed films as Chariots of Fire (1981), Million Dollar Baby (2004) or Invictus (2009), recently re envigorated discussions of representation have a growing interest in sports in visual media. This interest has produced such insightful analyses of sports’ role in performing gender as for instance Viridiana Lieberman’s Sports Heroines on Film (2015) or various chapters in Sports, Film and National Culture (2021). Nonetheless, no systematic study of this aspect is discernible in literary studies, though relevant texts, like Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (1952) or Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift (2010), abound. In this workshop, we discuss sport(s) in Anglophone fiction, with the aim to analyze the various forms of representations—cultural, social, political—featuring sports in literatures in English since the late 19th century. We scrutinise, specifically, the interrelationships of gender, genre and sports, bearing in mind that genres are “cultural categories” associated “with the cultural practices of the society [i.e. social groups] in which they are produced,” and thus “[w]hen writers make use of a genre which has traditionally been an avenue of expression for another […] group, they attempt to make that form of expression relatable to other […] groups of people.” With a view to publishing the proceedings of the workshop and the ESSE seminar held in Lausanne (2024) on a similar topic as a thematic volume with Palgrave Macmillan, the organisers invite proposals for 20-minute online presentations focussed on issues of gender in sports fiction, including but not limited to:– Performativity of gender and sports– Binary constructions in sports fiction: masculine vs. feminine; heterosexual vs. homosexual– Sports and society: social interaction, power relations, and identity construction—local, national, regional, international—through sports;– The rhetoric of sports: heroes, celebrities and sports discourse in the public sphere;– Gender (under)representation in sports literature Please submit your 250-word abstracts and a short bio-note (about 100 words) to Angelika, Armela and Roberta at reichmanna@gmail.com; armelap@assenglish.org and r.grandi@univda.it by 20th September 2025. Submission deadline for manuscripts (5-7,000 words including notes and Works Cited, parenthetical notes in MLA style): 15th February 2026. Please note that the organisers are also planning to submit the Palgrave book proposal by 15th February 2026.
(Im)politeness plays a crucial role in the analysis of dramatic dialogue, revealing complex aspects of characterization, plot development, and the underlying structure of social harmony or discord. The ways in which characters deploy impoliteness strategies on stage provide insights into power dynamics, relationships, and the negotiation of social boundaries. Beyond its narrative function, impoliteness also serves as an important theatrical tool: it can enhance entertainment, generate humour, and, in the case of mock impoliteness, even express intimacy, affect, or strategic cunning. While dramatic texts have often been overlooked in stylistic and pragmatic studies due to the long-standing debate between text based and performance-based approaches, the increasing availability of filmed stage performances — through platforms such as National Theatre Live, National Theatre at Home, Digital Theatre — has facilitated new analytical possibilities. The integration of multimodal analysis now allows scholars to examine not only the language of dramatic texts but also their performative realization, including prosody, gesture, and spatial dynamics. As Boulton argues, a play is an organic, complex organism: it does not simply signify, but it “walks and talks before our eyes” (1960: 3). This highlights the need to examine dramatic dialogue from multiple perspectives, considering how meaning emerges not only from the text itself but also from its delivery, interactional dynamics, and performative realization. By integrating linguistic, pragmatic, and multimodal approaches, scholars can explore the full range of strategies through which (im)politeness operates in drama—whether in written scripts, staged performances, or filmed versions. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on a wide range of topics related to (im)politeness in dramatic discourse. The main topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: ● The multiple functions of (im)politeness in dramatic representation;● (Im)politeness and characterisation in plays;● Mock-politeness, humour, sarcasm, banter in plays● Multimodal approaches to (im)politeness● (Im)politeness and violence in dramatic discourse● Rhetoric in inter-character dynamics;● Stylistics and narration in drama;● Persuasive discourse;● Taboo language;● Translation of Drama and (Im)politeness Theory; We welcome contributions from scholars in pragmatics, discourse analysis, stylistics, drama studies, multimodal analysis, and related fields. Papers may focus on historical or contemporary drama, as well as on different theatrical traditions. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should be sent as email attachments in .doc or .docx format to valentina.vetri@unisi.it or chiara.ghezzi@unior.it by 15/07/2025. Proposals should include:– full name;– academic position;– affiliation;– email address;– keywords (5 max.)– references (5 max.) Notice of acceptance will be sent by 08/09/2025. Organising and Scientific CommitteeValentina Vetri, Bianca Del Villano, Chiara Ghezzi, Roberto Esposito, Mariaconcetta Mirto, Emma Pasquali, Aoife Beville. CALL FOR PAPERS(Im)politeness on StageMonday 15 – Tuesday 16 December, 2025University of Naples L’Orientale (Im)politeness plays a crucial role in the analysis of dramatic dialogue, revealing complex aspects of characterization, plot development, and the underlying structure of social harmony or discord. The ways in which characters deploy impoliteness strategies on stage provide insights into power dynamics, relationships, and the negotiation of social boundaries. Beyond its narrative function, impoliteness also serves as an important theatrical tool: it can enhance entertainment, generate humour, and, in the case of mock impoliteness, even express intimacy, affect, or strategic cunning. While dramatic texts have often been overlooked in stylistic and pragmatic studies due to the long-standing debate between text based and performance-based approaches, the increasing availability of filmed stage performances — through platforms such as National Theatre Live, National Theatre at Home, Digital Theatre — has facilitated new analytical possibilities. The integration of multimodal analysis now allows scholars to examine not only the language of dramatic texts but also their performative realization, including prosody, gesture, and spatial dynamics. As Boulton argues, a play is an organic, complex organism: it does not simply signify, but it “walks and talks before our eyes” (1960: 3). This highlights the need to examine dramatic dialogue from multiple perspectives, considering how meaning emerges not only from the text itself but also from its delivery, interactional dynamics, and performative realization. By integrating linguistic, pragmatic, and multimodal approaches, scholars can explore the full range of strategies through which (im)politeness operates in drama—whether in written scripts, staged performances, or filmed versions. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on a wide range of topics related to (im)politeness in dramatic discourse. The main topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: ● The multiple functions of (im)politeness in dramatic representation;● (Im)politeness and characterisation in plays;● Mock-politeness, humour, sarcasm, banter in plays● Multimodal approaches to (im)politeness● (Im)politeness and violence in dramatic discourse● Rhetoric in inter-character dynamics;● Stylistics and narration in drama;● Persuasive discourse;● Taboo language;● Translation of Drama and (Im)politeness Theory; We welcome contributions from scholars in pragmatics, discourse analysis, stylistics, drama studies, multimodal analysis, and related fields. Papers may focus on historical or contemporary drama, as well as on different theatrical traditions. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should be sent as email attachments in .doc or .docx format to valentina.vetri@unisi.it or chiara.ghezzi@unior.it by 15/07/2025. Proposals should include:– full name;– academic position;– affiliation;– email address;– keywords (5 max.)– references (5 max.) Notice of acceptance will be sent by 08/09/2025. Organising and Scientific CommitteeValentina Vetri, Bianca Del Villano, Chiara Ghezzi, Roberto Esposito, Mariaconcetta Mirto, Emma Pasquali, Aoife Beville.
This volume deals with a crucial, but underestimated, dimension of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education, namely the students’ language experience and the improvement in English proficiency, the latter being one of the key motivating factors to opt for EMI. The mixed-method case study presented in this volume is a longitudinal investigation of the participants’ language progress, spanning over two academic years. Although English language outcomes are neither mentioned in the definitions of EMI nor in the courses’ syllabi, indeed, the EMI experience provides a large amount of language input for students, which is both assimilated consciously and partly as a result of incidental language learning. On reviewing previous literature on EMI, this book addresses some key questions such as the impact of EMI on the students’ English skills, the increase of proficiency while focused on subject-oriented activities and in particular whether English improvement is voluntary or incidental. The data retrieved from questionnaires and language tests administered to one-hundred medical students enrolled in an Italian university provide valuable insights into the language factor in EMI, which may be usefully exploited and extended to other higher educational contexts. Stefania Cicillini, The Language Factor in English-Medium Instruction (EMI). A Longitudinal Study of Students’ Language Gains, Roma, Carocci, pp. 208 ISBN: 9788829024292, Pp. 208
This book offers a systematic, interdisciplinary investigation into the language of persuasion in contemporary tourism discourse, with a focus on English-language travel boards’ use of Instagram and official websites. Drawing on Corpus Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics, it examines how linguistic and visual resources are strategically deployed to construct idealized representations of destinations and evoke positive emotional responses. Through a multimodal analysis, the volume explores recurring linguistic patterns, the role of platform-specific dissemination, and how discourse constructs power dynamics between destinations and prospective tourists. By combining empirical methods with critical discourse and sociological perspectives, the book sheds light on how emotionally charged, consumer-oriented narratives may reinforce broader socioeconomic inequalities and contribute to unsustainable travel practices. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing debates on digital persuasion and literacy, media framing, and the ideological function of tourism communication, recommending approaches to integrate data-driven, highly persuasive strategies and eco-sensitive narratives. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in discourse analysis, digital communication, tourism studies, marketing, and linguistics, as well as professionals interested in the mechanisms behind strategic, promotional narratives and their potential impact on social and environmental sustainability. Elena Mattei, The Language of Persuasion on Instagram. A Systemic Functional Approach to Multimodal Tourism Discourse. Routledge ISBN 9781032937489 288 Pages 44 B/W Illustrations