Call for papers
The two key concepts of this event are discourse and culture. Showcasing multifarious attributes, culture has been defined by Samovar and Porter (2003: 8) as "the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies, religions, notions of time, roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving."
Despite variation in defining the concept, scholars concur that culture is a multi-layered construct, characterised by patterned routines/behaviours. As a research topic, culture has been approached from various vantage points: anthropology – Levi-Straus (1985), sociology – Geertz (1986), Kottak (2015), linguistics – Kaplan (1996), Halliday (1973), language learning – Scollon & Scollon (1995), child language acquisition – Berman and Slobin (1994), or translation studies – Bassnett (1980), to mention just a few. Discourse, defined as language in use (Brown & Yule 1983), has become “common currency in a variety of disciplines: critical theory, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, social psychology and many other fields” (Mills 2004: 1).
Now, more than ever, globalization encourages communication among people from various cultures. In this context, as Shi-xu contends, “culturally divergent discourses possess the moral-rational force to reflect upon themselves and others (…) and to produce progressive change” (2005: 44).
The aim of this event is to bring together the two strands in this increasingly interconnected world, providing the opportunity to use language comparisons between/among cultures in order to get a deeper insight into the language phenomena around us (Moder 2004: 3). The focus is on cross-cultural discourse patterns, as well as on specific communicative practices within cultures.
We invite discourse scholars from all disciplines, as well as other scholars in humanities and social sciences to contribute with studies that cover, but are not limited to, the following areas:
· Linguistics
· Cultural studies
· Social development
· Translation studies
· Bilingualism/multilingualism
· Culture and language
· Rhetoric
· Sociolinguistics
· Narrative studies
· Discourse and pedagogy
The event encourages scholars to participate in person, but also offers the opportunity of virtual or hybrid presentations. The conference is envisaged as a platform for engaging in a meaningful dialogue that could lead to new interdisciplinary collaborations or practical applications. At the same time, by attending this event, participants can benefit from network opportunities, publication potential or contributions to emerging trends.
Scientific committee
Stanca Măda, Transilvania University of Brașov
Răzvan Săftoiu, Transilvania University of Brașov
Organizing committee
Elena Buja, Transilvania University of Brașov
Cristina Vâlcea, Transilvania University of Brașov
