From one medieval city to another, carrying and sharing modern ideas across Europe and beyond. Rome, the site of Sapienza (est. 1303), one of the oldest European universities, hosted the first international conference for young BL scholars in 2020. This year the BL conference takes us to another mecca of academics, Kraków, home for the Jagiellonian University (est. 1364) and current host for the 2nd International Conference for Young Researchers.

We welcome 2020 with the fifth volume in the Beyond Language series. Two imminent scholars invited their colleagues from the global community to join their efforts in commemorating the titan of English studies in Europe, late Jacek Fisiak.

Pleased to unveil the newest addition to the BL series cover collection, all carefully designed with a clear purpose: to showcase the text’s outward face, kindle interest to explore inward, and prompt your eyes to spark with intrigue. Like Venetian masks, our BL mosaics invite you to uncover what’s behind: the non-fiction world of academia.

Conference is the action of bringing together; it involves contribution and comparison of ideas. Understood as a rendezvous, it is often defined as “the act of conversing on serious subjects, formal discourse; oral discussion of any question.”