2nd International Conference
for Young Researchers

Beyond Language 2021

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.

BEYOND LANGUAGE: a scholarly rendezvous

The time has come when young BL scholars supported by their mentors from across the globe gather for two days of intense discussion on the role of language, its function, power, and its heritage. This year we migrate from Rome, where the first BL Conference was held last year, to Kraków, whose Jagiellonian University hosts this year’s edition.

Due to the continuing global quarantine, this year’s gathering is yet again held in the virtual world, chaired by Prof. Piotr Chruszczewski and Prof. Izabela Gatkowska.

MAY 31, day 1

The opening plenaries revolved around islands, taking us from multilingual Malta to Jamaican creoles. Prof. Ray Fabri (University of Malta) talked about “Perceived, ideal and real multilingualism: the languages of Malta,” while Dr. Aleksandra R. Knapik (Committee for Philology, PAN/ Wrocław, Poland) discussed “Cultural and Linguistic Exponents of Selected Caribbean Languages: The Case of Jamaican Creole.”

REPORTS from academic frontiers: The first day of this Beyond Language conference reflected the present state of world affairs that occupy our minds nowadays, the majority of reports tackling the role of language in politics, conveying the national memories, and the language’s impact in a broader sociolinguistic perspective:

• “Politics beyond language: towards the sensualities of voice and taste” by URSZULA LISOWSKA (University of Wrocław, Poland);
• “Messermänner and Parasiten: a short analysis of the role of metonymic and metaphoric patterns in shaping ‘immigrants’ stereotypes in German political discourse” by CIRO PORCARO (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy);
• “Russia is not an adversary: The negation and the construction of social meaning in the French press discourse” by AGATA RĘBKOWSKA (University of Wrocław, Poland);
• “Proximizing the enemy in American presidential war discourse” by LESZEK WOJCIESZEK (University of Wrocław, Poland);
• “The written manifestations of the women’s strike in the light of Béatrice Fraenkel’s concept of the writing event” by DOROTA UCHEREK (University of Wrocław, Poland);
• “On linguistic rights in the context of linguistic discrimination” by EMILIA PRZEOR (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland);
• “A content analysis of COVID-19 pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine Internet memes in Poland” by KATARZYNA BUCZEK (Opole University, Poland);
• “On the irony-affect interface in political discourse” by MARTA STRUKOWSKA (Poznań University of Technology, Poland).

LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE and beyond: BL scholars also research and explore the language of literature, cf.:

• “Gulag lexicon as a site of memory in Julija Voznesenskaja’s The Women’s Decameron” by VALENTINA BAGOZZI (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy);
• “Research on contemporary literary awards: between literary criticism, sociology of literature and the economics of culture” by AGNIESZKA BUDNIK (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland);
• “Artistic conceptualization of national space in Romanticism: William Wordsworth’s poetic model of Motherland” by NATALIA ROMANYSHYN of (Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine)
• “The area of memory in thanatological discourse” by KAROLINA WOJTCZAK (University of Wrocław, Poland).

APPLIED ARTS and audiovisuality: A major part of our academic life in the BL community oscillates around applied arts and audiovisuality, which shows in the reports, cf.:

• “The impact of virtual reality on society” by MACIEJ DYMCZYK (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland);
• “Linguistic fieldwork and tabletop wargaming: Acquiring ethnographic data within a gaming community” by JACEK MIANOWSKI (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland);
• “The ministry of silly walks: Political colors of humor” by AGATA FIGIEL, independent researcher;
• “Humor as a challenge in audiovisual translation: On the material of the Polish version of the French film Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicolas)” by NATALIA LAZREG (University of Wrocław, Poland).

ABOUT THE BL CONFERENCE

BEYOND LANGUAGE is an international conference that aims at integrating international young researchers of language, literature, and culture — understood as pivotal social human behavioral patterns. Conference organizers wish to address, among other issues, the need of investigating minority speech communities, endangered and vanishing languages, literatures and cultures, small languages, pidgins and creoles, as well as narrowing down the scope of study of cultural practices performed by the means of language and studies through the scope of contact linguistics and anthropological linguistics.

HONORARY PATRONAGE
This year’s edition convenes under the honorary honorary patronage of Academic Journal of Modern Philology and Æ Academic Publishing.

LINKS:
conference website

BETWEEN TEXT AND CULTURE: wider context

Well-thought anthological connections may undoubtedly serve as convergence points that bring together scholars from different home countries but of similar academic experience. We want to give them space to share their expertise and debate over their research, thus expanding their horizons and helping advance their respective studies. Such is also the prevalent vision behind the Beyond Language series, a true florilegium of the academic thought on concepts extending well beyond language studies, from which the series originated and from where it grew out to encapsulate modern interdisciplinary approaches.

THE BL SERIES

Language is a fascinating phenomenon which notoriously escapes investigators and their analyses. The more challenging and complex the issue is, the more interesting knowledge there is to gain and the more intricate mechanisms there are to be discovered. The Beyond Language series aims at a fresh perspective on “language-and-beyond”-oriented research. We strongly believe that in order to describe language, one has to think outside the box and virtually go beyond it. It is our hope that our readers can also be joining us in that endeavor. The forward searching nature of the series sends the masters and commanders of knowledge to seek out new frontiers.

OUR ANTHOLOGICAL COMPILATIONS

Bożena Gierek, Wojciech Kosior (eds.) (2020) Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes. San Diego, CA: Æ Academic.

Hans Sauer, Piotr Chruszczewski (eds.) (2020) Mostly Medieval: In Memory of Jacek Fisiak. San Diego, CA: Æ Academic.

Piotr Chruszczewski, Aleksandra Knapik (eds.) (2018) Między tekstem a kulturą: z zagadnień przekładoznawstwa [= between text and culture: on translation issues]. San Diego, CA: Æ Academic.

Joanna Stolarek, Jarosław Wiliński (eds.) (2017) Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Literature and Language. San Diego, CA: Æ Academic.