Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that the 4th conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS) will take place on July 2-4,
2020 at RWTH Aachen University in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), Germany.
IACS 4
2-4 July 2020
SEMIOTIC COMPLEXITIES: Theory & Analysis Aachen, Germany (co-organized with KU Leuven, Belgium) https://iacs4.signges.de/aachen2020/call-papers
Plenary Speakers:
– Morana Alač (University of California, San Diego)
– Riccardo Fusaroli (Aarhus University)
– Sybille Krämer (Free University Berlin)
– Pamela Perniss (University of Cologne)
– Eve Sweetser (University of California, Berkeley)
– Linda R. Waugh (University of Arizona)
– Jordan Zlatev (Lund University)
Pre-conference workshops (July 1st, 2020):
– John Bateman: ‘Multimodal Analysis: Towards semiotically-motivated methodologies for empirical research’
– Cornelia Müller, Jana Bressem, Silva Ladewig: ‘Gesture Analysis’
– Geert Brône & Bert Oben: ‘Eye-tracking in Interaction’
– Jan Alber & Ralf Schneider: ‘Cognitive & Empirical Analysis of Literature’
Important Dates:
Deadlines for submissions (through EasyChair conference tool:
https://easychair.org/cfp/iacs4):
– Theme session proposals: November 15, 2019
– Abstracts: November 30, 2019
– Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2020
The IACS conference series seeks to gather scholars and scientists in semiotics, cognitive science, linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, art history and theory, media studies, and related fields, who wish to share their research on meaning and contribute to the interdisciplinary endeavor of cognitive semiotics. Previous conferences were held in Lund (2014), Lublin (2016), and Toronto (2018).
http://iacs.dk/
Conference theme
The conference theme of IACS4 is “SEMIOTIC COMPLEXITIES: Theory & Analysis”. It aims to account for the complexities of semiosis, that is, for the intricacies of semiotic processes in a broad range of semiotic systems, with a focus on either cognitive, monomodal, crossmodal or multimodal processes of meaning construal. While the theme is rather broad and non-restrictive, it is intended to encourage contributions showing how theoretical frameworks and methods of analysis may mutually enhance each other and thus offer truly new insights into the merits of semiotic inquiry and advance the cross-disciplinary enterprise of cognitive semiotics.
In this light, THEORY here is meant to include influential semiotic theories (as proposed by, e.g. Eco, Greimas, Jakobson, Lothman, Peirce, Saussure), as well as theoretical concepts and principles that are central to cognitive linguistics, general linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and the cognitive sciences more broadly.
ANALYSIS encompasses qualitative, quantitative and experimental methods and tools, as well as mixed-methods approaches developed to derive emerging patterns and regularities but also unique instances of meaning-making in both static and dynamic semiotic fabrics.
Local/transregional organizing committee:
• Irene Mittelberg (RWTH Aachen University)
• Geert Brône (KU Leuven)
• Paul Sambre (KU Leuven)
• Kurt Feyaerts (KU Leuven)
• Gabriele Gramelsberger (RWTH Aachen University)
• Jessica Vaupel (RWTH Aachen University)
Call for Papers (https://iacs4.signges.de/aachen2020/call-papers):
To submit your abstracts, please go to the conference website:
https://iacs4.signges.de
or use this EasyChair link:
https://easychair.org/cfp/iacs4
Topics: Topics of the conference include (but are not limited to):
• semiotic theory
• cognitive linguistics
• cognitive poetics
• cognitive anthropology
• gesture and sign language
• embodied interaction
• ecological approaches to meaning-making
• phenomenology
• embodiment, enaction
• multimodality (e.g. film, music, cartoons, comics, advertisement)
• modality-specificity and crossmodal principles of meaning-making
• narrativity across different media
• semiotics and art history/archeology/architecture/aesthetics
• visual analysis (images, the visual arts, architecture, etc.)
• iconicity and indexicality (incl. viewpoint) in language and other
semiotic resources
• metonymy and metaphor across modalities
• intersubjectivity and mimesis in evolution and development
• linguistic and cultural relativity
• semiotic and cognitive development in children
• biological and cultural evolution of human cognition/communication
• embodiment and spatial cognition
• semiotic foundations of digital humanities
• experimental semiotics
• biosemiotics / neurosemiotics
• technosemiotics (e.g. social robotics)
If you have any questions, please contact us at:
iacs4.2020@signges.rwth-aachen.de
We hope IACS-4 will spur your interest and that we will see you in Aachen next year!
Best wishes – on behalf of all the conference hosts and IACS board members,
Esther Pascual, IACS President