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Hellenic Semiotic Society - ΧΙI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEMIOTICS - call for paper

ΧΙI ΙNTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEMIOTICS
Signs of Europe
Thessaloniki, Greece, 1-3 November 2019

Organized by the Hellenic Semiotic Society,
the School of French Language and Literature
and the Laboratory of Semiotics of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Since antiquity Europe is not so much a place as an idea, a myth, an  
imagination, a sign. Variously conceived and represented throughout  
the centuries by scholars, politicians, artists and travellers, and  
home to the most radical forms both of particularism and universalism,  
exceptionalism and cosmopolitanism, Europe has been consistently  
challenged by diverse kinds of fragmentation, hegemonic expansionism,  
antagonism and contestation, as well as by the recurring question of  
its identity. The European integration project has been widely  
perceived as a watershed in the tumultuous history of Europe, offering  
an internationally unique experiment in transnational governance and  
cooperation.
However, the European integration narratives of reconciliation,  
solidarity and ‘unity-in-diversity’ have proved inadequate and  
controversial. They were contested both from without, by geopolitical  
visions such as the Global South, and from within, especially during  
the recent crisis of the eurozone, of Brexit and of migration. Their  
survival, in the face of the ensuing wave of illiberalism, populism,  
nationalism and nativism across Europe, is becoming more and more  
uncertain.

Since their inception, in 1979, the International Conferences of the  
Hellenic Semiotic Society, have addressed topics directly relevant to  
the concerns and challenges of the day. True to this tradition, this  
particular Conference aims to reaffirm the importance of semiotics as  
an analytical-critical approach to socio-cultural phenomena, and  
encourage the investigation and understanding of the semiotic work and  
practices involved in both the making and the current unmaking of the  
European integration project.

The Conference invites proposals for individual papers (15-20 minutes  
long) or panels (incl. 3-4 individual papers) that relate to the  
following main themes:

I. EU symbolic discourse and practices: the making of EU-identity  
through the diverse symbols, discourses, practices, media and branding  
strategies developed by EU-related institutions.

II. Unmaking the European integration project: investigation of the  
recently revitalized semiotic orders of nationalism and nativism,  
illiberalism and populism, as well as the related phenomena of  
xenophobia, islamophobia, anti-semitism, counter-terrorist rhetoric  
etc, across the different genres of political, cultural and media  
communication

III. Images, Sounds and Narratives of Europe: investigation of all  
kinds of contemporary cultural texts that variously deal with the  
failures and contradictions, envisionings and identity of Europe, as  
well as emerging narratives, imaginaries and concepts that attempt to  
re-define the ‘old continent’ and perform a ‘post-crisis Europe’.

IV. Under Western and Non-Western Eyes: the semiotic construction  
and/or deconstruction of European Union from the perspective of  
non-member states, whether in the Western or non-Western world.

Conference Keynote Speakers:

Ulf Hedetoft, Professor & Director of the Center for the Study of  
Nationalism, Saxo
Institute, Faculty of Humanities, Unversity of Copenhagen

Johan Fornäs, Professor of Media and Communication, Södertörn University,
Stockholm

Eric Landowski, Professor of Semiotics, Director of Research at the  
Centre de recherches politiques
de Paris (Science Po), Paris

Submissions
Proposals should be submitted electronically in English, French and  
Greek to the Conference website:  
https://antiphishing.vadesecure.com/2/YW5uZS5nZXNsaW4tYmV5YWVydEB1LWJvcmRlYXV4LW1vbnRhaWduZS5mcnxWUkMxMTkwMzM%3D/www.2019hellenic-semiotics.gr/en/

For all additional information/inquiries please address your messages to:
2019hellenic-semiotics@symvoli.gr

Important Dates
Submission of Abstracts/Panel Proposals: March 31, 2019
Notification of Authors: April 25, 2019
Early Registration starts: June 1, 2019
1st Programme Announcement: August 10, 2019
Late Registration starts: September 1, 2019
Final Programme Announcement: September 30, 2019

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