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Book Announcement – Digital Genres in Academic Knowledge Production and Communication

Digital Genres in Academic Knowledge Production and Communication
Perspectives and Practices

By María José Luzón and Carmen Pérez-Llantada

 

Finally a definitive guide to academic genres online! Covering an impressive range of digital practices, this insightful and inspiring book masterfully demonstrates the connection between the affordances of digital media and the exigences of scientific communication.

– Christoph A. Hafner, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

 This book presents an overview of the wide variety of digital genres used by researchers to produce and communicate knowledge, perform new identities and evaluate research outputs. The book explores what researchers can do with these genres, what meanings they can make and what language(s) they deploy in carrying out all these practices.

 María José Luzón is Senior Lecturer at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. Her research interests include genre analysis, digital genres, academic discourse, and English for Academic Purposes.

Carmen Pérez-Llantada is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. Her research interests include genre analysis, English for Academic Purposes, academic writing, and rhetoric and composition.

 Get 75% off when you order on our website before 31st March with code DGAKPC75https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/?K=9781788924719.

Conference Report – 29th CDE Conference, “Critical Theatre Ecologies”

29th CDE Conference
“Critical Theatre Ecologies”
June 03-06, 2021, University of Augsburg, Germany

The 2021 CDE conference officially opened with the welcoming words by the conference organiser Martin Middeke (University of Augsburg), followed by a welcome by Christiane Fäcke, the Dean of the Faculty of Philology and History at the University of Augsburg. The President of the society Ute Berns thanked the conference organisers for their work and commitment. Martin Middeke and Martin Riedelsheimer then introduced the conference theme.

The evening continued with the conference’s first keynote: London-based playwright Ella Hickson in interview with theatre critic Aleks Sierz (London), chaired by Martin Middeke and followed by Q&A. Hickson spoke about her path to becoming a playwright, and the provenance of her 2016 play Oil.

The second day of the conference started with the first panel (chaired by Ute Berns). Helen Gilbert (Royal Holloway, University of London) spoke on “Climate Change Theatre and the Conundrum of Time”. She traced instances of plays chronicling climate change in the Antarctic, such as the large-scale E. M. Lewis’s Magellanica (2018) on the one hand and the microdramatic short plays emerging from Chantal Bilodeau’s Climate Change Theatre Action project (2015-ongoing). Patrick Lonergan (NUI Galway) then spoke on “Staging the Great Acceleration: Carly Churchill’s Far Away on Spike Island, 2017″, suggesting to see the final act of the play as the current stage of the Anthropocene, and the first two acts as a kind of archaeology of how we arrived there.

The panel was followed by the second keynote, by Carl Lavery (University of Glasgow), who spoke on “Ecologising Theatre” (chaired by Martin Riedelsheimer) in the context of agency, politics and ethics.

In the afternoon, the second panel was chaired by Dorothee Birke. Christian Attinger (University of Augsburg) spoke on “An Ecology of Plants: the Post-Manufacturing Age in Philip Ridley’s Shivered and David Eldridge’s In Basildon“, discussing the way in which theatre points at the corporate social and ecological responsibilities of transnational corporations and might offer counter-reactions to the “Capitalocene”. Julia Rössler (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) then spoke on “Embodiment, Atmosphere, and Materiality: Ecological Aesthetics in the Theatre of Adam Rapp”, giving an overview of Rapp’s body of work by historically deriving it from Gertrude Stein and Richard Schechner and then focussing on Rapp’s 2004 play Faster.

The third panel (chaired by Anette Pankratz), brought together Kerstin Howaldt (University of Erfurt), Anna Street (Le Mans University) and Ramona Mosse (FU Berlin). Howaldt spoke about “Diffracting ‘Stabilized/Stabilizing Binaries’ of Climate Change Theatre (Plays)”, Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London and Richard Bean’s The Heretic in the context of Karen Barad’s Meeting the Universe Halfway. In their paper “To Be Like Water – Material Dramaturgies in Unthinkable Environments”, Street and Mosse used three case studies of performing water to argue for fluidity and connectivity relate to notions of the unthinkable.

The day closed with the conference’s third keynote, chaired by Martin Middeke: London-based playwright Martin Crimp in interview with Aleks Sierz, followed by Q&A. Crimp spoke on theatres as an ecology, as a trans-European network.

The CDE Annual General Meeting took place in the morning of the third day.

The conference’s fourth panel took place in the afternoon and was chaired by Merle Tönnies. Leila Vaziri (University of Augsburg) spoke on “Alienation and Disgust – The Capitalocene in Contemporary Eco-Drama”, referring to Dawn King’s 2011 play Foxfinder and Tanya Ronder’s Fuck the Polar Bears (2015) to draw a line from Kristevan abjection theory to the human-animal divide and the alienating effect on the connections between humans and nature. Jill Gatlin (New England Conservatory) then spoke on “Performing Reception Justice: Audience Disturbance and Ecological Toxicity in Cherrie Moraga’s Heroes and Saints“, outlining how the play invites audiences to evaluate their privilege and potential allied action.

The fifth panel followed immediately afterwards (chaired by Clare Wallace). Linda Heß (University of Augsburg) spoke on “Playing the Petrocene: The Toxicity of National Discourse in Leigh Fondakowski’s Spill (2014) and Ella Hickson’s Oil (2016)”, arguing, alongside Judith Butler’s concept of grievability and Timothy Clark’s notion of scale, that both plays allow spectators to explore their own capacity for empathy and their entanglement into the ecological crisis on a global scale. Chukwuemeka Rowland Amaefula (Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike) then spoke on “Eco-Drama, Multinanational Corporations and Climate Change in Nigeria”, exploring the effects of climate change on the country through the lens of Greg Mbajiorgu’s ecodrama Wakeup Everyone (2011).

This panel was followed by the conference’s fourth keynote, by Theresa May (University of Oregon), who spoke on “Kinship and Community in Climate Change Theatre” (chaired by Martin Riedelsheimer). Referring to Marie Clements’ Burning Vision (2002), Chantal Bilodeau’s Sila (2015), and her own play Salmon Is Everything (2018), she argued for ecodramaturgy as a praxis, presenting theatre as a crucial tool of democracy for the Anthropocene.

Sunday morning saw the conference’s fifth keynote, chaired by Martin Middeke. Vicky Angelaki (Mid Sweden University) spoke on “Writing in the Green: Imperatives towards an Eco-n-temporary Theatre Canon”. Angelaki suggested in-betweenness as a key element towards understanding humanities’ contemporary role and responsibilities.

The keynote was followed by the conference’s sixth and last panel (chaired by Eckart Voigts). Jamie Harper (De Montfort University) spoke on “Performing Resilience”, comparing the neoliberal approach to the concept with the one taken by ecological sciences and exploring radical transformation through evaluation of a research residency at a community orchard. Solange Ayache (Sorbonne University) then spoke on the merging of the brain, the stage, and the forest in her paper “‘It’s the Intricacy of the Forest … That’s the Treasure’: Devising Ecological Theatre with Simon McBurney’s The Encounter“. Simon Bowes (University of Greenwich) then gave a paper on “Embodiment, Occupation and Solidarity: Theatre Environment as Territory in three Tim Spooner Performances”, in which he outlined Spooner’s refashioning of the theatre environment as ‘territory’ in his performances The Voice of Nature (2018), Cuteness Forensics (2018), and Dead Nature (2019). Bowes proposed that Spooner occupied nature and, by extension, the theatre.

The conference closed on Sunday mid-day. The next conference will take place in Paris (organised by our sister organisation RADAC) on 23-26 June, 2022.

Book Announcement – Analyzing Multimodality in Specialized Discourse Settings

Analyzing Multimodality in Specialized Discourse Settings

Innovative Research Methods and Applications

Veronica Bonsignori, Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli, Denise Filmer (Eds.)

Contemporary society has witnessed radical changes in the field of communications in terms of how messages and meanings are disseminated. Digitalization and the Internet have signalled an exponential rise in the circulation of multimodal texts in which different semiotic resources are orchestrated together to construct meaning in all areas of social life, across languages and cultures, and in diverse specialized discourse domains. This has foregrounded the need to examine the semiotic functions, affordances, and issues at stake in a range of multimodal discourse forms, while simultaneously highlighting the importance of critical multimodal literacy in audiences and learners.

This volume develops and extends pioneering research on the intersection between multimodality and specialized discourse. Eight newly commissioned studies offer innovative perspectives on multimodal research methodologies and applications in a variety of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) contexts for practitioners and scholars alike. The volume offers a glimpse at future directions in this dynamic and ever-evolving area of investigation focusing on the synergy between verbal and non-verbal modes of communication in the digital age. Each chapter explores an original area of application: academic, economic, scientific, marketing, legal, medical, political, and tourism. The contributors approach multimodality from a range of theoretical and methodological viewpoints including synchronic and diachronic corpus-based and corpus-aided studies, critical discourse analysis, and systemic functional linguistics. Analytical tools such as multimodal (critical) discourse analysis, multimodal transcription, and multimodal annotation software capable of representing the interplay of different semiotic modes – speech, intonation, direction of gaze, facial expressions, gesturing, and spatial positioning of interlocutors – are employed. The diversity of research strands contained in the volume illustrates just some of the vast areas of multimodal knowledge dissemination that are still unmapped. As a cornerstone of communication, multimodality needs exploring in all its facets. These contributions aim to further that cause.  

ISBN: 978-1-64889-103-8

https://vernonpress.com/book/1128

HJEAS Books, New Series

The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) will launch a series of books to be published by Debrecen University Press beginning in 2022 that will reflect scholarship in the areas covered by the Journal, which include but are not limited to the literature, film, art, history, and religion of the United States, Canada, Ireland, England, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. All books will be published as Open Access ebooks and as printed using Print on Demand. They will be kept in print. Continue reading “HJEAS Books, New Series”

The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS)

ROLLING CALL FOR PAPERS

The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) is

  • devoted to literary, historical, film and cultural studies of the English-speaking world
  • an international scholarly journal with an international audience available at major research centers and libraries throughout the world
  • the oldest continuously published Central European scholarly journal in its field
  • published twice a year by the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen, Hungary.

Continue reading “The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS)”

New ESSE Jobs

New ESSE Messenger Editor

Starting from January 2022, The ESSE Messenger will have a new Editor. Her name is Dr. Laura Estaban Segura from the University of Malaga, Spain. Her email address as Editor is the known one, namely esse.messenger [at] uma.es.

New ESSE Webmaster

In parallel, the new ESSE Webmaster will be Dr. Adrian Radu (the former ESSE Messenger Editor) from Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania. His email address is essenglish.webmaster [at] gmail.com.

Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies

Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies is an open access peer-reviewed academic journal that serves as a forum for multi- and interdisciplinary discussions across Literature and Drama Studies, providing academicians, scholars, professionals, and students with the opportunity to disseminate their research to a diverse audience of peers and professionals.

Scott Fitzgerald proposes that “[t]hat is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” Literature is unique but it is limitless in its extent, for “literature is life,” as Robert A. Nimmo puts it. ‘We belong’, as literature is human. Human narrates the story and is told in the story. Human makes hi(s)tory and is told in hi(s)tory. Literature is human/ities and it “is the question minus the answer” for “the birth of the reader,” as Roland Barthes suggests. We come to set sail for new articles, new writers, and new readers. We come to take responsibility for the space we belong to.

Continue reading “Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies”

REIIT Revista Educación Investigación, Innovación y Transferencia

It is a pleasure to announce the creation of the Journal REIIT Revista Educación Investigación, Innovación y Transferencia, which is structured around three main sections: Research, Innovation and Transfer. This is an annual publication where each contribution will follow a double-blind peer review. Each issue will comprise three research articles, three articles dealing with innovative practices and one or two revolving around knowledge and society transfer. All the articles must contribute to research on the area of education at the national or international level and they can deal with different education stages and levels from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The submissions will take place online and the deadline for this first issue is April 15, 2021. It is necessary to be registered and logged in on the following website: https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/eiit/submission/wizard in order to send any article and check the submission status. The submissions will not exceed 9,000 words, including footnotes, references and graphics, charts or images. Submissions are accepted in Spanish, English and French. They should be original and they should not be undergoing any process of revision for other publications. In addition to this, the authors have to send another document indicating the name of the responsible author as well as the postal address, ORCID, telephone number and email address of all the co-authors (if any). More information regarding the publication guidelines, the recommended format for the articles and the nature of the journal can be checked on our website https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/eiit.

IDEAS: Journal of English Literary Studies

It is an honour for the IDEA Association to launch its academic journal: IDEAS: Journal of English Literary Studies.

IDEAS is an international, electronically published and peer-reviewed journal devoted to English literary studies. The journal aims to supply a highly qualified academic platform for the exchange of diverse critical and original ideas on any aspect of literatures written in English, cultural studies, and literary theory. The first issue will be published in April 2021.

Original articles, interviews and book reviews will be considered for publication.

Papers will be submitted through the submission system available on the website.

The deadline for the submission of papers for the first issue is 15 January 2021.

Please visit the journal website for further information about the journal: https://www.idea.org.tr/ideasjournal

ESSE Positions of Secretary and Treasurer: Call for Applications and Nominations

The Nominations Committee of the ESSE Board seeks applications for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer, which fall vacant in January 2023. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates, who should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs or have had similar positions in their national associations, should submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter of application
  • a short (2–3 page) CV
  • letters of support from two national associations.

Each national association can also nominate candidates for any of these two positions (only one candidate for each position). In this case, national associations will submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter, signed by the association’s President, describing the candidate’s competence for the specific office
  • a short (2–3 page) CV of candidate(s) proposed
  • a letter, signed by another association’s President, seconding this proposal
  • a letter in which the candidate will express his/her agreement with the candidacy.

Applications and nominations must be submitted electronically, by 30 April 2022 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates (maximum of three for each office). The two officers will be chosen by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in Mainz, 28–29 August 2022.

ESSE Research and Support

Here is the list of ESSE research support schemes for 2022:

Prof. Liliane Louvel will receive the Grand Prix d’Honneur of SAES

Professor Liliane Louvel, Professor emerita of literature in the English language at the University of Poitiers and former president of ESSE  between 2013-2018, will be awarded the “Grand Prix d’Honneur” on 10th of September. The prize will be awarded on behalf of SAES (the French national association associated with ESSE whose Honorary President Liliane Louvel is). This prize, which is awarded every four years, is a homage to a member of SAES for the totality of his or her exceptional contributions to English studies. Congratulations!

The International Journal of Young Adult Literature (IJYAL)

The International Journal of Young Adult Literature (IJYAL)

https://www.ijyal.ac.uk

General Editor: Dr Alison Waller (University of Roehampton)

The International Journal of Young Adult Literature (IJYAL) aims to foster original scholarship covering the theory, critical interpretation, literary history, and cultural production of young adult literature from all parts of the world. This new online open-access journal acknowledges the growth of the field of YA and takes it seriously as a subject of literary enquiry. Young adult literature is understood in broad terms, and all research investigating the literary or narrative qualities of other popular forms or media are welcomed.

IJYAL is now accepting submissions for its third issue, scheduled for publication in 2022. Articles of 7000-9000 words should be submitted by 25 October 2021. We particularly encourage researchers working beyond Anglo-American young adult literature and/or working outside of the UK and US to submit articles. We will consider original scholarship on all aspects of young adult literature, with possible critical approaches including but not limited to:

  • Theoretical work
  • Considerations of form, genre, theme or style
  • Author studies
  • Comparative analysis
  • Explorations of reception and response
  • Publication histories

You can find more information about submission and article requirements here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeK1HHfCBK_b7WgfYmnhbuldJKszx0e_AIXoCDk9kw_45IZHmnReJ9m5munscO4Mj07e8Ryxs5qCt7/pub

CFP for the Summer 2021 issue of the ESSE Messenger

Theme: LANGUAGE CHANGE: DIACHRONIC AND SYNCHRONIC APPROACHES

Deadline: 30 June 2021

Change in languages over time seems to be an inevitable constant. All languages have undergone and, if not dead, are undergoing change. As Ferdinand de Saussure put it more than a century ago, “the linguistic river never stops flowing” (Course in General Linguistics, 1916). The English language has been no exception and topics addressing linguistic change have been—and continue to be—widely discussed from different areas or branches of linguistics, such as generative, historical, variationist or corpus linguistics. There is, however, much that still needs to be investigated.

The journal welcomes contributions that are qualitative and critical, and whose focus resides in the field of language change and variation in English. This may include state-of-the-art research on areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks along with studies that approach language from both a diachronic and/or synchronic perspective.

A suggested, albeit not prescriptive, list of themes includes:

  • Factors leading to language change.
  • Methods and tools for language change.
  • Spread of change.
  • Patterns of variation and change.
  • Types of variation (phonological, morpho-syntactic, lexical, semantic, etc.).
  • Texts and corpora for the study of language change.
  • World Englishes.

Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education (ELSE) (2018-2021)

No. 2018-1-ITO2-KA203-048006
www.elseproject.eu

The Erasmus+ research project Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education, in short, ELSE, was registered as part of the key action, Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices (Strategic Partnerships). The priority of the project is Higher Education and the development of skills – supporting the use of digital technologies to improve pedagogies and assessment methods. Its horizontal priority consists of (a) open education and innovative practices in a digital era and (b) the extension and development of educators’ competences.

Continue reading “Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education (ELSE) (2018-2021)”

ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations

For the position of PRESIDENT OF ESSE

The Nominations Committee seeks nominations for the position of President of ESSE, which falls vacant in January 2022. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates should be Professors of English with a distinguished scholarly career, and they should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs. They need to obtain the written support from two national associations. Candidates should submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter of application
  • a short (2–3 page) CV
  • letters of support from two national associations.

Each national association can also nominate candidates for this position (only one candidate can be nominated by each national association). In this case, national associations will submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter, signed by the Association’s President, describing the candidate’s competence for the specific office
  • a short (2–3 page) CV of the candidate proposed
  • a letter, signed by another Association’s President, seconding this proposal
  • a letter in which the candidate will express his/her agreement with the candidacy.

Applications and nominations must be submitted electronically, by 30 April 2021 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates. They will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in August 2021.

For the position of EDITOR OF THE ESSE MESSENGER

The Nominations Committee seeks nominations for the position of Editor of The ESSE Messenger which falls vacant in January 2022. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs. They need to obtain the written support from two national associations. Candidates should submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter of application
  • a short (2–3 page) CV
  • letters of support from two national associations.

Each national association can also nominate candidates for this position (only one candidate can be nominated by each national association). In this case, national associations will submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter, signed by the Association’s President, describing the candidate’s competence for the specific office
  • a short (2–3 page) CV of the candidate proposed
  • a letter, signed by another Association’s President, seconding this proposal
  • a letter in which the candidate will express his/her agreement with the candidacy.

Applications and nominations must be submitted electronically, by 30 April 2021 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates. They will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in August 2021.

ESSE President

The ESSE Messenger Editor

Announcement of Doctoral Symposium

ESSE organizes an annual Doctoral Symposium, which continues a tradition dating from 2012 and is designed to provide a platform for young scholars to present their work and receive feedback. The Symposium is open without charge to PhD students who are writing their theses in English Studies and at the time of submitting their application are at least in the second year of work on their doctorate. To be eligible, either their supervisor or they themselves must be a member of an ESSE-affiliated Association (or, in relevant countries, of a Department that belongs to an ESSE member Association) at the moment of application. The next Symposium will be fully integrated into the (online) ESSE Conference and will take place, according to provisional planning, on 31 August and 1 September 2021. For further details, see: http://www.esse2020lyon.fr/en.

Participants will have an opportunity to make a brief presentation of their work in progress in one of three strands: English Language & Linguistics, Literatures in English, and Cultural & Area Studies. Their presentation should deal with the issues addressed or hypotheses tested in their doctoral research, the results so far obtained, and above all the methodology applied, with the purpose of gaining feedback from established scholars in the field and from their peers. Each presentation will last no longer than 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes’ discussion. Participants are expected to attend all the presentations in their own strand and to take part in the discussions. There will also be extensive opportunities for informal contact with other participants and with the academics attending the ESSE Conference. Participation in the Doctoral Symposium does not exclude the possibility of taking part in one of the regular seminars in the Conference. No conference fee will apply to the participants in the Doctoral Symposium.

Applying to participate

Note that each PhD student can submit an application to only one strand of the Doctoral Symposium and should specify in the application which strand they wish to be placed in. Applications must include a letter from the student’s PhD supervisor giving the (provisional) title of the dissertation and confirming that the student is working under his/her supervision and has completed at least his/her first year of PhD studies. The Treasurer of ESSE will check the eligibility of all applicants and their supervisors.

The application should take the form of a summary of the project of no more than 300 words, indicating:

  • The main topic and issues, including the thesis proposed/hypothesis defended;
  • The methodology (theoretical tools and standpoints);
  • Where relevant, the corpus under consideration;
  • The results obtained so far.

Each strand of the Symposium will be coordinated by two experts (to be known as Convenors). They will make a selection from the applications received, chair the discussions and respond to the presentations.

Applications (including the letter from the applicant’s supervisor) should be sent, no later than 30 April 2021, to the Coordinator of the ESSE Doctoral Symposium, Professor J. Lachlan Mackenzie (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands) at lachlan_mackenzie@hotmail.com, to whom general enquiries can also be addressed. The eligibility check and the selection of submissions by the Convenors will be completed and announced by 21 May 2021.