Call for Papers

“Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.”

Walt Whitman

In today’s world flooded by globalization, internationalization, interculturalisation and other related concepts and social approaches, English has become a necessity that often conditions our work, lifestyle and even our way of thinking. Although it would be curious enough to trace back the beginnings of such influence of English upon other languages and cultures, it would be even more interesting to investigate the ways in which English has interacted with them over the years and centuries. Occurring inside and outside the UK and at a multi-layered level of cultural exchange, that is, between English and Welsh or English and Irish, between English and the former colonies, between English and the European and American worlds, these encounters have been far from easy ones. The historical perspective of these encounters is indeed important to understand why English has acquired such linguistic, cultural and literary dominance not only among the English-speaking countries but also worldwide, but it is even more important to investigate the outcome(s) of these encounters, resulting most notably from conflict, migration, mixed marriage, (mis)communication etc.

What is more, in the recent decades, the advances of technology at large and of information technology in particular have given English a special status as the language of communication technology.

Although the influence of English upon other languages and cultures is enormous, the conference seeks to particularly inspire versatile and challenging responses to the way and extent to which contact with English, the language, culture and literature(s), has influenced users of English (teachers, writers, speakers, immigrants or simply people) by informing and reshaping their mindset, attitude to things, lifestyle or even identity.

We invite scholars to join us in the reconsideration of past and present relations and encounters of English with other languages and cultures as represented in literature, cultural studies and other related areas of study.

Some possible topics the conference aims at addressing include:

Historical encounters of English with other languages and cultures
Representations of English(es) in language, literature, and culture
The role of English in a world of technology
Identit(ies) in the making
How English is transforming and shaping language, literature, and culture
The influence of English in human communication
Literary representations of cultural encounters
English, globalization and internationalization: Issues and trends
English, migration, integration and mobility
English and a world on the move
English, media and the social media
Discursive constructions of cultural encounters
English Language Teaching and educational technologies
etc.

Papers are welcomed from but are not limited to:

British and Commonwealth Literature
American Literature
Literary Theory
Literary Criticism
Cultural Studies
Intercultural Communication
Communication Studies
Media Studies
Discourse Analysis
Pragmatics
Linguistics
Semiotics
Translation Studies
Applied Linguistics
ESP

The conference language is English. Please send your abstracts (about 250 words) for papers (20 min) as an MS word attachment to the following email address by 20 April 2017 (extended):

asse2017@assenglish.org

Please follow the template to be found here for the abstract submissions.

A selection of papers will be published in the journal in esse: English Studies in Albania, Vol. 8, No. 1 and in esse: English Studies in Albania, Vol. 8, No. 2. (http://www.assenglish.org/publications/)