EXTENDED DEADLINE: 15 JUNE 2025

Conference dates: 16-18 October 2025
Conference venue: Faculty of Letters, 31 Horea St., Cluj-Napoca
Conference website: https://consid.conference.ubbcluj.ro

CREATING AND RESOLVING CONFLICT IN LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES

Conflict approached through a linguistic lens offers numerous possible levels of analysis, from language- and speaker-internal struggles to polarizing attitudes borne out of contextualized uses of language, and beyond humans, in interactions with other media such as technology, and now even more so, AI. Inquiry into both diachronic and synchronic linguistic displays, patterns, and behaviours within communication represents a challenge in itself, as the digital age increased the availability of research and scientific discourse, resulting in a divergence of perspectives on language phenomena. We thus welcome papers which foster the ground for a synergy between various disciplines and research methodologies coming from the fields of Internet linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Historical Linguistics, Psycho- and Neurolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Digital Humanities, Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, Theoretical Linguistics and more. This multi- and inter-disciplinary dialogue between specialists from a variety of fields will account for the complexity of the linguistic phenomena emerging from various conflictual situations and discourses.

We invite proposals for papers and specialty panels addressing any aspect of our conference theme. Possible topics include:
1. Online conflicts, digital culture and communication
• digital culture, subcultures and conflictual situations;
• online identity construction and communities of practice;
• representation of conflict through multimodal communication and visual culture;
• human versus AI generated speech;
• hate speech in online social media and linguistic mitigation;
• conflict and online digital activism;
• digital and pragmatic practices in online conflictual situations;
• digital performance of conflict;
• conflict expressed through the use of memes, emojis, emoticons.

2. Cultural and linguistic diversity
• toxic language in various online and offline environments;
• multilingualism and language ideologies: how language unites and/or divides, linguistic discrimination;
• attitudes towards linguistic change and innovation;
• forbidden language: slang, taboos and conflict;
• linguistic trends in lavender languages;
• multilingualism and multiculturalism: migration and identity;
• diverse communities: cases of conflictual situations and mitigation.

3. Theoretical linguistics, neurolinguistics
• conflict as the driving force for diachronic language change;
• inner language conflict as evolutionary pressure for meaning reassignment;

• phonological and syntactic differences of multilingual input for language acquisition in multilingual babies;
• cross-linguistic variation in morphological and syntactical structures;
• interface issues: Conceptual-Intentional to Sensory-Motor;
• language pathologies and the disruption of the intent-output continuum;
• structural disconnections in linguistic impairments.

Confirmed keynote speaker:
• Prof. Martin Hilpert, Université de Neuchâtel
• Prof. Lauren Tilton, University of Richmond (online address)

GENERAL INFORMATION
Proposals
Individual 20-minute papers, 150-word abstracts and a short bio note should be submitted here: Constructions of Identity
For tentative panels, please submit a title and a 100-word description of the topic, here: Constructions of Identity
Extended deadline for individual papers: 1 May 2025.
Extended deadline for fully formed panels: 15 May 2025.
Registration
Acceptance notification: by 20 June 2025.
Registration link: TBA.
Registration starts on 1.05.2025 and ends on 31.07.2025.
Conference registration fee: 100 euro; 60 euro for postgraduate students and young researchers (under 26). Conference dinner fee: 40 euros.
Publication plans: Selected papers will be published in either a special issue of Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai, seria Philologia, or a conference volume. Publication details will be available on the conference website.
Contact information: for more details, please write to paul.paraschiv@ubbcluj.ro, mihaela.buzec@ubbcluj.ro.