Call for papers

DESIRE, the centre for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance is happy to invite you to submit paper proposals for the second edition of the colloquium ‘Discourse Theory: Ways Forward’. After the success of the first edition in 2019 we are looking forward to continuing the conversation.

The colloquium will take place on 23-24 March 2023 in the Palace of the Academies in Brussels.

The aim of the colloquium is to bring together scholars working with constructivist and post-structuralist discursive approaches, broadly defined. The colloquium is open to scholars working on a wide range of themes across disciplines, with work on the following themes especially welcomed:

• Environment and climate
• Media and journalism
• Political communication and propaganda
• Health and care
• The discursive and the material
• Discourse, class, and political economy
• The past, present and future of progressive politics
• Nationalism, racism, and the (populist) far right
• Sex and gender
• International relations, conflict and war
• Discourse theory, critique and practice

Confirmed keynote speakers are Emmy Eklundh (Cardiff University) and Alan Finlayson (University of East Anglia).

Submissions

We invite paper proposals as well as panel proposals. The deadline for paper proposals and panel proposals is 15 September 2022.

Paper proposals should include, in the following order:

• Paper title
• Author name(s), email(s) and affiliation(s)
• Indication of which of the colloquium topics (one or several) the paper fits with most closely
• A 300-word abstract giving a clear indication of the tradition(s) of discursive research the paper builds upon, central concepts in the paper, method, and main arguments and results.

Panel proposals should include four paper presentations. Panel proposals should be submitted by the panel convener(s) as one document (the individual paper proposals should not be submitted individually). Panel proposal should include, in the following order:

• Panel title
• The name(s) of the panel convenor(s), emails and affiliations
• Indication of which of the colloquium topics (one or several) the panel fits with most closely
• A 200-word panel abstract
• The 300-word abstracts for each of the four individual papers (following the instructions for individual abstracts (see above)

Submissions must be uploaded in PDF format.