iMean7 conference - Language and Inclusion – 19-21 June 2024, UWE, Bristol

iMean is back!

After a protracted pandemic-related pause, the iMean conference returns in 2024. Hosted by the Bristol Centre for Linguistics at UWE, Bristol’s Frenchay Campus, the conference adheres to its original broad theme of ‘Meaning in Social Interaction’ with a particular focus on Language and Inclusion.

Social Inclusion mediated through Language

Language can (be used to) increase or decrease an individual’s or group’s sense of social inclusion. The history of the 21^st century thus far shows little evidence of any progress made in the direction of greater equality or social justice. The conference thus welcomes papers which analyse the way that language can help or hinder inclusion, or potentially result in exclusion. This includes, but is not limited to, empirical studies of:

• the ways that the justice system, politicians, news outlets and social media use language to cast events in a particular light
• the perceptions of the non-standard language used by language learners and children with speech and language impairment.

Language Structure shaped through Social Inclusion

But the desire for inclusion can also shape language, through the development of particular language policies aimed at promoting greater equality – the loss of grammatical gender in Dutch and the use of particular pronouns such as ‘they, them’ in English spring to mind. The conference thus also welcomes studies which look at such developments in the language – and in the criticism which is sometimes evoked by such developments with epithets such as ‘politically correct’ or ‘wokism’, serving to try to undermine legitimate attempts to combat discrimination.

In a similar vein, we welcome reports of studies which look at the way that social inclusiveness has an impact on language structure, at various levels of linguistic analysis.

Plenary speakers

-Aditi Bhatia, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

-Innocent Chiluwa, University of Freiburg

-Federica Formato, University of Brighton

-Rodney Jones, University of Reading

-Yvonne Wren, Bristol Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit

We welcome proposals for papers which address the following questions:

• how is language used in society to promote or inhibit inclusion?

Here we would expect focused studies in e.g. the forensic, media, educational, health or justice fields.

• how does the way that language is used for inclusivity impact on its structure?

Here we would expect detailed studies at the phonological, grammatical, semantic and discourse-pragmatic levels.

Panels

The conference will host the following panels to which you can propose a paper  –

• Jo Angouri and Meredith Marra: Advancing Inclusion in the Workplace
• Kate Beeching: Discourse Markers and Inclusion
• Kate Steel: Language, Inclusion and the Law
• Yvonne Wren (BSLTRU): Promoting Inclusion through Speech & Language Therapy

Or you can propose your own panel (with a minimum of 4 thematically focused papers). Contact Kate.Beeching@uwe.ac.uk if you would like to propose a panel.

For further details about Panels, see our conference web-site:

https://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/bcl/seminar-series-and-events/imean/about#section-4

Key dates

Deadline for Proposals: 14 November 2023

Feedback on your proposal: 15 January 2024

Registration for the conference opens: 1 March 2024

Registration for the conference closes: 15 April 2024