Abstract submission for iMean7 conference

After a protracted pandemic-related pause, the iMean conference returns in 2024. The conference adheres to its original broad theme of Meaning in Social Interaction with a particular focus on Language and Inclusion.

Theme

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 21st 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 ‘woke-ism’, 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.

Call for papers

Abstract submissions are now closed. 

Authors have been notified about the outcome of their submissions by email. If you have not received any email in your inbox, please check your Junk/Spam folder and/or contact Dr Kate Beeching (kate.beeching@uwe.ac.uk) with any queries.

Plenary speakers

• Professor Rachel Wicaksono, York St John University. 
• Professor Innocent Chiluwa, Visiting Professor, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Loughborough University.
• Dr Federica Formato, University of Brighton.
• Professor Yvonne Wren, Bristol Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit.

Panels

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

• Professor Jo Angouri and Professor Meredith Marra: Advancing inclusion in the workplace.
• Dr Kate Beeching: Discourse markers and inclusion.
• Dr Kate Steel: Language, inclusion and the law.
• Dr Olga Zayts-Spence and Dr Mariana Lazzaro Salazar: Advancing inclusion in healthcare: Linguistic equity and health.

Workshop

• Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Unit and deafPLUS Bath showcase their activities and communication aids.

iMean7 conference panels