English and I: Literary and Cultural Encounters


Fourth ASSE International Conference on British and American Studies
organized in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali”

8-10 June 2017

Vlore, Albania

Call for papers

Deadline for proposals: 15 March 2017


“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

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 31 March 2017:
asse2017@assenglish.org.

Please follow the template to be found at http://www.assenglish.org/eandi/abstracts/for abstract submission.

A selection of papers will be published in the journal in esse: English Studies in Albania, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2.