Call for papers

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities,

University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali”, Albania

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary

organize

The Fifth International Conference on Language, Literary and Cultural Studies

TEACHING THE HUMANITIES IN THE POST-COVID ERA

December 18-19, 2020

Deadline for abstract submission: 5 December 2020

The world has come to a standstill by the pandemic that the unstoppable transmission of COVID-19 has caused. Important life sectors on forefront like health and economy have suffered the immediate consequences of the global spread of the virus, whereas other equally important life sectors like education have had to adapt themselves to the new condition by responding vividly and actively to it, mainly online. The unprecedented prolongation of the pandemic has now dictated new modes of living, working, communicating, and behaving to conform to the COVID era. The virtual space has never been as privileged as it is now. The only certainty COVID has left us with is the presence of uncertainty. The sense of suspension and the disposition for postponement currently pervading all our human activities reinforce it. We have come to learn that careful planning, good organization, detailed pre-arrangement can be worth nothing if some power bigger than us overtakes the world. It seems that COVID has come to slow us down, to make us rethink and reflect about the world we live in, revisit our perceptions, values, approaches and methodologies, rebuild our lives and relationships, readjust the way we conduct our living, that is, overall, to teach a new approach to humanity.

It is in this respect, but not solely and exclusively in that, that we feel that the humanities have a large responsibility to intervene and take their proper role in addressing the changes in the living context, in keeping to our social organizations, arrangements and activities, in approaching and thinking of our community and society in the COVIDIAN context, in teaching responsibility, in helping contemplate the future, in constructing new modes of education, be they digital or physical. In this regard, COVID is not just a virus; it is a self-imposed reality, already dictating human activity worldwide. On a more advanced note, it could also be the omen of what could come after. The prospect of a post-COVID era is on the way.

Some possible topics the conference aims at addressing include:

  • Culture and possible social constructs in the post-COVID era;
  • The role of the media in representing the new reality;
  • The future role of culture and community;
  • COVIDIAN discourse;
  • Digital education, translation and media;
  • E-learning, blended learning and other proposed teaching trends in the new era;
  • New approaches for the social sciences and humanities;
  • The concept of space, social and physical, in the COVID era – locked up and/or locked down;
  • Suspension, postponement and uncertainty;
  • An age of and for revision;
  • The future of the humanities;
  • New perspectives in language, literary and cultural studies.

Proposals are welcome from but not limited to:

  • Language Studies
  • Intercultural Communication
  • World literature/ Literary Criticism
  • Translation/ Interpretation studies
  • Comparative linguistics/Corpus linguistics
  • Gender studies
  • Cultural Studies
  • Media studies
  • FLT (Foreign Language Teaching)
  • FSP (Foreign Language for Specific purposes)
  • Education
  • Pedagogy
  • Psychology
  • Social Studies
  • Etc.

We encourage proposals to explore these topics from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives.

Proposals will be peer reviewed by a panel of experts.

A selection of papers will be published after the conference.

Besides the above proposed conference topic, a concurrent session entitled “Studying the humanities in the post-COVID era” will take place with student presentations focusing on the above mentioned issues and topics. Students can present:

- their own related research;

- a poster;

- an essay.

The student session will take place on 19 December 2020.

Language of the conference:

The official language of the conference is English.

Format of the conference:

The conference sessions will take place both on site and online. The online sessions will be conducted via Zoom. The joining information will be provided for conference participants in the conference programme.

Proposals are invited for 15-20 minute paper/ppt presentations (followed by 5-10 minutes’ discussion) in English, in any of the topic areas listed above or other relevant areas.

Students are invited to submit their proposals for 15-20 minute presentations of their own research/essay/poster.

Please send your abstracts (150- 200 words) as an MS word in attachment to the following email address by 5 December 2020: dflconference2020@gmail.com.

Conference participation is FREE.

For more information, please visit the conference website, https://sites.google.com/a/univlora.edu.al/teaching-the-humanities-in-the-post-covid-era/.

We look forward to receiving your proposal.