The Speakers

Sara Barker is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at Leeds. Their current research focuses on early printed news and its movement between different countries and communities, in particular translations of news pamphlets in western Europe in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. They are interested in printed news before the development of the newspaper, in particular the ways in which news moved between countries, which stories were translated and why, the sources used for news reports, the formats that were used, how stories were told and translated, and the ways in which printers sold ‘foreign’ news to readers. Their work combines detailed textual analysis of the translations undertaken and consideration of broader concerns about change, time, space and community identity in the post-Reformation era.

Hugo Leal is a Research Associate at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD) based at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge. Hugo combines research and teaching activities at the intersection of collective action and digital technologies, and has been looking at the networked diffusion of social movements and ideas. Their investigation on misinformation and conspiracy theories intends to trace the lifecycle of viral narratives, their strategic use and societal impacts in a variety of areas, from the emergence of nativism to science denial. 

Nicholas Brownlees is Professor of English Language at the University of Florence, Italy, who has written extensively on news discourse in the early modern era and is the author of The Language of Periodical News in Seventeenth Century England (2011), co-author of News as Changing Texts: Corpora, Methodologies and Analysis (2015, 2nd edn) and editor of News Discourse in Early Modern Britain (2006), The Role of Context in the Production and Reception of Historical News Discourse (2021) and The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, vol. 1: Beginnings and Consolidation, 1640-1800 (forthcoming). Nicholas Brownlees is founder and board member of the series of international conferences on Historical News Discourse (CHINED).  

Tieyu Zhou is a journalism scholar from the University of Amsterdam, working on the function of journalism in political communication and the construction and counter-construction of gender by the media. In they recent research, they have focused on the role of data journalism, a new form of news presentation, in gender and political communication. 

Yawen Guo is pursuing a Master's degree in Gender Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. They are interested the linguistic construction of gender aptitudes in Chinese media. In addition, they are interested in exploring how the new generation of women are showing their opposition to the existing male dominance in China.

Linyi Gao studies Communication and Journalism at the University of Amsterdam. Their interest research orientation is Communication theories and Gender Study. They have published several papers on communication theory.

Chris Miles is a Principal Academic in the Department of Communication & Journalism, Bournemouth University. Their research deals with the discursive construction of marketing theory and practice, particularly as it relates to communication, rhetoric and control. They also publish in the areas of viral propaganda, visual political rhetoric, and the stylistic characteristics of populism.  Their most recent book is Marketing, Rhetoric and Control: TheMagical Foundations of Marketing Theory (Routledge, 2018).

David Spieser-Landes is an Associate Professor of French and Cultural Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). After a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature from Université Lyon II and a Ph.D. in French Literature and Politics from the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Spieser-Landes has published articles in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including The European Journal of Language Policy, Essays in French Literature and Culture, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Performing Islam, Contemporary French Civilization, New Readings, French Cultural Studies and Les Lettres Romanes. Prior to joining the faculty at UNCW, they taught at Penn State University, Lycoming College and the University of Pittsburgh. 

Jean Wyllys is a journalist and researcher, and a former member of the Brazilian Congress, currently doing doctoral research on “fake news” at the University of Barcelona. Wyllys holds a Master’s degree in Literature and Linguistics from the Federal University of Bahia, and has been a professor of Brazilian Culture and Communication Theory at various schools in their home country. Wyllys was a columnist for the newspaper Correio da Bahia and has published the books Aflitos. Crônicas e contos (Casa de Palavras da Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado) which won them the Copene Prize for Literature, Ainda Lembro. Crônicas e experiências vividas no BBB5 (Editora Globo, 2005), Tudo ao mesmo tempo agora. Crônicas e perturbacoes (Giostro Editora, 2009) and Tempo bom tempo ruim. Identidades, políticas, afetos (Companhia das Letras, 2014).

Francesca Dell’Olio has a Master’s degree in Modern Languages from the University of Padua and a Ph.D in Humanities from the University of São Paulo. They carry out research in the ‘New and Multi Literacies and the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ group and works as an Italian teacher. Their research interests focus on construction of identities in the educational process, interculturality, linguistic, social and educational policies and practices, and decolonial and postcolonial studies. Their Ph.D. research reflects on intercultural encounters in migratory contexts, with an emphasis on forced migrations, based on the analysis of European and Brazilian policies. 

Jamille Pinheiro Dias is a Lecturer in Environmental Humanities at ILCS. Their studies involve environmental issues, Amazonian cultural production, Indigenous arts, and translation studies in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil. Prior to working in the UK, they were a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Modern Languages at the University of São Paulo, where they also received a PhD in English. In addition, Jamille was a visiting researcher at Stanford University, and a teaching assistant at the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo. Besides their engagement in teaching and research, their work as a translator led them to translate authors such as Ailton Krenak, Marilyn Strathern, Alfred Gell, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Judith Butler and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, among others.