International Seminar on
Models of Verbal Aggression, Conflict and Impoliteness
10 December, 2015
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra and University of Huddersfield, UK are going to organise a one-day International Seminar on Models of Verbal Aggression, Conflict and Impoliteness as part of 'The Aggression Project' under UGC-UKIERI Thematic Partnerships, 2015 under UK India Education and Research Initiative on 12 December, 2015.
Language aggression and conflict are one of the core phenomena of human communication. It is usually used to construct the other in terms of their political views, culture, gender, race, caste, religion etc. However, as against the common perception, they are not always toxic and, in fact, could be essential for a good constitutive life in certain cases. It is expected that a thorough understanding of how aggression and impoliteness are constructed and what functions they perform could lead to better management and avoidance of conflict.
In addition to this theoretical understanding of aggression, a different kind of challenge has emerged. In recent times, different levels of anonymity provided by the new technological inventions have been linked to greater aggression, especially on the web. These technologies allow their users to vent frustrations in public, resulting in public manifestations of aggression. Since it is not possible or desirable to censor/filter the content available on the web, there is an urgent need to automatically monitor targeted aggression (against a particular gender, race, caste, sexual orientation etc.) without actually censoring those and a technological intervention, along with theoretical understanding, is necessary.
This seminar addresses the question of modelling verbal aggression, conflict and impoliteness from both of these perspectives – theoretical and technological.