15th World Congress of Semiotics / IASS-AIS

August 30 – September 3, 2022, Thessaloniki, Greece

Semiotics in the Lifeworld

The 15th World Congress of Semiotics aims to foreground semiotics as the socially engaged, critical investigation of the sign- and meaning-making processes forming the core of human worldmaking. Semiotic investigation is grounded in the historical lifeworld, in concrete timescapes and semioscapes, in the dense and dynamic weave of semiotic practices that structure human experience and communicative (inter)action by constantly (re)articulating the perceptual and the conceptual, the discursive and the performative, the ethical and the aesthetic, the ideological and the figurative, the material and the immaterial, the human and the non-human, the natural and the man-made.

Learn more about the Congress

Program

Download the Congress Program (Update 22/8/2022)

Download the Book of Abstracts

1. All Congress events – except for the IASS/AIS General Assembly and the Gala Dinner – take place at the University of Macedonia (Egnatias 156, 54 636 Thessaloniki)
2. Onsite Registration payments (for both participants and attendees) start on Monday 29 August (09:00 – 14:00) and will continue throughout the Congress days (Tuesday 30 August: 08:30 – 10:00, Wed/Thurs/Fri 31 Aug/1 & 2 Sept.: 08:30 – 09:00) at the Reception Desk (Univ. of Macedonia Foyer, ground floor) (cash only).
3. Participants/Attendees who have already paid their registration fees can pick up their Congress pack starting from Monday 29 August (09:00 – 14:00) and throughout the Congress days (Tue/Wed/Thurs/Fri 30 & 31 Aug/1 & 2 Sept.: 08:30 – 14:00) at the Reception Desk (Univ. of Macedonia Foyer, ground floor)
4. Those interested to attend the Gala Dinner (Friday 2 Sept., 19:30 – 21:30) must register at the Reception Desk until Wednesday 31 Aug./15:00, paying € 20 (cash only).
5. Those interested to attend the City Tour (Saturday3 Sept., 18:00) must register at the Reception Desk until Friday 2 Sept./15:00, paying € 10 (cash only).

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Jacques Fontanille

Emeritus professor of semiotics at the University of Limoges, France

Semiotics, collective and politics. The case of people

Susanne Hauser

Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies, Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Germany

On Places. Semiotics, architecture, and everyday environments

André Helbo

Emeritus professor of semiotics, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Revisiting the semiotics of the performance arts

Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos

Emeritus professor of Urban Planning, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Semiotics and materiality: Some epistemological issues

Theo van Leeuwen

Professor of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark

Some principles of social semiotics

Kobus Marais

Professor of translation studies, Department of Linguistics and Language practice, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

The Thermodynamics of Semiosis

Gianfranco Marrone

Professor of Semiotics, Department of Cultures & Society, University of Palermo, Italy

New trends in the semiotic of food: forms and genres of the gastronomic discourse

Kay O’Halloran

Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

Matter and Meaning in the Digital Age

Clotilde Perez

Professor of Semiotics, Universidade de São Paulo – USP, Brazil

Semiotics of Fashion: between mimeticism, creativity and adaptation

Isabella Pezzini

Professor of Philosophy and Theory of languages, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Trajectories of Identity, Difference, Otherness

Peeter Torop

Professor of Semiotics of Culture University of Tartu, Estonia

Lifeworld, artistic world and semiotics of culture

SPECIAL EVENTS

Jury Lotman 100

2022 is the centenary of the birth of Jury Lotman (1922-2022), the renowned Russian-Estonian semiotician (http://jurilotman.ee ). In collaboration with the University of Tartu, the Estonian Semiotics Association and the Juri Lotman Repository, the 15th World Congress of Semiotics will devote a special section of its scientific program (specially themed panels, roundtables and keynotes) on Lotman’s work, as well as host a series of special events (masterclasses, a virtual book exhibition of translations of Lotman’s works, screening of Lotman’s video-lectures). Details about the Lotman 100 related activities will be announced presently.

3^rd Semiotics Journals Fair

The Third Journals Fair of the IASS will consist of an initial gathering in Thessaloniki featuring an explanation, by each editor of a semiotics journal present, in NO MORE THAN TWO English sentences, of each journal’s specific mission. Then editors will disperse to tables allotted to their journals where they can meet potential contributors from the audience and distribute relevant information, publicity etc. associated with their journals. Early career researchers, especially, are invited to seize this opportunity to speak with semiotics journals editors about their projects and potential publications. Among the editors present will be those for Semiotica, Social Semiotics, Punctum, Digital Age in Semiotics and Communication, and others.

Early Career Researchers Meeting

Further to the IASS-sponsored First World Meeting of Early Career Researchers in Semiotic Studies, held in Medellin, Columbia  https://iass-ais.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Medellin-ECR-meeting-programme-2020.pdf, the IASS will now launch an Early Career Researcher Network. Led by Jorge Eduardo Urueña López (Latin America), Pengjia (Asia), Alin Olteanu (Europe) and Damien Tomaselli (Africa), the launch event in Thessaloniki will seek to bring together ECRs in semiotics across the globe in order to find ways to collaborate, to promote semiotics and to thrive. All IASS members are welcome, but the Network will look to attract the participation of members who have gained a PhD within the last 8, as well as PhD, Masters and undergraduate students”.

Semiotics Journals Exhibition

Whether in print or online-only, semiotic journals around the world are flourishing, evidencing the international momentum gained by semiotics in recent years. Starting with Kaunas (2016), the semiotics journals exhibition forms a standard feature of the World Congresses of Semiotics, aiming to showcase their wide variety and geographical distribution.

Publishers of semiotic journals, interested to be included in the exhibition, are welcome to send sample copies of their publication to the following address:

Evangelos Kourdis
Laboratory of Semiotics
Faculty of Philosophy (New Building)
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
54124 Thessaloniki
Greece

Contact person: George Damaskinidis (damaskinidis@hotmail.com )

New Book Launches

On Wednesday 31 August, 19:30 – 20:30, in Room 5 (1^st floor),the following three new books on translation will be presented:

• Translation, Semiotics, and Feminism: Selected Writings of Barbara Godard, edited by Eva C. Karpinski and Elena Basile. London: Routledge, 2022.
• Exploring the Translatability of Emotions: Cross-Cultural and Transdisciplinary Encounters, edited by Susan Petrilli and Meng Ji. London, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2022.
• Intersemiotic Approaches to Emotions. Translating across Signs, Bodies and Values, edited by Susan Petrilli and Meng Ji. London, Routledge, 2022.

Organizing Committee

Gregory Paschalidis (chair), Evangelos Kourdis, Lia Yioka, Panayiotis Xouplidis, Konstantinos Michos

Executive Committee

Mariet Vaina, George Damaskinidis, Loukia Kostopoulou, Eleni Hondolidou, Lia Petridou, Maria Papadopoulou, Eleni Sideri

Scientific Committee

Mony Almalech, Luis-Emilio Bruni, Gaston Cingolani, Maria Giulia Dondero, Nicola Maria Dusi, José Enrique Finol, Gary Genosko, Ritva Hartama-Heinonen, André Helbo, Anne Henault, Klaus Sachs-Hombach, Tony Jappy, Peng Jia, Christo Kaftandjiev, Sündüz Öztürk Kasar, Eva Kimminich, Pirjo Kukkonen, Eric Landowski, Bernard Lamizet, Massimo Leone, Anna Maria Lorusso, Kobus Marais, Isabel Marcos, Gianfranco Marrone, Dario Martinelli, Inna Merkoulova, João Queiroz, Nedret Ozdokat, Jamin Pelkey, Alain Perusset, Susan Petrilli, Isabella Pezzini, Tiit Remm, Everardo Reyes, Nicolae-Sorin Drăgan, Frederik Stjernfelt, Martin Thellefsen, Torkid Thellefsen, Morten Tønnessen, Didier Tsala, Fotini Tsimbiridou, Theo van Leeuwen, Andreas Ventsel, Patrizia Violi, Yongxiang Wang, Zdzisław Wąsik, Donna West, Lukas R. A. Wilde, Hongbing Yu, Evripides Zantides, Jordan Zlatev

Collegium: Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou, Jacques Fontanille, Dinda L. Gorlée, Claudio Guerri, Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, Kalevi Kull, Alexandros Lagopoulos, Göran Sonesson, Peeter Torop, Henry Yiheng

Bureau IASS-AIS 2019 – 2024

President
Paul Cobley (United Kingdom)

Secretary General
Kristian Bankov (Bulgaria)

Vice-Presidents
José María Paz Gago (Spain), Neyla Pardo (Colombia), Kim Sung-do (Korea), Mohamed Bernoussi (Morocco), Jie Zhang (China)

Treasurer
Daina Teters (Latvia)

Vice-Secretary General
Marita Soto (Argentina)

Honorary Presidents
Eero Tarasti (Finland), ⁺Umberto Eco (Italy), ⁺Jerzy Pelc (Poland), ⁺Roland Posner (Germany), ⁺Cesare Segre (Italy), Gloria Withalm (Austria)
⁺ In memoriam

Categorie:A03- Congressi di Semiotica - Congresses of Semiotics