About

Recent years of transformation and turbulence have brought specific public attention to how we use language to discuss group belonging — in navigating the shifting symbolics of collectivity, but also in negotiating the ‘natural’ and ‘ideological’ therein. As testified by the proliferating and contested concepts like coro-nationalism, genderism, or (anti)-woke culture, debates over definitions, over naming, upholding, or denying ideologies of difference, remain at the heart of the rising polarizations of our day, as well as of newly imagined solidarities. In this backdrop, sociolinguistic research takes on distinct relevance, and distinct challenges, for academic responses to real-world concerns.

This conference explores the intersections of language, ideology and power, as key to tracing how demarcations of social difference are constructed, negotiated, challenged or subverted in contemporary public discourse. Bringing together scholars working across a range of geopolitical contexts, languages, and topics, the event aims to stimulate broader conversations about sociolinguistic scholarship and its responses to global turbulence and shifts. As we inaugurate the first major sociolinguistics conference located in the post- Yugoslav area — a space where the very meanings of ‘ideology’, ‘difference’, and, in particular, language, have long been fiercely contested — we hope that the event will inspire new dialogues locally, and bring fresh perspectives to theory globally.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

  • Kathryn Woolard, University of California, San Diego 
  • Rodrigo Borba, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • Jillian Cavanaugh, City University of New York

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

  • Jonathan Charteris-Black, University of the West of England
  • Brian King, City University of Hong Kong
  • Jillian Cavanaugh, CUNY, New York
  • Jennifer Coates, University of Roehampton
  • Paul Baker, University of Lancaster
  • Susan Nacey, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
  • Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
  • Tommaso Milani, Gotheborg University
  • Michelle Lazar, National University of Singapore
  • Veronika Koller, University of Lancaster

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

  • Ksenija Bogetić, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts 
  • Tanja Petrović, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts