[I-LanD Research Centre] I-LanD Research Centre_Governing Board Meeting - December 21, 2020_Minutes

Sat Jan 9 14:45:34 UTC 2021

Dear all, 

I hope this finds you well. First, let me wish you all a successful 2021, hoping the new year will achieve better results than 2020. 

Enclosed to this email please find the minutes of the Governing Board meeting of the I-LanD Research Centre, which took place on Monday, December 21, 2020, at 10:30 a.m., via Skype, to discuss the following agenda items: 

1. Languaging Diversity 2021: latest updates 
2. I-Land Journal
3. New I-Land Governing Board membership proposals 
4. New Statute of the I-Land Centre
5. Creation of the I-Land Centre Website 
6. New I-Land Centre membership proposals
7. Additions to the agenda

For legal reason, being the Centre based in Italy, the minutes are in Italian, but here is a short summary of the main topics discussed during the meeting (summarised by the Secretary of the I-LanD Research Centre, Margherita Rasulo):

Item # 1 
The Director of the I-Land Research Centre, Giuseppe Balirano, opens the floor for the discussion of Item #1 regarding the upcoming Languaging Diversity Conference, which will be held at Lille University and coordinated by Giuditta Caliendo, Maarten Lemmens and Mégane Lesuisse. After a brief update on the advancement of conference preparations, Giuditta Caliendo specifies that the conference, whose provisional title is The Linguistic Construction of Societal and Emotional Challenges, aims to bring to the fore the discursive representations of current social challenges and how they are invoked in a range of communicative acts. The core aspect of this broad conference theme is emotion discourse and its rhetorical devices, and how these are exploited to achieve certain ambitions and enact specific ideologies, not only in linguistics but also in other fields of scientific research. In fact, Giuditta Caliendo explains that the conference is open to diverse research areas and to a wide-ranging application of methodological approaches; a more detailed Call for Papers is on the way. She also informs the Board that, although the conference is scheduled to take place in Fall 2021, it is expected to take place online due to the current pandemic and the high probability of enforced last minute travel bans. To this purpose, Giuditta Caliendo and her colleagues are taking into consideration the American-based e-learning platform, Underline.io. The platform regularly hosts large academic events and provides a variety of flexible digital tools and spaces that parallel those that are available on site. Included in these affordances is Underline.io's translation service, a welcomed feature especially considering the multilingual nature of the conference. Giuditta Caliendo also guarantees that conference registration fees would not exceed € 50,00 to cover all costs, including platform contract and keynote speaker expenses. 

Item #2 
The Director informs the Board that the I-Land Journal, at present accredited as a scientific journal, is undertaking the official procedure to become a top-ranking publication (Italian classe A). In Norway, the Journal has already achieved this goal, and is now on this country's Ministry of Education list of top-ranking interdisciplinary scientific journals.
Cristina Nisco, chief co-editor, briefly lists the issues of the Journal that have already been published, and those that are in the making for 2020/2021. Giuditta Caliendo, chief co-editor, informs the Board that for the recent launch of Issue #1 / 2020, its guest editors organized an online round table with the authors of the contributions, and invites future guest editors to take similar initiatives to increase both the international visibility and the impact of the Journal. This is especially important considering that open access publication is an option which is still being pursued, but it is a complex procedure with a number of challenges and problems that need to be addressed. 
Ending the discussion of Item # 2 is the announcement that Antonio Fruttaldo (University of Naples "L'Orientale") is now its Managing Editor. The Editorial Assistants are Emanuela Ammendola (University of Naples "Pathenope"), Océane Foubert (Université de Lille), Federico Pio Gentile (University of Naples "L'Orientale"), Yosra Ghliss (Université de Picardie Jules Verne), Catherine Ruchon (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Pléiade), and Nadia Ruchon (ISTEC Bruxelles). Also, in order to enhance the Journal's international standing, the editorial team has a new position of International Coordinator, and it is presently held by Catherine Ruchon (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Pléiade). 

Item # 3
Giuseppe Balirano introduces two new members of the governing Board: Mirko Casagranda (UNICAL), and Lorena Carbonara (UNICAL); both conduct research in the fields of Diversity and Inclusion. 

Item # 4
Cristina Nisco, in her capacity as Deputy Director, explains that as the Statute is due for an update, all members of the Board will now be required to sign the new version; further details will be given once the revised Statute is ready. With reference to this point, Marco Venuti from the University of Catania asks to be recognized to speak. He poses a problem that concerns the documented presence of the Centre's convention within his department. It is his experience that the research conducted on behalf of the Centre cannot be audited or accounted for, both in terms of expenses and research activity, the reason being that the I-Land convention is signed by the University and not by the individual department. The Director invites other members of the Board to verify if this is also the case with their departments. 

Item #5
The Director informs the Board that it is now possible to create an official I-Land Centre website, thanks to some additional research funds. In order to do so, it is necessary to outsource a web design company to deal with the procedures of exporting and importing already existing data from the old site onto the new platform. 

Item #6
With reference to this Item, the Director emphasizes the importance of taking on new members whose profile is strictly connected with the research interests pursued by the Centre. He then moves that the following scholars be accepted for new membership: Roberta La Peruta (UNIOR); Sergio Pizziconi (UNISTRASI); Raffaele Pizzo (UNIPARTHENOPE); Maria Pia Di Buono (UNIOR). The Board seconds the motion and accepts.

Item #7
The Director explains that due to the current situation with the global pandemic, requests for visiting scholars to the Centre are suspended, including those previously approved: Albert Martí Ferrer (PhD student from Universitat de València); Dolores Porto Requejo (Lecturer from Universidad de Alcalá). 
Next, the Director asks the Board members who were the convenors of the previously held Languaging Diversity conferences to explain the delay in publishing conference papers. Marco Venuti clarifies that the conference papers from the Catania edition are now part of two publications; the third is on the way. Claudia Ortu, organizer of the Cagliari edition, explains that submitted contributions are now being reviewed. The same difficulty is being experienced with the KU Leuven edition of the conference; both Paul Sambre and Inge Lanslots have been contacted, but no official reply has yet been received. As for the 2019 Zaragoza conference, Board member, Francesca De Cesare, will contact the conference convenors and give us an update on their decision regarding publication options.

Let me again wish you all a happy new year.

Kind regards,
Giuseppe Balirano

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I-LanD Research Centre

Università di Napoli "L'Orientale"
Palazzo S. Maria Porta Coeli
Via Duomo, 219 - 80138 Naples
Room 1.23 
ph. +39 081 6909861
website: http://www.unior.it/ateneo/14038/1/i-land-research-centre.html

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