[Lgpolicy] CfP: The Politics of Intercomprehension (UMons, Belgium), June 2026

Tue Jan 6 13:25:18 UTC 2026

Dear colleagues,

Please find below the details of a very interesting looking conference coming up at the Université de Mons (Belgium). Some of the key facts:

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Conference dates: June 18-19, 2026
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Extended submission deadline: January 15, 2026
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Keynote speakers: Lou Harvey (University of Leeds), Maite Puigdevall Serralvo (Univeristat Oberta de Catalunya)
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Contact (and send abstract submissions to): Camille Marvin, camille.marvin at umons.ac.be

Happy new year and all the best,
James

The Politics of Intercomprehension (Université de Mons, Belgium), June 18-19, 2026

Studies of language acquisition, language education and other contexts of multilingualism present intercomprehension as the phenomenon of understanding, or being understood, through different modes of communication (Grandgeorge: 2020, p. 14). It is a transdisciplinary and “polyhedral concept” (Popescu: 2015, p. 183): researchers employ distinct formulations, but all play with the (inter)action of understanding in contexts of difference. This has real political stakes, though they have not always been acknowledged. What does it mean to understand a message, as it relates to power and recognition? What does it mean to understand a person, or to understand each other? Is understanding always necessary? And when (and for whom) is it a privilege? The aim of this two-day conference is to tug at the ideological threads woven into intercomprehension and unfasten it from its purely linguistic interpretation to achieve a transdisciplinary understanding. We hope that this gathering of different academic and activist perspectives will engender a more inclusive framing of the concept.

In the Global North, linguistic intercomprehension is understood as the process of an interlocutor understanding unknown languages within the same linguistic family as their primarily used languages (Melo-Pfeifer: 2015). It has been lauded as a practice subversive to monolingual norms and aligned with European values (Clua: 2007; Dzik: 2019; Meiẞner: 2011), without much contextualization of the colonial ontology underpinning European frameworks of multilingualism and multiculturalism. Projects of minority language revitalization have increasingly promoted intercomprehension as a tool for democratic collaboration, but its consequences for linguistically-isolated communities (e.g. Euskera in Euskal Herria, which does not belong to the same linguistic family as neighboring minority languages) has not been explored. What are the benefits and limitations to such practices? How does increased technological intervention transform these practices? Furthermore, we invite contributions that critically explore how politics of intercomprehension are enacted for vulnerable groups, particularly when understanding and intelligibility are transformed into responsibilities rather than rights. For instance, situations of migration and (im)mobility offer unique contexts to further understand how intercomprehension happens when people are mixed together or forced apart (Faulstich-Orellana and Rodríguez-Minkoff: 2016).

With this conference we aspire to highlight contexts of communication often neglected by hearing academics, such as those explored in Deaf Studies and Disability Studies. Intercomprehension is often characterized as an inherent element of communication in deaf communities (Zeshan: 2015), an idea which scholars have critically examined (see Bagga-Gupta: 2019; De Meulder et al.: 2019; Moriarty Harrelson: 2019; Moriarty Harrelson and Kusters: 2021). Studies such as these navigate the relation between intercomprehension and intersubjectivity as tools to analyze how people create shared understanding (Gillespie & Cornish: 2009; Heasman & Gillespie: 2019). Research on neurodivergence illuminates the topic of intercomprehension and how language users ‘queer’ ableist notions of languaging and understanding (Walker: 2015). It is essential to include such perspectives in our discussions so that hearing and neurotypical academics do not perpetuate ableism, audism and oralism through their work and theorizations of comprehension and intelligibility (Bauman: 2004; O’Connell: 2021; Rajagopalan: 2010).

We also invite participants to analyze the relationships between intercomprehension and different conceptualizations of multilingualism. Of particular interest is the moral and ideological work that surrounds this intersection. For example, does the application of intercomprehension practices signify a more democratic future for language users, or are its liberatory aspects overstated, as Jürgen Jaspers warned with translanguaging (2018)? Moreover, the ontological limits of linguistic intercomprehension seem to be restrained to human multilingualism. How can the “animal turn” in sociolinguistics (Cornips: 2025) contribute to theorizing intercomprehension as a distributed and emergent property between sociomaterial actors, human and non-human?

This conference welcomes creative approaches to questions such as these to understand the political and ideological contours of a multilingual future based in intercomprehension.

Submission guidelines:

Extended deadline for submissions: January 15th, 2026

We aim to offer a space and occasion for transdisciplinary collaboration, and invite contributions from scholars, educators, activists, artists and students in the form of 20 minute presentations. These presentations can be traditional research papers but we remain open to other more interactive and creative formats.

The conference is linguistically flexible: we invite the inclusion of other languages, but request that at least one element of the presentation (e.g. visual, spoken) be presented in English. Sign language interpreting services will be available for deaf participants.

Submissions for contributions should include an abstract or proposal written in English, of no more than 400 words. Please include the title of your presentation, as well as contributor details (full name, pronouns if desired, email address, affiliations). A reference list is not required.

If you plan to propose a presentation of more than one author/presenter, only one submission is required, but please include the details of all presenters. Please send your submission to camille.marvin at umons.ac.be. You will receive confirmation of your abstract's reception and will be notified of acceptance by the end of January 2026.

--

Dr James Hawkey

Associate Professor in Linguistics and Catalan Studies

Director of Catalan Studies

School of Modern Languages

University of Bristol

Tel: +44 (0)117 455 2631<tel:+441174552631>

My pronouns are he/him

Sign up to my office hours [docx icon]  here<https://uob-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/jh14265_bristol_ac_uk/EdY_OIA3Zd1Oi2IqYlDyiIcB2WzlrODvWc5K5r_rZD0MXA?e=h4wSsX>.

Chair of the International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society

Co-editor-in-chief of Sociolinguistica<https://www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/soci/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOorjUq4W2RaaKQC2_9cLGA68M2lU9b3HnjrH1-Z4Fe0SrZYfKwLD>

Recent publications:

Hawkey, J. and Jiménez-Salcedo, J. 2026. ‘The development and use of multilingual repertoires in bilingual classrooms: Between policy and practice in the <https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2025.2573917> Escola Andorrana<https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2025.2573917>’<https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2025.2573917>, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 29, 46-64.

Hawkey, J. 2024. ‘La política lingüística i les experiències d’integració de les persones amb orígens migratoris: el cas de la comunitat portuguesa a Andorra’<https://revistes.eapc.gencat.cat/index.php/rld/article/view/4182/5437>, Revista de Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law 81, 51-68.

Hawkey, J. 2023. ‘Variation in Andorran Spanish past perfectives: Insights from the Portuguese Diaspora’<https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.21012.haw>, Spanish in Context 20, 154-177.

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