36.3420, Confs: 34th Conference on British and American Studies (Romania)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3420. Mon Nov 10 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3420, Confs: 34th Conference on British and American Studies (Romania)

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Date: 07-Nov-2025
From: Loredana Bercuci [loredana.bercuci at e-uvt.ro]
Subject: 34th Conference on British and American Studies


34th Conference on British and American Studies
Short Title: BAS34
Theme: Reconfiguring Borders and Boundaries in/through the Lens of
Literature, Language and Culture

Date: 14-May-2026 - 16-May-2026
Location: Timişoara, Romania
Contact: Luminiţa Frenţiu
Contact Email: luminita.frentiu at e-uvt.ro
Meeting URL: https://bas.events.uvt.ro/

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics;
Discourse Analysis; Language Acquisition; Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Submission Deadline: 15-Feb-2026

The English Department of the Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy
and Theology, West University of Timișoara, is pleased to announce its
34th international conference on British and American Studies, on the
theme “Reconfiguring Borders and Boundaries in/through the Lens of
Literature, Language and Culture,” which will be held on 14-16 May
2026.
Recent times have seen the creation of new borders and boundaries,
such as those between humans and artificial intelligence, as well as
the re-emergence of old ones, especially along nationalist, racial,
ethnic, gender, class and religious divides. Such dynamics are
connected to contemporary sociopolitical, cultural and technological
transformations and crises, among which the wide reach of mis- and
disinformation, the dissolution of trust in science and institutions,
the rise of ethnonationalist populism and authoritarianism, the
mainstreaming of exclusionary rhetoric, armed conflicts, environmental
disasters and large movements of populations, to name but a few. At
the same time, the duality of borders and boundaries, erected not only
to separate, exclude or divide, but also to protect and cognitively
map social reality (Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024), prompts reflection on
the potential contained therein for bridging and crossing over.
Borders are physical and territorial, while boundaries are symbolic,
sociocultural and moral, productive of differentiation and
hierarchization through practices of inclusion/exclusion and ordering
(Lamont & Molnár, 2002; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024). Many scholars,
however, consider them interrelated and mutually constitutive, or even
use them interchangeably, depending on the context (Fischer, Achermann
& Dahinden, 2020; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss &
Cassidy, 2019). The currently dominant approach to the study of
borders and boundaries conceptualizes them as multiscalar, relational,
processual and performative spaces and constructs, constantly made and
remade, (re)produced but also challenged, in top-down and bottom-up
practices, experiences and discourses, as sites of both governance and
agency formation (Brambilla et al., 2015; Fischer, Achermann &
Dahinden, 2020; Paasi, 2013;  Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis,
Wemyss & Cassidy, 2019). To bring these aspects into relief, the
concepts of ‘bordering,’ ‘boundary making’ or ‘boundary work’ have
been introduced and used alongside, and even instead of, the more
static ‘borders’ and ‘boundaries.’ In a broad sense, bordering and
boundary work involve, beyond nation-states and their transformation
in a global world, other types of space (global cities, rural areas,
frontiers, peripheries, public/private), identification practices
(belonging, otherness, intersectionality), time (past/present/future),
politics (ideological boundaries), disciplines, and so on.
A non-comprehensive list of the theoretical insights that inform the
study of borders and boundaries encompasses the following: the
socially constructed nature of space and its embeddedness in power
relations (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994; Soja, 1996) and struggles
across global, regional and local scales (Brenner, 2001; Jessop, 2002;
Mahler & Pessar, 2003); the fragmentation, fluidity, hybridization and
performativity of identities (Bhabha, 1994; Butler, 1990; Hall, 1997);
the articulation of belonging and citizenship across transnational
networks and flows through physical, virtual, imaginary and affective
co-presence, but also simultaneous inclusion in one space and
exclusion from another (Ahmed, 2003; Baldassar, 2008; Levitt & Glick
Schiller, 2004; Vertovec, 2009; Yuval-Davis, 2011); the formation of
inequality and oppression across multiple, intersecting axes
(Crenshaw, 1989); the global (im)mobilities of people, objects,
communication technologies, information, images and money (Urry,
2007); governmentality, biopolitics (Foucault, 1977-1979) and
necropolitics (Mbembe, 2006). Due to the complexity of bordering and
boundary making, their research has fostered inter- and
transdisciplinary dialogue, with contributions from the humanities
gaining increasing weight over time (Brambilla et al., 2015; Paasi,
2013; Wilson & Hastings, 2012). Borders and boundaries are
symbolically construed, (re)produced, negotiated, performed, mediated
in literary and cultural discourses, in social and public imaginaries
and narratives, in artistic creations and installations, in
multilingual encounters, translations, linguistic change, discursive
stances, positionings and interactions.
We therefore invite papers in literature, language and culture
addressing, but not limited to, the reconfiguration of borders and
boundaries in/through:
 - representations, narratives, identities and stances in discourse
(literary, media, cultural)
 - imaginaries and ideologies in discourse (literary, media, cultural)
 - cognitive metaphors, schemas and cultural models
 - linguistic interaction practices
 - translation and multilingual practices
 - academic writing practices
 - language and discourse change in contemporary cultural and
sociopolitical contexts (inclusive, nonviolent,
discriminatory/exclusionary,  - polarized language and discourse)
 - theoretical and analytical approaches to the study of borders and
boundaries in the humanities
 - critical approaches
 - interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary intersections in theory and
methodology
Presentations (20 min) are invited in the following sections:
 - Language Studies
 - Translation Studies
 - Discourse and Rhetorical Studies
 - British and Commonwealth Literature
 - American Literature
 - Cultural Studies
 - Gender Studies
 - English Language Teaching
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Prof. Robert Asen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Prospects for Democracy in an Authoritarian Age – A Rhetorical
Approach
Prof. Steven Conn, Miami University
Landscapes of Loss
Prof. Elisabetta Marino, University of Rome Tor Vergata
Crossing Borders, Defying Boundaries: Women Travel Writers in the
Victorian Age
Prof. Ruxandra Vișan, University of Bucharest
Rethinking Linguistic Boundaries: Representations of Gender-Inclusive
Language
Round Table: Crisis in the Humanities/ Humanities in Crisis
Workshop: Rethinking Tools for Quality Assessment in Legal Translation
Abstract Submission:
Please submit 150-word abstracts, which will be included in the
conference programme:
to our registration form: https://forms.gle/sKZTkuZJkR4rH41A9
or to Dr Reghina Dascăl, reghina_dascal at yahoo.co.uk;
reghina.dascal at e-uvt.ro
Deadline: 15 February 2026
Conference website: https://bas.events.uvt.ro/
Event website:
https://lift.uvt.ro/event/34th-conference-on-british-and-american-studies14-16-may-2026/
For additional information, please contact:
Luminiţa Frenţiu, luminita.frentiu at e-uvt.ro
Loredana Pungă, loredana.punga at e-uvt.ro



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