37.2572, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Artificial Others: Bridges or Barriers? Discursive Perspectives on Robots in Polarised Societies (Finland)

Wed Aug 5 12:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2572. Wed Aug 05 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2572, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Artificial Others: Bridges or Barriers? Discursive Perspectives on Robots in Polarised Societies (Finland)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================

Date: 04-Aug-2026
From: Emma Lupano, Bettina Mottura, Natalia Riva [artificialothers at proton.me]
Subject: Panel at IPC20 - Artificial Others: Bridges or Barriers? Discursive Perspectives on Robots in Polarised Societies

Panel at IPC20 - Artificial Others: Bridges or Barriers? Discursive
Perspectives on Robots in Polarised Societies
Theme: Artificial Others: Bridges or Barriers? Discursive Perspectives
on Robots in Polarised Societies

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact Email: artificialothers at proton.me

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Text/Corpus
Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 15-Sep-2026

Abstract submission by 15 September 2026 to:
artificialothers at proton.me
Panel organisers: Emma Lupano, Bettina Mottura, Natalia Riva
Bridges are not built only between people. They are also imagined
through the figures, technologies, and social actors that societies
create to negotiate difference. Among these figures, humanoid robots
and biomimetic agents occupy a revealing position: they are
simultaneously technological artefacts, cultural objects, and
discursive constructions.
In a period marked by growing social and political polarisation,
public discourse increasingly presents artificial agents as potential
mediators, companions, assistants, or, conversely, as threats and
sources of disruption. This panel examines discourse about robots
rather than human–robot interaction itself, while recognising the
close relationship between representations of artificial agents and
the forms of interaction they make possible.
The panel explores how linguistic and multimodal resources contribute
to the construction of robots as social actors and how these
constructions shape understandings of otherness, agency, and social
cohesion. We are particularly interested in the metaphors, narratives,
evaluative practices, and stance-taking strategies through which
humanoid and biomimetic robots are represented in different social,
political, cultural, and linguistic contexts. While the panel is not
inherently contrastive, it encourages contributions that can help shed
light on local, national or international discursive trends on the
subject.
Possible topics of research include (but are not limited to):
 - the institutional, corporate, and policy discourses that formulate
promises, expectations, or warnings concerning robots in social
domains;
 - the ethical debates surrounding the deployment of robots in
contexts such as education, healthcare, social management, justice,
political dialogue, and military activities;
 - the discursive representations of biomimetic robots and the ways
they blur or reinforce categorical boundaries between humans, animals,
plants, and machines.
We welcome established as well as innovative analytical approaches
including metaphor analysis, critical discourse studies, conversation
analysis, corpus pragmatics, historical pragmatics, and related
frameworks, in order to shed light on:
 - narratives that portray robots as agents of conflict resolution,
reconciliation, or social integration, as well as discourses that
challenge or resist such visions;
 - metaphors and figurative framings of robots as bridges, mediators,
servants, threats, or mirrors of the human, and their variation across
languages and cultures;
 - epistemic markers, evaluative language, and other pragmatic
resources that contribute to attribution or denial of intentionality,
emotions, and agency;
 - discursive strategies such as humour and irony that either humanise
or delegitimise artificial agents.
By bringing together pragmatics, discourse analysis, human–robot
interaction, and science and technology studies, the panel aims to
advance understanding of how discourse about artificial beings may
contribute to either reinforcing or reconfiguring contemporary social
divides.
Please send a short bio of max. 150 words and an abstract of min.
250-max. 500 words with 5 key bibliographical sources to
artificialothers at proton.me.
Abstract submission deadline: 15 September 2026.
Acceptance notifications will be sent out by the end of September
2026.
The panel is part of the 20th International Pragmatics Conference to
be held at the University of Helsinki, Finland, from 27 June to 2 July
2027. For further information, please check the Conference link:
https://pragmatics.international/page/Conferences
Please note that the conference will be held only in person. Travel
and accommodation expenses are to be covered by the participants.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Australian Linguistics Society https://als.asn.au/Home

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2572
----------------------------------------------------------