37.1179, Confs: Arguing and Storytelling with AI: Narratives, Rhetorics, and Epistemic Practices in Communicative Negotiations (Germany)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1179. Mon Mar 23 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1179, Confs: Arguing and Storytelling with AI: Narratives, Rhetorics, and Epistemic Practices in Communicative Negotiations (Germany)

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Date: 21-Mar-2026
From: Sascha Michel [s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de]
Subject: Arguing and Storytelling with AI: Narratives, Rhetorics, and Epistemic Practices in Communicative Negotiations


Arguing and Storytelling with AI: Narratives, Rhetorics, and Epistemic
Practices in Communicative Negotiations

Date: 16-Sep-2026 - 19-Sep-2026
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact: Sascha Michel
Contact Email: s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de
Meeting URL: https://kwg-ev.org/jahrestagungen/kritik-und-kultur-2026/

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics;
Linguistic Theories; Pragmatics; Text/Corpus Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
                     German (deu)

Submission Deadline: 29-May-2026

Artificial intelligence is currently transforming not only the
production of texts, images, and knowledge, but also the communicative
and cultural practices of identity and relationship management. The
“interface” (cf. Hookway 2014) between humans and machines generates
interactive practices shaped by both human and non-human systems of
order, leading either to an imitation of human interaction practices
or to emergent “interface practices” (cf. Hector 2025). This also has
implications for cultures of conflict and dispute. A new quality
emerges when AI itself is made into a discourse actor—for example,
when Grok on X or Meta’s AI is integrated into WhatsApp communication
(cf. Meier/Michel, forthcoming).
This raises new questions that require us to situate the function of
communicative practices of AI chatbots when they are integrated into
negotiation processes of social and/or interpersonal relationships:
Can AI have an escalating or rather de-escalating effect? How should
the status of generative systems be assessed when they are used as
co-authors, discourse partners, or rhetorical tools? What about
responsibility, evidence, or authority when AI is involved in
negotiations or even conflict situations?
>From the new interplay between machine-available training data and
algorithmic logic on the one hand, and human intention and emotion on
the other, new forms of creativity are also emerging. The presentation
and defense of positions no longer rely solely on a supposedly human
intellectual capacity, as AI increasingly provides significant
argumentative (cf. Chen et al. 2024; Vigean 2024; Musi et al. 2025) as
well as rhetorical (cf. Wu et al. 2025) resources for persuasive
purposes. Likewise, dramaturgically calculated storytelling can no
longer be attributed solely to the craft and creative ingenuity of an
author (cf. Sui et al. 2024; Jenner et al. 2025). This cooperation
between AI and humans is giving rise to new forms of knowledge,
identity, and relationship management. AI-supported argumentation and
storytelling thus create a new triangular form of corresponding
human–machine–human interaction that urgently calls for
cultural-scientific reflection.
The panel conference “Arguing and Storytelling with AI: Narratives,
Rhetorics, and Epistemic Practices in Communicative Negotiations” is
therefore dedicated to examining these transformations from a cultural
studies perspective. The focus is on practices, aesthetics,
discourses, as well as disputes and conflicts surrounding AI-supported
forms of argumentation and storytelling in science, media, politics,
business, art, activism, education, and everyday communication.
Contributions are invited that combine theoretical reflections with
empirical case studies or artistic-research approaches.
Possible topics and guiding questions include, among others:
 - What (emergent) interactive practices arise from interface
communication between human and non-human systems of order in
argumentation and storytelling? This also includes semiotic aspects
such as the interweaving of the respective sign systems used.
 - To what extent can established theories of argumentation and
storytelling be applied to these interface phenomena?
 - How might generative systems transform practices of argumentation
and dispute?
 - What might narrative co-production or collaborative writing and
storytelling by human–machine authorships look like?
 - To what extent are epistemic authority, trust, and evidence
attributed to AI in empirical discourse practice?
 - To what extent can prompting be understood as a new cultural
technique?
 - What forms of didactic transfer can be conceived between AI
assistance and human teaching practices?
This conference takes place as part of the section “Kommunikation –
Medien – Kultur” at this year’s annual meeting of the
Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft e.V.
Submission of Proposals:
We welcome proposals (max. 500 words) from a range of disciplines.
Presentations (20 + 10 minutes) may be given in German or English. The
panel will be conducted in a hybrid format.
Deadline for Submission:
Proposals for presentations can be sent to the organizers
(st.meier at uni-koblenz.de | s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de) by May 29,
2026.



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