Hellenic American University / Hellenic American College announces the:
1st International Conference on
“Europe in Discourse: Identity, Diversity, Borders”
The Conference seeks to examine issues in the ongoing construction of European identity, including notions of diversity and (physical and symbolic) borders. It will focus on critical investigations that draw on discourse theory or bottom-up
textual analysis to investigate these topics from the following perspectives:
- historical, to explore the determinants which have been used to support a collective European identity;
- geopolitical, to understand the importance of space and its role in the European edifice;
- ideological/discursive, to investigate, synchronically and diachronically, key concepts that have informed EU practices of inclusion and exclusion. Methodologically, the Conference will highlight discourse as a major practice that both shapes and reflects European identity. The Conference welcomes contributions that investigate the role that key European Union texts have played in forging, maintaining or challenging European identities. The conference will thus highlight identity not as a static concept but as a construct that is continually negotiated and re-written in multiple discourses. In addition to attracting contributions from discourse analysts and linguists, the Conference hopes to bring together leading scholars and researchers from a broad range of other fields, including history, European studies, cultural theory, media studies, sociology, political science, economics, and ethnology.
