Daniela Francesca Virdis – University of Cagliari (Italy)

Presentation title:

„Serialised Gender: A Linguistic Analysis of Femininities in Contemporary TV Series and Media.“

Daniela Francesca Virdis (PhD, University of Genoa, Italy) is an Associate Professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and the Secretary of PALA (Poetics And Linguistics Association). She teaches Language & Gender, Stylistics, Pragmatics, Functional Grammar and Structural Grammar in First and Master’s Degree Courses. She is the author of the book Serialised Gender: A Linguistic Analysis of Femininities in Contemporary TV Series and Media (2012), which was awarded the AIA (Italian Association of English Studies) Book Prize 2013 for a monograph in the field of English Language and Linguistics. She is also the author of the book “A spectacle of strangeness”: Diavoli e streghenelteatrogiacomiano (Devils and Witches in the Jacobean Theatre, 2004), the author and editor of the Italian translation of B. Jonson’s The Devil Is an Ass (2003), and a co-editor of the volume Ricerca e didatticaneiCentriLinguisticidiAteneo (Research and Language Teaching in University Language Centres, 2006). She is currently researching language & sexuality, national-ethnic stereotypes and ecostylistics.

Piet Van de Craen – VrijeUniversiteitBrussel, Department of Linguistics (Belgium)

Presentation title: “Content and Language Integrated Learning as a Source for an Interdisciplinary and Neuroscientifically Inspired Paradigm for Learning.”

Piet Van De Craen’s research is focused on multilingualism and multilingual education in a European and international perspective. He is considered one of the main specialists of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Europe and published widely about this and other topics. One of the characteristics of his work is the inclusion of neuroscientific elements in his approach to multilingual education and learning. He is co-founder of the European Language Council/Conseileuropéen pour les langues (1997) under the impulse of Professor Wolfgang Mackiewicz, and he is part of the board of this organisation. He has also co-founded an organisationpromoting and assessing multilingual schools in Brussels, Belgium called STMOB, i.e. stimulating multilingual education in Brussels (2001). He presides this group until today. Within his university he was head of Department (1994-2004), Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2004-2008) as well as Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2009-2013).

Michael Kelly – University of Southampton (UK)

Michael Kelly is Emeritus Professor of French in Modern Languages at the University of Southampton. He is a specialist in modern French culture and society, especially the history of ideas and intellectuals, and in public policy in the area of languages and language education, in the UK and in Europe. He studied French at Warwick University (BA and PhD), and lectured at University College Dublin, before being appointed Professor of French at Southampton. He directed a number of major UK projects, including LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (2000-2016) and the Routes into Languages programme (2006-16). He has been a Board Member of the European Language Council since 1997 and is Editor of the European Journal of Language Policy/ Revue européenne de politiquelinguistique.

He is currently undertaking several research projects in the area of languages. He is editing a book for Palgrave Macmillan on the situation of languages in the UK in the context of Brexit, which argues that it is more important than ever to develop education in languages and cultures. He is co-editing a Handbook on Languages at War, an area of research that he has been active in establishing. His own contribution focuses on the newly emerging importance of remote warfare, whose research implications have been little studied. He is also editing a special number of the EJLP on languages and migration.

MeilutėRamonienė – Vilnius University (Lithuania)

Presentation title: “Multilingualism and Heritage Language Maintenance in Lithuanian Diaspora“.

MeilutėRamonienė is a professor and Head of the Department of Lithuanian Studies at Vilnius University. Her research interests include applied linguistics, teaching foreign languages, sociolinguistics, which she also lectures on at the University of Vilnius. She taught Lithuanian as a foreign language at the University of Helsinki. Her published output includes edited books and papers on language use and language attitudes, language and identity, textbooks for teaching Lithuanian as a second language. She has coordinated research projects “Language usage and ethnic identity in urban areas of Lithuania”, “Sociolinguistic map of Lithuania: cities and towns”, “Language of emigrants”, „The Lithuanian language in diaspora: profficiency, usage, attrition“.

Boris Vejdovsky – University of Lausanne (Switzerland)

Presentation title: “Properly Speaking: The Limits of Language and the Appropriation of the World”.

Boris Vejdovsky, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor (Maître d’Enseignement et de RechercheI) at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland where he teaches American literature and American studies. His central interests are in rhetoric, ethics and cultural formations. He is the author of two books, Ideas of Order: Ethics and Topos in American Literature (Gunter Narr, 2007) and Hemingway: A Life in Pictures (Paris, London, New York, Madrid, Copenhagen, Milan—translated into five languages—, 2010). He is the editor of two volumes, Body Politics (1999) and The Seeming and the Seen (2006); his is also the General Editor of the Peter Lang Series Transatlantic Aesthetics and Culture that has issued seven volumes to date. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on American authors and on the cultural and historical emergence of the phenomenon known as “America.” Boris Vejdovsky has served as the President of the Senate of the University of Lausanne and on various professional boards, including as Chair of the International Committee of the ASA. His current research project is titled “Framing the American West” which is concerned with the aesthetic and political forms of Western movies and their information of American culture.

Lilia Duskaeva (St. Petersburg State University, Russian Federation)

Presentation title:

“The Role of Medialinguistics in the Organization of the International Educational Space: Opportunities and Prospects”.

Head of the Department of Speech Communication at St. Petersburg State University. Organizer of the project of network interaction between St. Petersburg State University and BISU (Beijing) to create a joint Master’s program “Professional Speech in the Media”. Visiting Professor at Beijing University of Foreign Languages.

Prof. Duskaeva has authored about 300 scientific publications, among them publications in English, French, and Polish. Most of her work is devoted to the study of the intentional-stylistic variability of the mass media. Prof. Duskaeva has developed a method of linguo-praxiological analysis of media texts. Author of several books: textbooks and teaching aids Stylistics of the Russian language (Moscow, 2008, 2010, 2012) (in co-authorship with M. N. Kozhina, V.А. Salimovsky), Stylistics of Official and Business Speech (Moscow, 2010, 2012) (in co-operation with O.V.Protopopova). Author and editor of books: Journalism in the Sphere of Leisure (St. Petersburg, 2012), Stylistics of the Russian Language and Literary Editing (Moscow, 2016), Contemporary Russian for Journalists (St. Petersburg, 2014), Contemporary Russian Language. Language Techniques for Creating Media Texts (Moscow, Flint, 2016). Author of the monograph Dialogue Nature of Newspaper Speech Genres (St. Petersburg, 2012), author and editor of monographs The Ethics of Speech Behaviour of a Russian Journalist (St. Petersburg, 2009), Functioning of the Russian Language in Mass Media (St. Petersburg, 2013).
Head of the Medialinguistic Commission under the International Slavists Committee (under the patronage of UNESCO). Editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal Medialinguistics, Member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Stylystyka (Poland), Member of the Scientific Council of the journal PolrocznikJezykoznawczy TERTIUM (Linguistics biannual TERTIUM) (Poland, Krakow), Journalism and the culture of speech (Moscow , Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov), Member of editorial boards of scientific journals Bulletin of Perm University. Russian and foreign philology (Perm, PGNIU), Ecology of Language and Communicative Practice (Krasnoyarsk, SFU). Co-chairman and Chairman of the Program Committee of the International Scientific Conferences “Language in Media Coordinates” (Varna, 2016, St. Petersburg, 2017), Member of the organizing committee of numerous international scientific seminars on medialinguistics (Moscow, 2014, Minsk, 2014, 2017, Belgorod, 2014) Organizer of panel discussions on medialinguistics at international congresses (Cambridge, 2015, Helsinki, 2015).

Rob Dean (Teacher Trainer, PEARSON)

Presentation title: Communication – it’s for REAL.

Workshop title: Variety is the Spice of Life – as well as Communication Practice…

Rob Deanhas been involved in ELT as a teacher, director of studies and teacher trainer since 1994. During this time, he has taught a wide variety of ages and levels in numerous countries in Europe and South East Asia, and is currently based in Poland. Rob has taught a wide variety of course types, from primary to adult, including exam preparation, EAP and English for business and professional purposes. He has numerous interest areas within the world of ELT, including teaching young learners, teaching with technology, language and culture and task based learning. Rob now works as an independent international teacher trainer and academic consultant, and travels widely delivering talks, workshops and seminars as well as online webinars – to teachers all over the world. Over the years, Rob Dean has covered a wide range of topic areas including methodology, language, practical teaching ideas, classroom management, motivation of learners and blended learning to name but a few.

Béatrice Didier à l’EcolenormaleSupérieure (Paris)

Presentation title: Oùsont les femmes?

Béatrice Didierestprofesseurémérite à l’EcolenormaleSupérieure (Paris, Ulm) oùelle a dirigé le département de «Littérature et langages». Auteur de nombreuxessais et communications sur la littératurefrançaise des XVIIIe et XIXe siècle, elles’estintéressée à la fois à la création des femmes (L’Ecriture-femme,P.U.F.,1981) et aux problèmes des dictionnaires (Raison etalphabet, Le paradoxe des dictionnaires au XVIIIe siècle, P.U.F., 1995). Elle a dirigé un Dictionnaireuniversel des Littératures, 3 vol. (P.U.F., 1994), co-dirigé un Dictionnaire des femmes créatrices , 3 vol. (Ed.des Femmes, 2013), contribué à plusieursdictionnaires chez Champion (Dictionnaire Stendhal, Dictionnaire Sand). Elle prépare chez cemêmeéditeur un Dictionnaire Chateaubriand (à paraître).

Iveta Vītola (Regional Manager for the Baltics, Pearson Central Europe Representative Office in the Baltics, Latvia)

Presentation title: “The Power of Education – Pearson Solutions for Better Learning Outcomes”

Iveta Vītola is an English graduate from University of Latvia, has master’s degree in Education management and Business management. She has been involved in ELT as a teacher, ELT specialist and teacher trainer since 1995. Iveta has worked with students of different age groups, from pre-primary to adult, including exam preparation and Business English course. Currently Iveta works for Pearson, world’s leading education company, representing Pearson in the Baltics, assisting specialists in the field of ELT, Qualifications and professional development, assessment and testing, providing workshops and teacher training seminars and organising different initiatives to make sure teachers have access to fresh course materials, methodology ideas and top teaching tips, including training in latest digital solutions for the English classroom.

EleonoraLassan – Vilnius University (Lithuania)

Presentation title: “О виртуальной коммуникациикаквозможномобъектемедиалингвистики (Фэйсбук: взгляд в прошлое)”

EleonoraLassanyraVilniausuniversitetoprofesorė. habilituotahum.m. daktarė. Reikšmingiausidarbaiyramonografijos «Лингвистикаставитдиагноз (очеркдухаэпохи в светеданныхлингвистическогоанализа)» (2011), «Лингвокультурогия (Очеркрусскойконцептологии)» (2008) bei «Дискурсвласти и инакомыслия в СССР: когнитивно-риторическийанализ» (1995). Nuo 2002 m. iki 2015 m. E. Lassanbuvomoksliniotęstinioleidinio «RespectusPhilologicus» vyr.redaktore, šiuometu E. Lassanyra «Вестник РУДН. Сериялингвистика» (Rusija), «Политическаялингвистика» (Rusija), «Лингвориторическаяпарадигма: теоретические и прикладныеаспекты» (Rusija), «Жанрыречи» (Rusija), «Agora: politiniųkomunikacijųstudijos» (Lietuva) redkolegijosnarė. E.Lassanyraapie 90 moksliniųstraipsnių (publikuotųrecenzuojamuoseleidiniuose) autorė, vadovaujant E. Lassanapsigynė 10 doktorantų. 2008 m. E. Lassansuteiktas J. Kochanovskiouniversiteto (Lenkija) garbėsprofesorėsvardas.