Call for Papers: Language in Crisis, Crisis in Language, Language on Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives From Antiquity to Modern Times
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01. October 2025
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Call for papers
Language in Crisis, Crisis in Language, Language on Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives From Antiquity to Modern Times
November 20th-21st, 2025
online (University of Cologne)
Deadline: October 13th, 2025
The online conference “Language in Crisis, Crisis in Language, Language on Crisis. Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Ancient to Modern Times” explores this mutual influence between historical moments of crisis and the usage of language across different ancient cultures and is particularly interested in how insights in the ancient thoughts about the intersection of crisis and language can help us to better understand the role of language in our own societies. Besides, we would like to inspire a discussion upon potential common traits across cultures in their reactions to internal strife by and through language that might reflect universal human experiences.
Outline of the Program
The conference will be held online on November 20th/21st, 2025. On the first evening, a keynote lecture given by a guest speaker will introduce the conference. On the second day, six contributions of 30 minutes each (25 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for discussion) will take place from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M. CET (including an hour-long lunch break), concluding in a panel discussion led by the organisers from 4 P.M. to 5 P.M. CET. The language of the conference will be English.
Abstracts
Proposals for contributions are welcomed from every scholarly level: submissions by early career scholars are particularly encouraged. A distinctive character of this conference is its comparative and intercultural approach. We are therefore looking for contributions covering a wide range of ancient cultures, among others, Egyptology, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Classics, Mesoamerican Studies, Indoeuropean Linguistics and others.
Proposals for contributions should not exceed 500 words (excluding bibliography) and should be emailed as anonymized PDF to Isabel Caspar (icaspar1@uni-koeln.de) and Margherita Coughlan (margheritacoughlan@gmail.com) no later than October 13th, 2025. Applicants will be informed about the outcome of their submission ca. 15 days after the deadline.
Contact
For further inquiries, please contact Isabel Caspar (icaspar1@uni-koeln.de) or Margherita Coughlan (margheritacoughlan@gmail.com). We look forward to your submissions and to an engaging conference!
The complete Call for Papers can be downloaded as PDF.
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