Disrupting Normal: Becoming Researchers 2024
The second edition of the student-centered conference Disrupting Normal: Becoming Researchers took place on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 June 2024 at the main building of the University of Thessaly in Volos (Argonauton & Filellinon). The conference was coordinated by a broad group of students from the Department of Language and Intercultural Studies, with Roula Kitsiou and Katerina Makri as the professors in charge.
The program was organized into four thematic sections:
- Student practices and realities
- Sociolinguistic identity performances and constructions
- Youth and adolescent “voices,” practices, and interventions
- Physical and digital space: multimodal meanings, materialities, negotiations
In these sections, papers by students of the department were presented, which were developed as part of the course Research Methodology I during the academic year 2023-2024, under the supervision of assistant professor Katerina Makri. Also presented were undergraduate theses completed under the supervision of Roula Kitsiou and Katerina Makri, as well as intervensions by PhD candidates. The Linguistic Landscape Diaries group (VLLRG) also presented the results of its research on the sociolinguistic construction of prohibition in the linguistic landscape of Volos, Athens, and Istanbul.
Alongside the talks, interactive workshops took place on the university premises on the first day. The Language café “PROHIBITED” focused on the issue of prohibition in the linguistic landscape, while in the workshop “Let’s Play Sociolinguistic Games,” participants played board games created by students of the Department of Language and Intercultural Studies and by Erasmus students. This was followed by the first part of the Linguistic Landscape walking tour workshop titled “Mapping gendered representations in the linguistic landscape of Volos,” which was completed on the second day with the parallel workshop “Critically deconstructing gendered representations in the linguistic landscape.”
The second day also included a round table on education in prison, with members of the program “ActInPrison – Interaction matters: Research on development of alternative curricular experiences for young prisoners and prospective teachers.” Subsequently, as part of the initiative #research-crossings_bridges-of-communication, the Linguistic Landscape Diaries group (VLLRG) (University of Thessaly) and the Lab of Ethnographic Study of Language (University of the Aegean) had the opportunity to present their work and exchange perspectives and ideas for future collaborations.
