Identity and Language in Migratory Contexts of Contemporary Societies
Identity and Language in Migratory Contexts of Contemporary Societies
Due to the increasing specialisation of research and corresponding processes of institutionalisation, linguistics and literary studies are considered today as two distinct disciplines in the humanities. But in thematic interfaces between both disciplines, an interdisciplinary cooperation can give important insights. The interdisciplinary conference on “Identity and Language in Migratory Contexts of Contemporary Societies” wants to foster this exchange, focussing on language as a basic element of identity construction in contexts of linguistic and cultural contacts which have been caused by migration in contemporary societies – a subject of strong topical interest, both in linguistics and literary studies. The contributions will analyse multilingual constellations in different historical, social and political contexts such as postcolonial contexts, contexts of political and economic migration or contexts that have resulted from political or economic domination.
In order to assure to assure that the various linguistic and literary contributions have a stimulating influence upon each other, teams have been formed that are composed of a researcher in linguistics and literary studies respectively. This will facilitate the interdisciplinary work on thematic and / or methodological interfaces and allow to discover further research questions and topics of relevance. Owing to to the keen interest within the different departments of the humanities at the University of Duisburg-Essen, researchers that cover a broad variety of languages and cultures – such as the Romance Languages, German Studies, Turkish Studies and Anglophone Studies – will be represented, as well as national and international guest researchers.