Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis 6

Submission Deadline: 30-Nov-2026

Conference Topic:

The central theme of the conference addresses the link between identity and the digital sphere, particularly how various identities are discursively constructed and performed within the diverse constraints and affordances of various digital platforms. The papers presented at the conference will apply various approaches to digitally-mediated discourse analysis, including multimodal studies, critical linguistics, sociopragmatics, corpus-assisted discourse analysis etc. that probe the discursive and semiotic resources relevant to digital identity practices.

The possible topics include, but are not limited to, questions of how various kinds of platformed identities emerge, and how they are constructed, manifested, affirmed, (re)negotiated, contested, challenged, undermined, discredited, abandoned, etc. The focus may be on how online and offline identities interact, how personal and institutional identities complement each other, how real and virtual identities are enacted, how fake and performed identities are unmasked, how intra-group and inter-group identities are exploited for bonding and conflict, how frontstage and backstage identities, and any of the myriad other ways in which various identities are constructed, indexed, demonstrated and exploited in digital discourse along their many possible types and dimension.

We are interested not only in how the virtual self is discursively constructed across digital genres and social media platforms but also in how various communities – both offline and online – relate across time and space in digital discourses, and how multiple identities coexist, possibly complementing or contradicting each other. The papers will address various types of the digital self (individual / relational / collective / networked) and their discursive formations, negotiations and transformations but also the relevant discursive processes affecting such forms of identities, including their authentication, legitimation, (de)naturalization, etc. possibly in view of such relevant issues as discursive positioning, categorization and othering, performativity, narrativity, visual representation, discursive change, power and ideology, authority, credibility, ordinariness, multilingualism, superdiversity, discrimination, hate speech, etc.

We invite individual papers as well as thematic panels with papers that address the central theme of the conference, as well as related issues of interest to scholars of digital discourse analysis. Abstracts of individual papers should be 250-300 words including references. Panel proposals (250-500 words) should describe the theme of the panel and include a first indication of the people the organizers wish to include in the panel. Panel proposals will be allotted a maximum of three 90-minute slots with 3 individual presentations each.

Deadlines:
15 September 2026 – submission of panel proposals
30 September 2026 – notification of panel acceptance
30 November 2026 – submission of abstracts of individual papers
15 January 2027 – notification of acceptance of individual papers

For inquiries, please use the conference email adda@phil.muni.cz. Registration and further information will be available on the conference website.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Carmen Lee (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Ruth Page (University of Birmingham)
Francisco Yus (University of Alicante)
Janina Wildfeuer (University of Groningen)

Local Organizing Team:
Jan Chovanec (conference chair)
Dominika Beneš Kováčová
Iveta Volfová
Jana Hallová
Sid Campé
Jana Peroutová

Co-convenors:
Patricia Bou-Franche
Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich