PhD Symposium on Metaphors: Conceptualising Horizons of Meanings
Venice, 26-28 February 2024
We invite scholars worldwide to submit abstracts that discuss and analyse metaphors as devices for understanding all fields of knowledge and research from various perspectives.
Suggested perspectives include, but are not limited to:
- Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Human Geography: indigenous metaphors in rethinking human and non-human relationships, metaphors and feminist thought, re-evaluation of dominant metaphors, metaphor as a decolonising method, the possibility and impossibility of metaphors.
- Archaeology and Heritage Management:exploring the metaphorical language employed in ancient texts, inscriptions, and material culture, unveiling the cultural and symbolic dimensions embedded in ancient civilisations.
- Gender Studies: examining the use of metaphors to characterise, describe, and express gender identities in different contexts, eras, and cultures, and how the metaphors often define and shape these very identities; shedding light on love or sexual relationship as the metaphor of the power relation between the West and East.
- Linguistics: investigating on how metaphors convey ideas and emotions by bridging the concrete and the abstract; exploring the multifaceted relationship between figurative and literal use of language.
- Literary Studies and Literary Theories: Eastern and Western literary theory of metaphors and textual analysis of how metaphors shape our imagination of the world in literary texts, especially with a comparative or a transcultural perspective.
- Literary Urban Studies: approaching urbanism and architecture through the lenses of literature, by analysing the role of space as a metaphorical device and the relationship between physical spaces and their literary representations.
- Philology and Language Phylogeny: exploring how metaphors constitute an integral part of the methodologies underlying some research fields such as Text Criticism (e.g. stemma codicum as metaphors of the tradition) and Linguistic History and Development (e.g. language trees).
- Tourism Management and Marketing Communication: “Orientational metaphors” is what sociolinguists use to describe the dynamic relationship between modern tourists and tourist destinations, as the local image of a destination and its associated meanings are the main reason why we are attracted to go there to seek the experience we desire. The correct use of metaphors in tourism discourse is also an important part of destination promotion in modern society.
- Visual Arts: Examining metaphors in visual arts, exploring the ways in which artists use metaphors to convey complex messages, evoke emotions, and challenge conventional interpretations.
We warmly invite abstract submissions from emerging researchers, including PhD candidates, post- docs, early career researchers, and independent scholars, across diverse disciplines. We specifically encourage abstracts that explore the role and impact of metaphors within various research fields, shedding light on how metaphors function and shape disciplinary frameworks. We welcome interdisciplinary and boundary-crossing approaches that foster innovative perspectives and connections.
Please submit your abstract (max 250 words) with an essential bibliography (3-4 sources), and a short bio (max 150 words) via e-mail to metaphors@unive.it.
We kindly ask you to submit your abstract and bio only in .pdf format.
The abstracts will be evaluated, and the conference program will be finalised by a committee of PhD candidates from the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice for the academic year 2023-2024. This process will be completed by mid-December 2023
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