On January 24, 25, and 26, VIOT2024 will take place on the campus of the University of Twente. We hope to meet everyone interested in research and education on language and text here.
Language and text in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us aware of the fragility of our way of life and has damaged trust in government, science, and news media. The climate crisis calls for drastic measures, but it is proving difficult to achieve them in the social arena. Technological developments offer great opportunities, but at the same time present us with great challenges. The war in Ukraine also has drastic consequences, from an acute energy crisis and refugee influx to a serious threat to our security.
In these dynamics, language, and text take a central place, as a cause of problems - think of the influence of polarization, misinformation, and conspiracy theories - but also as an undeniable part of solution directions.
Keynote presentations
During VIOT2024, three keynote presentations will be given by scholars from different disciplines. All four of these scholars - there will be one duo presentation - are researching language and text in turbulent times in different ways, from their own backgrounds. Anneke Sools (University of Twente) investigates the function of stories in uncertain times, Willem Zuidema and Katrin Schulz (University of Amsterdam) deal with large language models and artificial intelligence, and Stef Aupers (KU Leuven) studies conspiracy theories.
Program and registration
In addition to the keynote presentations, there will be research presentations, discussion sessions, and panel sessions. The topics cover the broad field of language and text. There are research presentations on health communication, text comprehension, writing skills, journalism, and many other topics. There is also a panel session on the implications of the Dutch "Internationalization in Balance" bill and discussion sessions on artificial intelligence and language proficiency education. And there's more.
Curious about the entire program? Check out the VIOT2024 website.
You can still register for the conference until the 17th of January, also on the website.
The conference language is Dutch.