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This is the First International Symposium on Semiotics, which will take place from 21st to 25th of May 2015 at the International University of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The theme of the Symposium is: Talking to the World of Semiotics: Signs, Stories, Signification. The Symposium will include delegates from Russia, the USA, Europe, and Asia. It also encourages attendance of students and graduates from different countries.
Invited Speakers:
- Farouk Y. Seif, (Ph.D., AIA, Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America, Professor Emeritus, Antioch University Seattle) Keynote speaker
- Marklen Erikovich Konurbaev, (Doctor of Philology, Professor, the Moscow State University)
- Silima Nunda (Director International Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India)
- Elena Chakovskaya (Poland)
- Subai Anarbek (China)
- Representatives of the Public Affairs section (US Embassy)
The Purpose of the Symposium
The aim of the annual symposium is to bring together researchers, scholars and students from all areas of semiotics related language, literature, culture, and art. We invite scholars, researchers and academicians from a wide range of disciplines, organizations, and countries to participate as panel organizer, presenter of one paper, or observer.
The mission of the Symposium is to support innovative academic papers, analytical and critical approaches to better understanding postmodern world through semiotics. This Symposium will be beneficial in different ways. It will promote understanding of cross-cultural issues, human relationships in the time of globalization and transition to postmodern world. Semiotics and sign theories are relevant to different natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities; it can apply to the disciplines as diverse as anthropology, communication, literary criticism, linguistics, pedagogy, philosophy, religion, and technology. Thus, diversity of semiotics and its sphere will promote to mutual understanding between different nations and can serve as the basis of sharing social, cultural, and personal experiences.
Current interest in semiotics (study of signs) is undoubtedly related to our increasing awareness that cross-cultural relations, understanding the world around us, establishing our identities and sharing with each other our experiences which are deeply indebted to a variety of signs — sign systems and language that surround us. Since linguistics, literature, art, and culture are fields that we accomplish through signs: written, oral, bodily and other verbal and non-verbal signs, semiotics appears well suited to furthering our understanding of the cultural and philosophical processes of thinking, symbolizing and communicating. Resorting to different semiotic perspectives, academic papers, and proposals, this Symposium will deal with questions about the studying, teaching and learning of semiotics as well as the history and epistemology of signs, symbols and their signification. The Symposium will also include discussions about the development and implementations of the national and regional semiotic schools.
The importance of signs has been widely recognized, but a very few researches have integrated theories and praxes or developed rigorous educational programs in semiotics. Despite the increasing attention paid to semiotics and to the interpretation of symbolism in social, cultural, and political life, the field so far lacks a solid theoretical base. This Symposium will discuss principal perspectives and approaches of semiotics, its application and implications for the further research development in Kyrgyzstan.
Considering the above, researchers in the field of linguistic, social, cognitive, cultural, literary semiotics in Kyrgyzstan under the guidance of Doctor of Philology and semiotician Zina Karaeva have developed the basis and theoretical foundations and framework of the group of semioticians whose works focus on the integration of the semiotic doctrine into the academic life of the Kyrgyz Republic. Therefore, this Symposium will be a starting point for a new group of researchers whose works have acknowledged and integrated semiotics that focus on signs, symbolism, signification, and interpretation of signs in different cultures.
We anticipate the Symposium bring together articles on semiotics from over the world and can advance theory development and substantiate expanded methodologies for the research on semiotics, symbolism, and signification in Kyrgyzstan. It will cover themes on history of semiotics, discuss semiotic approaches and present the implications of semiotics for theory and research. The Symposium on semiotics will be a transdisciplinary meeting hub, serving a diverse community of scholars with common interests in the study of signs and sign systems. In order to approach these issues from a variety of angles, we invite papers on the subjects of theoretical and applied semiotics but not limited to empirical research in the fields of interdisciplinary context:
- Semiotic Epistemology
- Cognitive Semiotics
- Cultural Semiotics
- Textual Semiotics
- Semiotics of Education
- Semiotics of Translation
- Semiotics of Literature, Cinema, Theater, etc.
- Semiotics of Mass Media, Globalization, and Internet
- Semiotics of Music
- Semiotics of Religion
- Semiotics and Anthropology
- Semiotics and Linguistics
- Semiotics and Communication
- Semiotics and Philosophy
- Semiotics and the Self