EMBRACING LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY THROUGH ENGLISH

On October 12-14, 2017 a cross-border conference “Embracing Linguistic and Cultural Diversity through English” took place in Iasi and Chernivtsi. The organizers of the conference were Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, Faculty of Letters, Department of English and Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Department of English.

The novelty and challenge of this conference were determined by its cross-border dimension, with two outstanding universities in their respective countries, enjoying well-respected academic traditions. Its unique context of development was marked by geographical vicinity, by the intercultural dialogue of two areas in which distinct, yet occasionally merging cultures and languages have co-existed. In addition, this scientific event was the joint venture of two Departments of English. Consequently, the main general questions that the conference addressed were: how has the study of English foregrounded cultural and linguistic plurality on our planet? How has it encouraged the assertion of linguistic and cultural identities?

Discourse on linguistic and cultural diversity was approached from the most diverse angles of investigation: from cultural studies, anthropology and linguistics to literature, translation studies and foreign language teaching. The conference offered a unique opportunity for profitable encounters between participants from Serbia, South Korea, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, the USA, Poland, Belgium, Slovakia, Switzerland, Israel, Romania and Ukraine. The total number of the participants was 112 scientists.

The keynote speakers of the conference were well-known throughout the world scholars:

Ștefan COLIBABA (Romania)

Marta GIBINSKA (Poland)

Luc van DOORSLAER (Belgium)

Lance HEWSON (Switzerland)

Valery V. MYKHAYLENKO (Ukraine).