Creativity meets technology – Applied Linguistics at the interface of artificial and human intelligence
On Friday, 6 June 2025, the ZHAW symposium of the Swiss Association for Applied Linguistics (VALS-ASLA) will take place at the School of Applied Linguistics
Topics
The symposium will investigate the ever-evolving relationship between human and machine and the implications of this relationship for linguistics-based research.
Approaches
The symposium will investigate how human creativity and artificial intelligence interact in all areas of Applied Linguistics, e.g.:
- in language teaching
- in applied language research
- in translation and interpreting
- in journalism and content creation
- in literary and artistic creation
- in organisational communication
Researchers are invited to participate in this joint reflection, either in the form of a presentation or a poster (especially for PhD students).
Call for papers & Abstracts
Submit your abstracts (max. 500 words without bibliographical references) in German, French, Italian or English by 15 December 2024 to the following e-mail address: vals-asla-studientag.linguistik@zhaw.ch.
Keynote speaker: Simon Pare
A Shropshire lad by upbringing, I developed a love of foreign languages at secondary school and studied French and German (and Occitan troubadour poetry) at Cambridge. Then I got sidetracked by an interest in ecology and farming inspired by a year's work on a north German organic farm. That led to a summer making cheese at 2,000 metres, a Master's in Sustainable Agriculture, and a job building, promoting and certifying Fairtrade supply chains (coffee, tea, cocoa, cotton) for the French market while living in Paris. After nine fascinating years, it was time to do more reading - so I became a translator from French and German into English. Along with some twenty assorted fiction and non-fiction translations, as well as extracts and short pieces published in reviews (Two Lines, Asymptote) and collections, I have also subtitled feature films (Leos Carax, Albert Dupontel) and documentaries, worked for museums and specialised in translating newspaper investigations of tax evasion and money laundering, most notably as part of the team that worked on the English version of Bastian Obermayer and Frederick Obermaier's "The Panama Papers".
I live in the Alpine foothills between two lakes east of Zurich.
Deadlines
Abstract submission deadline: 06.01.2025
Paper revisions: 28.02.2025
Registration deadline: 31.03.2025
The programme will be published in May 2025
Forms of presentation
- Keynote: "From the Little Paris Bookshop to the Magic Mountain: A Conversation about Creativity with Translator Simon Pare"
- 2 parallel sessions with short presentations (20 min. + 10 min. discussion)
- 1 PhD poster session / networking lounge
- 1 round table (closing event)
Registration
Symposium location
ZHAW Zurich University for Applied Sciences, Building SM, Theaterstrasse 15c, CH-8400 Winterthur