Influence, Manipulation, and Seduction 2

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Persuasive Language

Conference mode: virtual (hosted by Tampere University and the University of Bayreuth)

Call deadline: closed (was 30 June 2022)

Conference dates: 18 & 19 November 2022

About

Influence, Manipulation, and Seduction 2 takes place 18 & 19 November 2022. The conference will be conducted fully online and is jointly organized by Daria Dayter (Tampere University) and Sofia Rüdiger (University of Bayreuth). Please see below for the call for papers (deadline: 30 June 2022).

Registration

Conference participation is free, but participants need to register for the conference [conference registration now closed].

Registration deadlines:

Presenters - August 31

Non-presenting participants - November 10

Program

The preliminary program (incl. presentation titles) can be downloaded here (last update: 14 November) - the Book of Abstracts is now also available.

Overview of Live Program

Conference Theme

How can we get someone to behave in a way that they initially did not intend? And how can we change what our interlocutor thinks about a certain issue? We use language to ‘convince’, ‘persuade’, ‘cajole’, or ‘coax’ our counterpart into a certain behavior or state of mind. These are activities we engage in constantly, usually even without conscious thought. It is words that have the power to mold and influence opinions, attitudes, and behavior. This persuasive power of language is at the center of this symposium.

Linguists have traditionally examined the workings of persuasive language in institutionalized discourses. As genres inherently characterized by persuasion, it is not surprising then that advertising and politics have enjoyed the limelight of scholarly attention here; investigations of the features of persuasive language in TV, radio, and print advertisements as well as political speeches, interviews, and press conferences abound. Persuasion has also been studied extensively in the fields of rhetoric and critical discourse analysis (CDA). For this symposium, we particularly welcome contributions which expand the research of persuasive language to other genres and domains (like advice, dating, or conspiracy discourse) and engage with language and persuasion from other perspectives which have opened up due to technological advances (computer-mediated communication), social changes (globalized and networked publics, the attention economy), and methodological progress (big data and digital humanities, sophisticated statistical and phonetic tools for data analysis). We are also particularly interested in including contributions from the field of forensic linguistics.

This is the second installment of the Influence, Manipulation, and Seduction symposium which had its first successful run in 2020. The event brings linguists together with scholars from other fields concerned with persuasion, such as psychology, sociology, and media, information, cultural, and internet studies to examine persuasive language from new perspectives.

Conference Format and Types of Papers

The symposium is jointly hosted by Tampere University (Finland) and the University of Bayreuth (Germany) and will be conducted virtually. Full talks will be made available as pre-recorded videos (10-15 minutes) with the conference days reserved for panel discussion sessions. Please note that the deadline for delivery of the recorded presentation is thus 4 weeks ahead of the conference dates (i.e., 15 October 2022).

In addition to the pre-recorded full talks, the event will also include a synchronous Lightning Talk session. Lightning Talks are short, 3-minute, presentations given in rapid succession and thus force the presenters to focus on their key points and to convey their ideas succinctly and clearly. The best lightning talk will be awarded with a certificate and a small prize.

Call for Papers

We invite the submission of abstracts for full papers (10-15 min pre-recorded video presentation + panel discussion session). We also invite abstracts for the lightning talks (3 min live presentation on the second day of the conference), which can be related to any aspect of persuasive language. Abstracts of 300 words, excluding references, should be submitted in pdf-format by email to daria.dayter@tuni.fi and sofia.ruediger@uni-bayreuth.de. Please indicate whether you prefer your talk to be considered for a full paper or a lightning talk. The deadline for abstract submission is 30 June 2022.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in July.

Find us on the Sociolinguistic Events Calendar: https://baal.org.uk/slxevents/