6-10 September 2022, Sozopol, Bulgaria
deadline for the proposals: 20 July 2022
The advent of the internet and digital technologies in general has wrought deep changes to the socio-cultural tissue in almost every part of the world and societies. At the same time literacy might be seen as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. In other words literacy is the standardized and systematic way to introduce individuals to a full extent in the world of semiosis and signification. Thus comes the question: is there today any other form of literacy except the digital literacy? The question obviously does not concern those who have already acquired their literacy before the digital age. The question concerns those who are involved in education – the universal provider of literacy: the internet born generations and us – the professionals in the system of education.
We expect semiotic and interdisciplinary contributions at least in three directions of thought:
- Digital citizenship: on one hand there are obvious advantages for the efficacy of the democratic processes, transparency and connectedness of every single citizen. On the other hand, the power of social media changes the rules of the political game, giving rise to the opposite of democracy: wild digital populism, legitimizing racist, xenophobic and homophobic ideas reaching political representation; social destabilization of entire countries through hybrid wars of misinformation, cyber attacks of institutions and sabotage of elections. The immune system of democracies will more and more depend on the higher education of digital citizenship.
- How new digital technologieslike VR, AR, interactive platforms, social media, search engines change the very process and outcomes of education at all levels
- About the proliferation of alternative commercial forms of educationservices, competing with the institutional ones, but better adapted to the new standards of communication and digital interactivity.
Keynote speakers:
David Kergel, Professor (Tenure) at the IUBH Univer-sity for Applied Sciences (Germany) and Co-editor of the book series ‘Pers-pectives on Education in the Digital Age’ at Routledge. His research interests include qualitative educational research, media education, and diversity in the digital age. The topic of his lecture is “Digital Diversity in Higher Education! The socio-semiotic and socio-epistemological meaning of Diversity and Digitality in Higher Education.”.
Dr Mariza Dima is a Senior Lecturer in Games Design at Brunel University London. She specialises in User Experience and User Interface design for developing meaningful and engaging interactions particularly using mobile, AR and haptic technologies. She has worked between academia and the creative industries as an interaction designer and creative technologist in R&D projects combining engineering and design approaches grounded on theoretical contexts of narrative, affective dramaturgy, and audience/player engagement. Her presentation will be entitled “Digital gamification and collaborative co-creation in international educational interaction”.
Plenary speakers:
- Dr. Gianmarco Giuliana – From Education to Edutainment: A Semiotic Perspective on Playful Digital Learning
- Momchil Alexiev, founder of VR Lab BG: “Immersive Education with and in Virtual Reality” a workshop for all participants
In order to enrich the interdisciplinary perspective we are negotiating with more keynote speakers who are leading researchers in the field of digitalization of education.
Selected papers will be published in the 5th issue of the journal Digital Age in Semiotics and Communication (ISSN, DOI, CEEOL)
Registration fee: 40 Euro (50 for non IASS members). The fee includes:
– access to all lectures, workshops, seminars and round tables,
– badge and materials,
– 7-8 coffee breaks,
– A welcoming reception on 8 September
EFSS 2022 is organized by the Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies and the team of WP2 of European Reform University Alliance (ERUA), with the support of the STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND of New Bulgarian University
The XXVI EFSS is an event under the auspices of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS)
For more information: