[ecrea] CfP: #BreMM19, the 4th Bremen Conference on Multimodality - "Empirical Inroads"

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We are happy to announce that BreMM19, the 4th BREMEN CONFERENCE ON 
MULTIMODALITY, will be held at Bremen University from September 
25th-27th, 2019.

BreMM19 is the fourth in a series of conferences dedicated to bringing 
together different disciplinary and methodological approaches to the 
study of multimodality. With this series, the Bremen team continues to 
initiate deeper inquiry into the specific theories and practices of 
multimodal research: BreMM14 was devoted to building bridges between 
various multimodality-ready disciplines; BreMM15 concerned itself with 
theoretical and methodological explorations; and BreMM17 laid 
foundations for the formation of a standalone discipline of 
‘multimodality’. All conferences have resulted in edited volumes that 
present each event’s strongest contributions and serve as the basis for 
lasting academic exchange on the ever-new topic of multimodality, both 
in theory and practice.

The upcoming 4th  Bremen Conference on Multimodality, BreMM19, puts 
empirical inroads into multimodal research centre stage. That is, it 
focuses on the study of multimodal artefacts and performances through 
investigating   (larger collections of) actual data. It seeks to further 
the empirical validation and evaluation of both widely established and 
new hypotheses and theories about multimodal meaning-making. Such novel 
approaches have been in the focus of vivid discussions and have often 
become complex subjects of inquiry in their own right.

“[W]ith the current state of the art in multimodality research,” as 
Bateman (2014: 239)points out, “there are far more questions than 
answers and so there is much to be explored”. These questions address 
core issues such as the conceptualization and empirical grounding of 
semiotic modes, the notion of media specificity, the analysis of large 
corpora of digital and digitized data, or the perception, cognitive 
processing and reception of specific multimodal artefacts, to name just 
a few.


The availability of (larger sets of) multimodal data does not seem to 
constitute a central challenge to multimodal analysis anymore, and 
methods for recording and transcribing multimodal data have been 
developed comprehensively. However, tools as well as the knowledge and 
usage of these tools pose current challenges. To innovate or realize 
significant research synergies across disciplines via empirical 
approaches is a crucial next step in advancing multimodality.


BreMM19 seeks to bring together researchers that make empirical 
interventions  into studying multimodal artefacts and performances. Not 
only does it invite presentations on recent, empirically-oriented 
research projects, it also calls for discussions of the problems and 
challenges in conducting empirical multimodal analysis. Wе also 
encourage scholars to give demonstrations of newly-developed tools 
and/or software used to investigate multimodal data and corpora.


As with previous BreMM conferences, we view BreMM19 as an essentially 
 interdisciplinary endeavor. Therefore, we call for papers from 
scholars of all disciplines doing empirical analyses of multimodal 
artefacts and performances. We particularly invite cooperative research 
projects that involve several disciplines and expertise from various 
fields, in search of novel mixed-method approaches.

The confirmed keynote speakers for BreMM19 are:


Prof. Irene Mittelberg, RWTH Aachen, Germany

Prof. Barbara Tversky, Teachers College Colombia University, USA

Prof. Ralph Ewerth, TIB Hannover, Germany

Prof. John Bateman, University of Bremen, Germany

For a lively and multifaceted discussion, we encourage proposals that 
explore a broad range of issues, including but not limited to the 
sub-themes below. We welcome both theoretical and empirical takes on 
these general questions, and we particularly encourage proposals which 
unify several theoretical and empirical traditions and/or particularly 
provide mixed-methods approaches.


  *

    What are the relevant practices and latest tools for multimodal
    corpus design?

  *

    What will be the particular challenges for empirical work raised
    when we consider an ever broader range of multimodal phenomena?

  *

    How are multimodal corpora then to be conceptualized, and how do
    various definitions of ‘mode’ affect corpus design? What
    aremultimodal corpora?

  *

    How can new corpus methods and research practices be tailored to
    support multimodal work?

  *

    What are the most common disciplinary sources and theoretical
    starting points for large-scale, corpus-based multimodal research
    projects?

  *

    How may empirical multimodal research intersect with or strengthen
    endeavors in the humanities and social sciences? What are the
    complementarities, limits, and opportunities?

  *

    Can multimodal corpus research be acquired in disciplines not
    traditionally aligned with it? What examples are there of successful
    applications of corpus methods in non-traditional academic
    environments (e.g., design, marketing, advertising, investigative
    journalism)?

  *

    How can we make multimodal methods accessible and usable to the
    wider academic and professional public? How do we create multimodal
    awareness with empirical methods?


GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

We invite proposals for three kinds of presentation:

Long paper. This consists of a 25-minute presentation followed by 15 
minutes of Q&A. This format is reserved for well-developed projects that 
present potentially controversial or conceptually complex ideas and 
results of empirical studies.

Short paper. This consists of a 15-minute presentation followed by 10 
minutes of Q&A. This format is suitable for work in progress or ideas 
for empirical studies that can be presented more succinctly.

Poster Presentation or Demo. This may be any form of empirical research 
display or demonstration. Presenters will have the opportunity to 
present and discuss their work during a 90-minute poster presentation 
session.

Proposals will be selected according to the following criteria (please 
be sure to address each one):

  *

    the appropriateness of the topic to the studies of multimodality;

  *

    the conceptual clarity and intellectual rigor of the project;

  *

    the contribution the project makes to advancing current
    understanding of empirical research;

  *

    the content should not have been presented elsewhere in identical form.

Your proposal (350-500 words in length) must include: (1) title of the 
presentation, (2) name of the  author(s), affiliation, email address, 
(3) proposal format (long paper, short paper or poster), (4) 
bibliography of key sources (up to 5), (5) brief biographical statement 
for presenting author (25-100 words).

SUBMISSION

Please submit your proposal as an e-mail attachment (Word, PDF) by 
December 5th, 2018, to <(bremm19 /at/ uni-bremen.de)>.


We are committed to supporting the participation of parents and carers 
of children. Therefore, please indicate in your submission email what 
you anticipate your childcare needs may be during the conference to help 
us plan for the best support possible - we will be exploring options and 
will share them before the registration deadline.


For further information, visit the conference website: 
<http://unihb.eu/BreMM19>

Notification of acceptance by the end of December 2018.


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