Call for the 140th Anniversary of the Modern Language Society of Helsinki in 2027
The Modern Language Society of Helsinki will celebrate its 140th anniversary in 2027. To mark this occasion, the association is organising an international symposium covering the association's range of subjects on 13-14 May, 2027, in Turku. The aim of the symposium is to bring together researchers from the fields of English, German and Romance studies around the main theme of Philology today – developments, trends and opportunities in order to discuss both the scientific exchange of current philological research and the development opportunities in the field of linguistics. The focus will not only be on current trends in linguistics, but also on the interdisciplinary exchange with neighbouring sciences.
In addition to increasing technical diversity, data collection methods have also changed over time. The field of linguistic research has become more diverse, both through new sub-disciplines and through varying interdisciplinary connections. This opens up increasingly fruitful avenues for research. In addition, the impact conditions for philological research are constantly changing as a result of ongoing social and technological developments, offering new opportunities for linguistics to raise its profile.
Contributions from all linguistic subdisciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches to philology are welcome. This also reflects the spectrum of the association's journal, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, but is not limited to it.
Specifically – but not exclusively – contributions are welcome in the following areas:
- Linguistic studies of contemporary text types
- Multimodal challenges in a changing media world
- Historical linguistic research
- Language development
- Issues in the use of AI and LLMs
- Discourse in the old and new media
- Scientific discourse
- Culture-specific linguistic research
- Translation-related issues
- Diversity of linguistic action
- Interdisciplinary implications of linguistic action
- Multilingualism
The confirmed keynote speakers are:
Dominique Lagorgette (Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
Thomas Niehr (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen): “Angewandte Linguistik und ihre Rolle für die Demokratie”
Matti Peikola (University of Turku): “The craft of philology: Middle English studies in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 1899-2026”
We now invite proposals for general session papers (20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion).
Proposal submission deadline: 30 November, 2026
Notification of acceptance: by 15 January, 2027
The maximum length of the abstract is 300 words, excluding the title of the paper and the references. The abstract should contain the following parts: Objectives, Research question(s), and Materials and methods. Abstracts should be written in English, German or Romance languages, which are the conference languages.
Please send your abstract as an attachment to ufy(at)ufy.fi by the deadline.
Conference venue: Åbo Akademi University, the Arken building, Tehtaankatu 2, Turku
Registration fee: 60 € (regular), 40 € (PhD students, undergraduates)
This page will be updated with registration information.
Information on travel and accommodation can be found at the Visit Turku website.
You are warmly welcome to Turku!
The organizers:
Marie Carmain
David Chataignier
Lidia Chuquizuta Silvera
Meri Larjavaara
Minna Nevala
Mia Panisse
Christopher Schmidt
Janne Skaffari
Carla Suhr