Communicative Spaces of MexicoLos espacios comunicativos de México

Dates

17–19 June 2027

Venue

Universität Basel, Maiengasse 51, 4056 Basel

Organised by

Institut für Iberoromanistik, Universität Basel

Second International Conference. In-person event.

The First International Conference Communicative Spaces of Mexico, held from 19 to 21 June 2025 at the University of Innsbruck, was conceived as a meeting place for scholars studying language contact in Mexican contexts. It brought together researchers from different branches of linguistics and different theoretical traditions, and produced a broad and diverse programme addressing contact, variation, multilingualism, discourse, education, language ideologies and communicative practices across a range of social domains.

One of the main outcomes of that first conference was the recognition that interest in the communicative spaces of Mexico reaches beyond the classic frameworks of language contact, and that approaches are needed which understand language as situated social practice, closely bound up with relations of power, inequality, identity and agency (Heller 2007; Blommaert 2010). The contributions also showed a strong presence of qualitative, ethnographic and discourse-analytic research, together with an explicit concern for the social, educational and political implications of sociolinguistic work.

The Second International Conference Communicative Spaces of Mexico, to be held from 17 to 19 June 2027 at the University of Basel, continues and deepens this academic dialogue. This time the emphasis shifts towards critical sociolinguistics in a broad sense: a set of approaches that analyse communicative practices in relation to wider social structures, and that reflect explicitly on methodology, research ethics and the researcher’s own positioning (Heller, Pietikäinen & Pujolar 2024).

The conference will focus on research that approaches the communicative spaces of Mexico from critical, ethnographic and multimodal perspectives, with particular attention to topics such as language and power, language ideologies, social inequality, racialisation, gender, migration and coloniality (Bucholtz & Hall 2005). It will also foster discussion of participatory methodologies, collaborative research and ways of returning knowledge to the communities researchers work with, as well as of embodied and multimodal communicative practices, including performance, dance and other semiotic expressions that are not exclusively verbal (Kress 2010; Norris 2004).

In this way, the second conference aims to consolidate an international space for interdisciplinary reflection on language in Mexico: one that does not merely describe communicative practices but helps to understand their role in producing and contesting contemporary social orders. The event seeks to strengthen existing academic networks, open new lines of collaboration and establish the University of Basel as a relevant hub in current debates on critical sociolinguistics and the study of language in Latin American contexts.

Suggested reading

• Bucholtz, M. & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614.
• Blommaert, J. (2010). The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Heller, M. (2007). Bilingualism as ideology and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Heller, M., Pietikäinen, S. & Pujolar, J. (2024). Critical Sociolinguistic Research Methods: Studying Language Issues That Matter (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
• Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge.
• Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework. London: Routledge.

• Call for papers

  Thematic axes, abstract submission and key dates.

• Programme

  Programme for the three conference days.

• Keynotes

  The five keynote speakers.

• Venue

  Address, travel information, accommodation and visas.

• Organisation

  Organisation and contact details.