Call for papers — Abstracts due 15 January 2027

University of Basel, Switzerland, 17–19 June 2027. In-person event.

The Second International Conference Communicative Spaces of Mexico invites proposals for papers exploring the relations between language, power and social practices in Mexico and in the transnational spaces connected with its communities.

The first conference, held at the University of Innsbruck in June 2025, fostered a fruitful exchange on the linguistic diversity and dynamics of Mexico and the Mexican diaspora. This second edition continues that meeting and places a specific emphasis on the relations between language, power and social practices, with the aim of opening a space for reflection on inequalities, language ideologies and the agency of those who take part in these communicative spaces.

The conference proposes a dialogue on communicative practices and their relation to the social, political and historical processes that shape them. We are interested in how linguistic and semiotic resources take part in producing, reproducing and transforming inequalities and hierarchies, and in building belonging, claiming rights and forms of collective action.

We understand the communicative spaces of Mexico as dynamic spaces, shaped by interactions, trajectories and social relations that reach beyond the borders of the nation state. This perspective includes the practices of people living in Mexico as well as those of diaspora communities, contexts of mobility and migration, and exchanges in digital environments.

The conference seeks to deepen critical sociolinguistic perspectives, with particular attention to Latin American contributions. The work of Niño-Murcia, Zavala and de los Heros (2020), Zavala and Back (2017) and Rosa and Flores (2017) offers tools for thinking about the relations between language, power and racialisation. The experiences collected by Unamuno, Gandulfo and Andreani (2020) make it possible to address the production of knowledge in collaboration with communities. In dialogue with these contributions, we also invite reflection on the coloniality of analytical categories, hierarchies between forms of knowledge and the positioning of researchers.

We welcome contributions from different fields of linguistics and related disciplines, including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, pragmatics, applied linguistics, variation and contact studies, and the study of interaction and multimodality. Empirical research as well as theoretical or methodological proposals are welcome, with qualitative, quantitative or mixed approaches, provided they engage with the axis of language, power and social practices.

Thematic axes

Proposals may address the following topics, among others:

Language ideologies and the hierarchisation of languages, varieties and speakers.
Language, racialisation, racism and coloniality.
Communicative practices, gender, sexualities and social inequalities.
Migration, mobility, diasporas and transnational communicative spaces.
Language contact, multilingualism and variation in relation to social and historical processes.
Language policy, education, linguistic rights and access to resources and services.
Indigenous languages, transmission, revitalisation and language activism.
Discourse and interaction in institutional, community and digital settings.
Embodied and multimodal communicative practices, including performance, dance and other semiotic expressions.
Participatory methodologies, collaborative research, reflexivity and ways of returning and circulating knowledge.

These axes are indicative. Other proposals that contribute to the questions at the heart of the conference will also be considered.

Keynote speakers

In alphabetical order of surname:

Lorena Córdova, Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, Mexico.
Anna De Fina, Georgetown University, United States.
Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States.
Luisa Martín Rojo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
Niktelol Palacios, El Colegio de México, Mexico.

Languages of abstracts and papers

Abstracts and papers may be presented in Spanish or English.

Submission

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words, excluding the title, references and 3–5 keywords. They should state the aim or research question, the theoretical perspective, the methodology and the materials analysed, as well as the main results (which may be provisional) or the expected contribution. Theoretical or methodological proposals should make their argument and their contribution to the conference theme explicit.

Proposals should be sent by email to albanalleli.garciaaguero@unibas.ch with the subject line “Propuesta de ponencia_Jornadas México 2027”. The message should give the name of the author or authors, their institutional affiliation where applicable, and the title of the proposal.

Key dates

Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2027.
Notification of acceptance: by 1 March 2027 at the latest.
Conference: 17–19 June 2027.

Organisation and contact