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Oregon Research Institute, USA
Scott Slovic, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, Oregon, and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities Emeritus at the University of Idaho. He served as chair of the English Department at Idaho from 2014 to 2018. The founding president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) from 1992 to 1995, he edited ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, the central journal in the field of ecocriticism, for twenty-five years before completing his term in 2020. Much of his current research focus is on how information is collected, communicated, and received in the contexts of humanitarian and environmental crises, extending the work of the 2015 volume Numbers and Nerves: Information, Emotion, and Meaning in a World of Data (Oregon State University Press), which he co-edited with Paul Slovic. He co-edits the book series Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment and Routledge Environmental Humanities.
Moving the Needle (or Not): A Psychological and Discourse Analysis of “The 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth”
With regard to climate change, we seem to be living in a time of information saturation and ideological intrenchment. The traditional goal of environmental communication, including climate communication, has been to encourage disinterested or uninformed audiences to pay more attention to the world around them and to shift disinterest and apathy toward positive engagement with the beauty of nature and pro-environment lifestyles. The field of environmental rhetoric developed in the 1990s with a strong emphasis on the notion that effective communication strategies might potentially sway any readers or viewers toward new ways of thinking about environmental issues, new levels of attentiveness and willingness to participate in pro-social environmental actions. The efforts of the Alliance of World Scientists (AWS) to contribute to this process of raising public environmental consciousness began with the preparation of the “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity,” co-signed by approximately 1,700 colleagues from around the world and published on July 16, 1992. This inclusive, global approach has also characterized the many follow-up AWS warning articles, which as of May 2024 included 49 published articles, a special journal issue, and 73 additional articles still in preparation. In a recent study with communication scholar David Markowitz (Michigan State University) and Paul Slovic (Oregon Research Institute), I have conducted an empirical analysis of audience responses to key aspects of the World Scientists’ “2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth,” focusing in particular on whether or not the language of this article manages to sway readers to rethink their attitudes toward climate change (and the environment more broadly) and to adjust their behavior in meaningful ways in response to the article’s explicit warnings, which are much more vigorous than in the initial AWS warning from thirty-two years earlier. At first glance, this article seems to be as concise and clear and forceful an articulation of the current climate crisis as one could imagine. The question is whether or not this article—or, rather, this kind of article—has the potential to reach unconvinced readers and move them toward new thinking and more climate-friendly behavior. In my lecture, I will present the background to this study, describe our empirical ecocritical methodology, and offer the preliminary results of our project. (Hint: the textual prompts we gave to readers did not “move the needle” of public attitudes with regard to climate change, suggesting that political affiliation and preconceived ideologies were a much stronger indicator of public actions and attitudes than exposure to scientific information.)
University of Crete, Greece
Melina Tamiolaki is Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at the Department of Philology of the University of Crete and Collaborating Faculty Member at IMS/FORTH. She holds a PhD from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (2007). Her monograph, Liberté et esclavage chez les historiens grecs classiques (Paris, Presses Universitaires Paris-Sorbonne, 2010) won the Zappas Award of the Association des Etudes Grecques in 2011. Besides numerous articles, she has also edited and co-edited the following collective volumes: (with Antonis Tsakmakis) Thucydides Between History and Literature (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter 2013), Comic Wreath. New Trends in the Study of Ancient Greek Comedy (Rethymnon 2014, Editions of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Crete-in modern Greek), Methodological Perspectives in Classical Studies. Old Problems and New Challenges (Heraklion 2017, Crete University Press-in modern Greek), (with A. Kampakoglou, A. Novokhatko et alii), Gaze, Vision, and Visuality in Ancient Greek Literature (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2018), (with Nikos Miltsios), Polybius and his Legacy (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2018), Xenophon and Isocrates. Political Affinities and Literary Interactions (Thematic Issue of the Journal Trends in Classics, 2018), (with Tim Rood), Xenophon’s Anabasis and its Legacy (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter 2022), and Leadership in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). She is the Principal Investigator of the projects LACRIMALit (https://www.ims.forth.gr/en/project/view?id=219) funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (2022-2025) and TALOS-Artificial Intelligence for Humanities and Social Sciences (https://talos-ai4ssh.uoc.gr/), funded by the European Union (2023-2028). From September 2024, she serves as Vice-Rector of Development, International Affairs and Outlook of the University of Crete.
Artificial Intelligence for Humanities and Social Sciences: the Project TALOS at the University of Crete
In recent years, Digital Humanities has become a heatedly discussed topic among humanities and social sciences scholars. This speech is a comprehensive introduction to the Project TALOS at the University of Crete (UoC). Thanks to the support of the European Commission, UoC enhances its capacity building in the field of Digital Humanities. A new Center of Excellence is established in Rethymnon: TALOS, named after the ancient robot/guardian of Crete. The Center aims at proposing innovative curricula for the students of the Faculty of Philosophy of UoC by organizing conferences, workshops, colloquia, open courses and seminars for targeted groups (academic community, students of the UoC, girls, society at large), attracting highly talented researchers to the UoC and will foster collaborations with other Centers in Greece and abroad.
四川外国语大学
李恒,文学(中国)和哲学(英国)双博士。四川外国语大学教授,博士生导师。在SSCI和CSSCI两大检索期刊上以独立作者或第一作者身份发表研究性论文130余篇(Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Science,《外语教学与研究》、《外国语》、《现代外语》、《心理学报》等》。目前担任7本SSCI 期刊编辑工作(Language & Cognition 总编辑,Cognitive Linguistics、Gesture、British Journal of Social Psychology、Current Psychology、Psychological Reports、Social Cognition 副主编)。剑桥大学出版社Cambridge Elements in Cognitive Linguistics副主编。同时担任Cognitive Science, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics & Cognition等15本SSCI期刊编委。《中国言语听力康复杂志》专家编委,第15-17届国际认知语言学大会学术委员会委员等。
数字时代的AI接受度:语言、文化与身份的交织
在当今数字化迅猛发展的时代,AI接受度在不同文化和社会背景中表现出显著差异。本讲探讨AI如何通过语言和媒介塑造和影响个体和群体的身份认同。首先,分析数字媒体在语言演变中的作用,考察社交平台、在线学习与虚拟交流如何促进语言的适应与变革。其次,深入讨论AI技术(如语言翻译、语音识别和聊天机器人)如何作为文化交流的工具,帮助不同语言背景的个体进行互动,从而促进跨文化理解与融合。最后,分享针对不同领域的AI接受度研究成果,探讨文化、教育与社会经济因素如何影响AI的普及与应用。通过具体案例和数据分析,旨在促进对AI技术在语言和文化互动中角色的深入理解,激励与会者思考未来语言学习和文化交流的新方式。
Winston-Salem State University, USA
Dr. Xiong Wen is a Professor of Chinese Studies and the Sara Lee Endowed Chairperson of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina of the U.S.A. Dr. Xiong has worked at different universities across three continents as the Chinese program founder. She is a well-established scholar and has over 30 years of experience in teaching and researching Chinese as a second/foreign language. Dr. Xiong most recently published book is "The L2 Acquisition of the Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verbs" (2020), she also published seven textbooks for learners of Chinese by Beijing Language University Press and many journal articles. She was one of the 12 recipients of “National Best Teacher of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language” (China, 2001) and most recently received the Wilma Lassiter Master Teacher Award at WSSU (U.S.A, 2020). She held the language tester qualifications of OPI, AAPPL, and HSK in her career.
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University of Malaya, Malaysia
Dr. Chew Fong Peng is a associate professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia, teaching Malay language education and early childhood education program. She has presented approximately 176 working papers in international and international seminars and conferences in Malaysia and foreign countries, published 9 books, 132 articles published in journals, 72 papers in conference proceedings, 44 chapters in books, 21 translated books including creative writings, 14 edited books, and edited creative writings. She is the book editor of Taylor & Francis, editor for Malaysian Year 4, 5, and 6 History textbooks, and Year 1 Arts and Music Education textbooks. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chew has completed 31 research projects, 10 of which were led by Chew. She won many medals in the academy and innovative expo, besides being listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Chew is an article reviewer for established international journals on the Web of Science and Scopus, such as Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, SAGE Open, Educational Research and Reviews (ERR), Pertanika: Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, GEMA Online, etc. Associate Professor Dr. Chew is also a member of the editorial board of 11 national and international journals including Journal of Contemporary Educational Research, Review of Educational Theory, GATR Global Journal for Business & Social Science Review, and Advisory of International Research and Development Center for Publication (IRDCP). She was invited as a visiting professor at Peking University, China from October 2011 to June 2012.
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