{"id":1764,"date":"2026-02-24T09:27:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2026-02-24T09:27:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:27:44","slug":"unmuting-pg-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/2026\/02\/24\/unmuting-pg-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Unmuting&#8221; PG conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/files\/2026\/02\/Untitled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/files\/2026\/02\/Untitled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"171\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1767\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Call for Papers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Conference theme: \u2018Unmuting\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>10th September 2026, University of Kent, in-person conference<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Language Centre, University of Kent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Silence is never neutral. Voices may be muted through structures of power, disciplinary boundaries,<br \/>\nlinguistic limitations, or historical erasure. At the same time, acts of unmuting raise ethical and<br \/>\nmethodological questions: who speaks, for whom, and under what conditions? Unmuting seeks to foster<br \/>\ndialogue on how silences are produced, sustained, contested, or transformed, and how attention to<br \/>\nsilence can reshape critical practice.<\/p>\n<p>This interdisciplinary conference invites early-career researchers, including doctoral students and<br \/>\npostdocs, to reflect on practices of unmuting across ecological, linguistic, cultural, and political contexts,<br \/>\nfostering dialogue around key issues in silence, voicelessness and representation with particular attention<br \/>\nto marginalised forms of knowledge, ecological discourse and identity.<\/p>\n<p>We welcome papers from across the humanities, including (but not limited to) literature, cultural studies,<br \/>\nlinguistics, philosophy, history, media studies, postcolonial and decolonial studies, digital humanities,<br \/>\nenvironmental humanities, and related fields.<\/p>\n<p>We welcome contributions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 More-than-human narratives, anthropomorphism, and non-human agency<br \/>\n\u2022 Silence as resistance, refusal, or method<br \/>\n\u2022 Decolonial, postcolonial and feminist approaches to voice, knowledge, and representation<br \/>\n\u2022 Speaking on behalf of others: ethics, mediation, and power<br \/>\n\u2022 Linguistic perspectives on silence, voice, and meaning-making<br \/>\n\u2022 Climate change communication across scientific, political, and popular registers<br \/>\n\u2022 Marginalised, erased and suppressed knowledge and knowledge-making<br \/>\n\u2022 Translation, mediation, and incommensurability<br \/>\n\u2022 Data-driven research on silence, power, and other related themes<br \/>\n\u2022 Platform, algorithm, audience<\/p>\n<p>This conference is also connected to special edition of the Skepsi journal with the same theme, with a<br \/>\nplanned publication schedule of winter 2026-2027, details to be announced.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Timeline and procedure:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The conference will take place in person on Thursday 10th September 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Participants are invited to send the following:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; An abstract (max. 250 words), including a title of the proposed paper<br \/>\n&#8211; A short biography (max. 150 words)<br \/>\n&#8211; 3-5 keywords<\/p>\n<p>Please send applications to skepsijournal@kent.ac.uk with the subject line \u201cUnmuting Conference\u201d.<br \/>\nClosing date for applications: 1st April 2026<\/p>\n<p>Acceptance of applications: You will hear from us by 1st May 2026 if your application is accepted.<\/p>\n<p>This conference is organised by Louise Wigglesworth, Amy Bergman, Beth Waldock and Qiujing Fan, and<br \/>\nwill be hosted by Skepsi at the Language Centre, University of Kent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call for Papers Conference theme: \u2018Unmuting\u2019 10th September 2026, University of Kent, in-person conference Language Centre, University of Kent Silence is never neutral. Voices may be muted through structures of power, disciplinary boundaries, linguistic limitations, or historical erasure. At the same time, acts of unmuting raise ethical and methodological questions: who speaks, for whom, and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/2026\/02\/24\/unmuting-pg-conference\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[791],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1771,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/skepsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}