{"id":13,"date":"2026-09-16T13:18:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T11:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-bremen.de\/cape\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2026-09-16T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:40:08","slug":"cfp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-bremen.de\/cape\/cfp\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cultural-Cognitive Approaches to African Englishes (CAPE 2027):
\n<\/strong>Language, Identity, and Conceptualisation in African Contexts<\/strong><\/p>\n

African Englishes have emerged as a major <\/span>area of inquiry within contemporary linguistics, offering important insights into the complex relationships among language, culture, cognition, identity, and social change. Research on African Englishes has witnessed <\/span>remarkable growth <\/span>and diversification in recent years, <\/span>as evidenced by a number of influential <\/span>edited volumes and monographs<\/span> (Esimaje et al., 2019; Akinlotan, 2023; Esimaje et al.,<\/span> 2023; Kecskes et al., 2025; Ngefac et al., 2025; Sabao <\/span>& Mavengano<\/span>, 2025).<\/span> While scholarship <\/span>on African Englishes has traditionally focused on structural variation, language contact, sociolinguistic developments, and postcolonial language dynamics, <\/span>increasing scholarly attention has been devoted, particularly since the publication of Wolf and Polzenhagen\u2019<\/span>s (2009) seminal study, to the cultural and cognitive dimensions that shape African Englishes and linguistic practices across African contexts. Speakers of African Englishes draw on culturally grounded conceptual systems, local knowledge structures, multilingual repertoires, and shared communicative traditions in the production and interpretation of meaning. These processes influence how identities are constructed, how social realities are conceptualised, and how linguistic innovation emerges within diverse African speech communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

This international symposium seeks to bring together scholars working at the intersection of African Englishes, cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse studies, linguistic anthropology, and related disciplines to explore how cultural-cognitive approaches can advance our understanding of English in Africa. It<\/span> aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and addresses the guiding question of the <\/span>extent to which <\/span>cultural-cognitive linguistics can provide a productive framework for understanding processes of structural nativisation, cultural conceptualisation, linguistic variation, meaning-making, and identity construction in African Englishes. This academic<\/span> event will provide a platform for established scholars and<\/span> early-career researchers to share <\/span>theoretical perspectives, methodological innovations, and empirical findings concerning the complex <\/span>interaction among <\/span>language, culture, cognition, and society in English-speaking African <\/span>contexts.<\/p>\n

We invite abstracts for presentations<\/span> that employ a range of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and empirical data and address one or more of the following thematic areas:<\/p>\n