Having emerged on the crossroads of philosophy, linguistics, logics, and other sciences survived several “births” (Antiquity, the Modern Era, early XX century, and the second half of the XXth century), semiotics, however, was institutionalized only in the 60s of the XX century. Today “the science of signs” occupies a prominent place in the methodology of the humanities, especially in the media and communication studies, its conceptual instruments are used in social sciences, humanities, and visual arts. Moreover, to a certain extent semiotics has become the language of the modern Theory: its “traces” are disseminated in various traditions and discourses.
But how this knowledge is appropriated? To what extent semiotics can be considered a “knowledge”? What traditions (Peirce vs Saussure, but not limited to) appeared to be in demand in the universities of the Eastern and Western Europe? To what extent semiotics is compelling in the process of media literacy and critical thinking formation? Does it “go out to the streets” and how it is applied in non-university contexts?
According to organizers of the seminar, the process of the institutionalization of semiotics in the universities is also far from straightforward. Semiotics didactics is still an underdeveloped field that is situated in-between various disciplines. On the one hand, this field has to react promptly to the situation in the educational context that actively stresses customization and the possibility to re-encode knowledge into the skills and competences. On the other, semiotics – as well as other fields of knowledge – finds itself in the digital era, with its exponentially growing computerization and virtualization of education, lifelong learning ideologies, growing role of the distant and mobile learning, where all the disciplines not only have to adapt their conceptual and analytical apparatus to the constantly changing needs and contexts but also transform its didactic strategies taking into account the demands of its target audience and educational environment.
The main aim of the seminar is to look closer and discuss existing didactic strategies in teaching semiotics in various institutional and cultural contexts, as well as reflecting on the current aspects of semiotics’ institutionalization and educational programs. The format of seminar allows providing its participants with a unique space for interchanging their experience and ideas. Agenda of the seminar is available online. Additional information is also available via the web-siteof the seminar.
The seminar is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
