CONFERENCE 2025
SPEAKING FOR CHANGE, SPEAKING ABOUT CHANGE
Language is a tool that everyone should have the right and knowledge to use in building a better and more sustainable world. It holds immense power in shaping how we perceive and respond to global challenges. Language constructs and reflects societal norms and frames critical issues such as climate action, gender equality, and promoting peace and access to justice for all.
How can we increase the societal impact of language and raise critical language awareness in our communities? How can we promote individual voices and make use of ethical communication to foster positive societal change?
These are some of the important questions we will discuss during the First CLADES Conference 2025, which will take place on February 24 and 25 at the Rudolf Agricola School for Sustainable Development in Groningen, The Netherlands.
This conference is the flagship event of the Erasmus+ Project Critical Language Awareness, Democratic Engagement, and Sustainability (CLADES). The project aims to equip students, educators, and scholars with the tools needed to critically analyze and engage with language to shape sustainable futures. Its primary goal is to enhance participants’ critical language awareness, empowering them to amplify their voices and recognize their potential for driving positive societal change.
Through discussions, hands-on workshops, and collaborative learning, participants will explore the role of language in fostering transformative change and building sustainable futures. The program features academic presentations showcasing recent research, interactive sessions such as serious games on sustainability and language, workshops providing tools and methods for developing critical language awareness, and networking opportunities for students, PhD candidates, colleagues, researchers, and the public.
If you are interested in understanding how communication influences social change or developing skills to use language responsibly for promoting positive transformation, this is a valuable opportunity to join us. The conference offers unique insights at the intersection of language and social change.
If you are interested in collaborating or joining the volunteer team, please email us at EUclades@rug.nl
DAY 1: February 24, 2025
09.00 – 09.30 Walk in
09.30 – 10.00 Welcome to Clades 2025
10.00 – 11.00 Keynote 1 “Weaving Stories of Ubuntu: Navigating Humanity in a More-than-Human World” by Wakanyi Hoffman
11.00 – 11.15 Coffee Break
11.15 – 13:30 Serious games and social technologies session / parallel sessions (registration required)
- “Constellation” by Erica E.C. Harpe
- “Lego Serious Play” facilitated by Orrie Staschen (with the guidance of Mariana Markantoni)
- “Check the label boardgame” by Marieke Wieringa
- “Kosmopolit” by Matthew Pattemore
13.30 – 14.30 LUNCH (provided on site)
14.30 – 15.30 Keynote 2 “Reclaiming nehiyawewin (Plains Cree): Relationality to the Land (askiy)” by Dorothy Thunder and Randy Morin
15.30 – 15.50 Coffee Break
15.50 – 17.30 Final plenary and networking: What have we learned?
DAY 2: February 25, 2025
08.50 – 09.00 Walk in
09.00 – 11.00 Academic presentations Round 1 (more details here)
11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 13:30 Academic presentations Round 2 (more details here)
13.30 – 14.30 LUNCH TIME
14.30 – 16.00 Workshop / parallel sessions (registration required)
- “The Inner Development Goals (IDGs) and the transformative potential of language awareness” conducted by Erika Darics
- “Critical Textbook Lab: Uncovering Ideologies in Educational Materials” conducted by Joanna Chojnicka
- “Communicating Sustainability: Avoiding Fluffy Language” conducted by Greta Zella and María Pilar Uribe Silva
- “Hate speech” conducted by Dimitris Serafis
- “Voices of the Future? Children as Rhetorical Climate Activists” conducted by Jelte Olthof
16.00 – 17.00 Panel discussion
17.00 – 18.00 Drinks and conversation
