Responsus

Brave New Words
2026-09-11 10:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | University of Groningen
How do we talk about the future, and how do our words shape the worlds we imagine?
These are some of the questions that you and all participants will explore during “Brave New Words”, an event organised by the Erasmus+ CLADES network on September 11, 2026 (save the date!) at the University of Groningen. This event is an open invitation to understand and be curious about the fundamental role that the future plays in discourse on democracy, equity, and sustainability.
Here is the Registration Form

Lunchtime talk with the CLA hub
2026-06-19 13:00 - 14:00
Grab your lunch, lean back and to listen to Prof. Arran Stibbe (Convenor of the International Ecolinguistics Association, designer of Stories we live by and Search for New Stories we Live by free online courses, and key thinker in ecolinguistics )

Date and time: 19 June 2026, 1-2pm CET
Talk title: Transcending the stories we live by: using improvisation comedy in environmental education

The increasing destruction of the ecosystems that life depends on calls into question the fundamental stories that over-consuming industrial societies are based on: stories of competition, consumption, growth, material success, technological progress, extraction, and exploitation. Transcending these stories requires thinking ‘outside-the-box’ – outside cultural values that are so dominant they go unquestioned and unnoticed. This presentation looks at the power of improvisation comedy (improv) to facilitate a breaking out of cultural conventions to liberate thinking and imagine new environmental possibilities. It explores a pedagogy for bringing improv into environmental education classrooms that involves a disruption of typical conversational styles. Students build on ideas that at first seem humorously far-fetched, ridiculous, or outrageous, in the spirit of ‘yes, and’ rather than the more usual behaviour of shutting new ideas down immediately with ‘yes, but’. What is generated is, most likely, a lot of environmental ideas that would be hard to practically implement, but more important than that, the pedagogy results in an opening of minds to the scale of the problems and the scale of the responses necessary to respond to them.

PLEASE NOTE:
The lecture takes place online, via Google meet.
The joining information will be sent in the confirmation email.

REGISTER HERE!!

Wrap-up meeting Post Ghent Conference
2026-03-10 12:00 - 14:00
On Tuesday 10 of March from 12 to 2pm we invite the entire Responsus and CLAMAC group to join the wrap-up meeting post Clades Ghent Conference (even if you could not attend the conference). We will share experiences, reflections, key takeaways from the conference, and possible future actions.
Location: CLA hub 1314. 201-205 (Harmony building)

CLADES Congress 2
2026-02-25 - 2026-02-26 | Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33, 9000 Gent, Belgium, Gent, 9000, Belgium
The second edition of the CLADES Congress will take place on the 25-26 February 2026 in Ghent, Belgium.
The Call for Contribution is still open! Check the information here

A celebration & showcase of Critical Language Awareness
2026-02-10 14:30 - 17:00 | House of Connections, Grote Markt 21, Groningen, 9712HR, Netherlands
Language Matters More Than You Think!

Dear colleagues,
We warmly invite you to an afternoon of celebration, ideas, and linguistic fun.
We have two milestones to toast together:
• the publication of The CLA Imperative: Seeing the Water, a collaborative paper on why language awareness matters for the world we live in;
• and the launch of CLAMAC, our new NRO-funded project that brings Critical Language and Multimodal Awareness to a business school near you.

But this won’t be a formal academic event.
Instead, think of it as a CLA taster session: a series of short, informal demonstrations by members of the RESPONSUS community showing how language quietly shapes what we see, value, and believe.
We will also introduce our new PhD researcher, raise a glass, and share what’s next for the growing CLA hub at the University of Groningen.
10 February 2026, 14:30–17:00
House of Connections
We would love for you to join us. Please sign up via this form so that we make sure we have enough bubbly 🍾
Warm regards,
The RESPONSUS Team

Keynote Event: TaalX2 - Discourses of Discrimination
2025-05-16 10:00 - 17:30
Michał Krzyżanowski (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Veronika Koller (Lancaster University, UK), two renowned scholars in the field of Critical Discourse Studies, will be in charge of closing the 2024/25 lecture series of TaalX2.
The event will take place on May 16th, 2025, in Room A900, Broerstraat 9, Groningen. The complete programme and the link for registration are available here.

CLADES Congress 1
2025-02-24 - 2025-02-25 | House of Connections, Grote Markt 21, Groningen, 9712HR, Netherlands
Speaking for Change. Speaking about Change.
Language as a tool for social and environmental transformation.
Language is a powerful tool that shapes how we perceive and respond to global challenges. It constructs and reflects societal norms, frames pressing issues like environmental transformation, gender equality, or extremism. Language can reinforce harmful ideologies but also inspire positive change.The first flagship event of the Erasmus+ Project: Critical Language Awareness, Democratic Engagement, and Sustainability (CLADES) congress will explore both: through discussions, hands-on workshops, and collaborative learning, participants will engage with the role of language in fostering transformative change and sustainable futures.

Join us if you are passionate about sustainability (broadly understood), interested in how communication shapes societal change, or eager to develop skills in using language responsibly to promote positive transformation. Whether you are a student ready to make a difference or a professional seeking to broaden your horizons about factors that affect the success of sustainable development, this conference offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate, learn, and contribute to building a sustainable future.
Planned programme:

Keynotes by Randy Morin and Dorothy Thunder (Plains Cree/ nêhiyawêwin language keepers and lecturers at the University of Saskatchewan and University of Alberta, Canada);
Wakanyi Hoffman (author, African Indigenous Knowledge scholar, and global speaker of Ubuntu philosophy);
Serious game sessions, including Lego Serious Play and board games on microplastics and multilingualism;
Academic presentations

Networking and debate (open seat fishbowl, closing round table).

Registration details coming soon!

CLADES Kick-off meeting
2024-10-08 09:00 - 2024-10-10 14:00 | University of Groningen
Kick-off meeting for the five partners of the CLADES project : University of Groningen, Ghent University, University of Gloucestershire, Comenius University Bratislava and the Solidar Foundation.
The Kick-off event will bring the work package leads together to discuss plans for the project.
CLADES Management Team
