15 & 17 september 2025
Intercultural Relations and Linguistic Diversity
Online - 15 September 2025 @14:00
In this conference, Dirk Weissmann (UT2J) will explore how linguistic identity shapes communication across cultures. Intercultural relations fundamentally rely on translingual communication, raising a central question: what is the relationship between language(s) and culture(s)?
How does linguistic identity shape intercultural interactions? What forms can intercultural communication take, and what role do translation and multilingualism play in this process? While Romantic thought promoted the ideal of a perfect alignment between nation, culture, and language, this model is far from universal. Multilingual societies have always existed, from ancient empires to modern nations, adding considerable complexity to intercultural communication.
In a world navigating between global languages and widespread multilingualism, what are the future prospects for intercultural relations from a linguistic perspective?
The Image of women in Space Exploration
Online - 17 September 2025 @ 10:00
In this conference, Hélène Fourcade (UT2J) will explore the image of women in space exploration and the perception of their role from the 60s to the present day.
More than 6 decades have passed since women took a visible part in the exploration of space, that is to say by daring to encroach on a specifically male field, that of astronauts' bodies.
What does the general public know about these women, now 79 in number, who have crossed this imaginary frontier, the famous "Karman line", and therefore deserved the supreme title of astronaut? And what do we know about those who have tried, or are still trying to make a place for themselves in this microcosm?
How did the press take an interest in them, in what light were they presented, and, because it is also necessary to mention the subject, has their integration into the corps of "space heroes" evolved over these 6 decades?
And tomorrow? What must be done today to disprove the theory of the leaky pipe or to abolish the persistence of the Matilda effect?