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The fourth edition of the International Communication Styles Conference is over

Participants came to us from various countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine. We could also hear numerous speakers from Poland that represented Krosno State College as well as came from Kielce, Opole or Tarnów.

Lecturers and students of the Humanities Institute also took part in the conference, and  I had the opportunity to listen to some of them too.

As part of the conference, three plenary lectures were organized and the other lectures were divided into six sessions, each consisting of three or four presentations. The sessions, all conforming to the general topic of Radical Thought - Radical  Language - Radical Communication Style were as follows:

Politeness and Persuasion

Narrative Styles

Intercultural encounter style

Political discourse styles

Humor styles / Media Communication

Translation Styles.

The plenary lectures were very popular. The first lecture, "Ethno-Comedy" between inclusion and exclusion: Comic hyper-types, their communicative practices and invitations to antagonistic receptions ", was given by Helga Kotthoff, the afternoon session was started by Colin Swatridge's lecture "Hate Speech: Naming the Other", and on the second day of the conference, we listened to the last lecture "Humor and Polarization", which was prepared by Giselinde Kuipers. The plenary lectures have been recorded and are available under the above YouTube links.

Personally, I took part in the last two sessions on humor and translations. The sessions were very interesting and concerned issues ranging from unintentional humor, through politics and its weirdness, to humor in Polish talk shows. It was surprising to listen to the discussion about humor and politics from the point of view of communication and linguistics. Equally interesting were the lectures from the translation styles session, which will certainly be useful to me in the future, as I am currently enrolled in Dual Studies in Translation and Culture. All the speakers were very well prepared and ready to answer the questions asked after each presentation.

Participants positively assessed the organization and substantive level of the conference.

At the end of the conference, the speakers went on a trip to the nearby chocolate factory and shop in Korczyna. The whole event thus ended on a rather sweet note.

Małgorzata Opałka