The Tunisian Association for English Language Studies (TAELS) organizes its 10th International Conference on:
“Disruption(s): Experimental Texts and Multimodal Literacies”
November 21-22, 2025 Tunis – Tunisia
CALL FOR PAPERS
The term “disruption” could be traced to the Latin disruptionem (disruptio), a noun of action derived from the past participle stem of disrumpere—dis- meaning “apart” and rumpere meaning “to break” or “burst.”[1] While originally referring to rupture or physical separation, the term has evolved through time to encompass ideological, aesthetic, and systemic breaks. In contemporary contexts, however, disruption is no longer merely a sign of breakdown, but also serves as a generative force of innovation which gives possibilities for emergent forms of knowledge. In this context, disruption could also be interpreted as a site for resistance unsettling dominant narratives and reconfiguring boundaries.
In literary studies, disruption is a critical strategy that challenges narrative conventions, destabilizes meaning, and resists linearity and closure. Literature has often used disruption, from modernism’s fragmented style and playful typography to postmodernism’s self-reflective breaks, to challenge mainstream beliefs and explore new ways of representing reality. Brian McHale[2] identifies ontological instability (10-11) as central to postmodern literary practice and discusses disruption of the boundaries between reality and fiction through paying close attention to literary texts that present non-linearity, temporal loops and self-erasing narratives. In this context, disruption enables literature to embrace the illegible, the interrupted, and the experimental as sites of critical engagement and aesthetic invention.
In Cultural Studies, disruption reveals itself through dissonant voices, contested memories, and mediated identities. Disruptive cultural texts resist commodification and ideological containment. In this context, the Martinican poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant[3] called for the right to opacity throughout his work by declaring that he “believe[s] in the production of “opaque” works. Opaqueness imposes itself and cannot be justified. Certainly, it allows us to resist the alienating notion of transparency” (154-55). Being a disruptive right, opacity, according to Glissant[4], resists any form of transparency claimed by Western thought and becomes a powerful ethical stance against reductive interpretation. This stance affirms that disruptive voices have their own place in cultural and textual expression.
In the same vein, linguistics has experienced significant disruptions driven by technological advancements, globalization, and evolving sociopolitical contexts. The rise of big data and computational tools has transformed traditional methods, enabling large-scale corpus analysis, real-time language tracking, and the integration of machine learning in language modeling. Additionally, the dominance of English in global communication has sparked critical debates about linguistic imperialism and the need to preserve endangered languages.
In applied linguistics, digital communication platforms and social media have reshaped discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and second language acquisition, requiring scholars to adapt frameworks to analyze multimodal, dynamic, and often non-standard forms of communication. These shifts have not only expanded the field’s methodological toolkit but also challenged long-standing theoretical assumptions, prompting a re-evaluation of how language functions across diverse, technology-mediated environments.
In ESL/EFL teaching pedagogy, classroom research has undergone notable disruptions due to rapid technological innovation, changing educational paradigms, and evolving learner needs. The integration of digital tools—such as learning management systems, mobile apps, and AI-driven platforms—has redefined the classroom environment, enabling blended and fully online instruction that challenges traditional face-to-face pedagogies. These changes have pushed researchers to explore new modes of language interaction, learner autonomy, and digital literacy within ESL/EFL contexts. Furthermore, the shift toward learner-centered and inclusive approaches, influenced by sociocultural and critical pedagogies, has emphasized the importance of identity, motivation, and intercultural competence in language learning. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated these disruptions, prompting an urgent re-evaluation of methodologies and frameworks to understand language learning in virtual settings. As a result, ESL/EFL classroom research has become increasingly interdisciplinary, embracing complexity and diversity in learner experiences across varied contexts.
Eventually, media studies have also experienced major disruptions in the past two decades due to the rise of digital platforms, social media, and user-generated content. Traditional media models have been upended by the shift to online streaming, participatory culture, and algorithm-driven content curation. These changes have blurred the lines between producers and consumers, challenging established theories of media influence and control. Additionally, concerns over misinformation, surveillance, and digital ethics have become central to contemporary media research, pushing scholars to rethink power, representation, and agency in a constantly evolving digital landscape.
It is within this framework that the conference aims to bring researchers and academics together to critically engage with the theme of the conference from multiple perspectives and diverse standpoints. The steering committee would like to share a global call and invite participants to submit individual and panel proposals related, but not limited, to the following topics:
- Fragmented, hybrid, and nonlinear narrative forms
- Textual opacity
- Disruption in memory, trauma, or counter-historical texts
- Silence, omission, and the politics of erasure
- The politics of media manipulation and visual representation
- Visual and typographic experimentation in literature
- Semantic disruption and polysemy
- Code-switching and language interference
- Deviance and foregrounding in Stylistics
- Disruption as creative method in language or literature teaching
- Teaching experimental literature and fragmented texts
- Disability aesthetics and non-normative communication
- AI and the disruption of authorship
- Language digital spaces
- Language identity in online spaces
- Corpus linguistics and language change
- Language teaching in the digital age
Submission
We welcome individual abstracts for 20-minute presentations and full panel proposals of four papers treating a similar theme or topic. Priority will be given to panel proposals. The conference is an on-site-only event.
Individual participants and panel convenors are invited to submit 300-word abstracts and short bio notes to the following email address: disruptions.conference2025@gmail.com
The deadline for abstract submission is September 15, 2025. Acceptance/rejection decisions will be sent by September 25, 2025.
TAELS editorial board will select a number of papers that will be published after peer-reviewing in a collective volume on the proceedings of the conference.
Registration
Presenters of accepted papers will be required to deposit a registration fee of 150 TND (150 Euros for international participants) before October 05, 2025.
The registration fees will cover:
- Conference materials;
- Certificate of participation or attendance;
- Access to all conference sessions and workshops;
- Submission of the paper to peer-reviewing;
- Two hard copies of the conference proceedings after publication.
For attendance only, the registration fees will be as follows:
- One-day pass: 50 TND (50 Euros for international participants).
- Two-day pass: 70 TND (70 Euros for international participants)
For advice and more details about the conference, please send your requests to saidi@univgb.tn
[1] Douglas Harper, “Disruption,” Online Etymology Dictionary, www.etymonline.com/word/disruption. Accessed 29 June 2025.
[2] McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. Methuen, 1987.
[3] Glissant, Édouard. Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Translated and with an introduction by J. Michael Dash, University Press of Virginia, 1989.
[4] In his book Poetics of Relation published in French in 1990, he dedicated a whole chapter – titled “For Opacity” – to reiterate and explain his statement “We demand the right to opacity”.
