Workshops 2021

ICON 2021 was host to a number of interesting and engaging workshops from international researchers and practitioners.

Workshop: Laura Wiesinger: "Performance as Language: The semiotic System of the Body", Nov. 15, 2021, 14-17:00 CET

Laura Wiesinger is a master student of Inszenierung der Künste und Medien (Art- and Mediaproduction) at the Stiftung Universität Hildesheim. She appeared in numerous amateur theater productions in Mainz, Mannheim, Frankfurt, and Worms as well as being the head and director of the student theater group ProjektTheater at JGU from 2013 to 2017.

The workshop focuses on the semiotic potential of the body. It will allow its participants to discover the communicative possibilities their body possesses. Through a series of exercises, the participants will develop methods to express themselves without the use of spoken language or without spoken language as the primary tool. They will gain a greater awareness of their body and the body of others as something that in its presence always already interacts, reacts and communicates. They will do so by becoming active performers as well as learning how to reflect about the way their own body feels in the very act of performing and thus of communicating. Through this, they will learn that they do not just perform language as an utterance, but that their body becomes language.

 

Online Workshop: Cristiano Mazzei: "Performing Translation & Interpreting", Nov. 16, 2021, 15-17:00 CET

Cristiano Mazzei is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Director of the Online Certificate in Professional Translation and Interpreting.

This online workshop focuses on exploring the professional activities of translation and interpreting across different settings, introducing participants to key concepts in the field. Content covers skills and knowledge necessary for professional performance and practical exercises for skills development. At the end of the experience, attendees will be able to:
• Describe skills and knowledge translators and interpreters need to develop;
• Identify settings and demands;
• Perform translation and interpreting exercises;
• Explain professional standards & ethics.

 

Workshop: "Cognition and Communication in Human and Nonhuman Primates", Nov. 17, 2021, 9-12 & 10-14 CET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Dr. Nicole Altvater-Mackensen is an assistant professor for Developmental Psychology at Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz and currently interim professor at the English Department of the University of Mannheim, Germany.

Prof. Dr. Anja Müller is the chair of language acquisition and language didactics in the German Department of Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz.

Dr. Daniel Schmicking is professor at the Studium Generale at Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz and holds his doctorate in philosophy.

Nicole Altvater-Mackensen introduced the participants to “The developmental context of early language acquisition”, covering mainly cognitive, motor, social and language development in the first three years of life. Anja Müller expounded language acquisition, the learnability problem, and theories of language acquisition. In the third part of the workshop, “Tomasello on the origins of human communication”, Daniel Schmicking explicated assumptions about the psychological prerequisites of collaboration and communication, and students prepared questions they would ask Michael Tomasello during the discussion period of his keynote speech later that day.